Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
Progress 4GL Reference

Keyboard events

Progress makes all keyboard actions available as events that you can specify by either key label or key function. You can write triggers for these keyboard events, and associate these triggers with any field-level widget that receives input focus. For a complete list of key label and key function names, and information on how to use them, see the chapter on handling user input in OpenEdge Development: Programming Interfaces .

Keyboard events have default effects depending on the widget that receives the event. For example, the “A” key label event displays an uppercase “A” in a fill-in or editor widget, but has no default effect when applied to a button. Progress organizes some key function events into several classes that have default effects on selected groups of widgets. Progress also provides special keyboard events to write default triggers on classes of keys. You can use these default events to write a trigger for all keys in a particular class for which you have not defined a key label or key function event trigger.

Main classes of key function events

Progress supports three main classes of key function events:

Universal key function events — These events apply to all user-interface widgets except menus, submenus, and menu items.
Navigation key function events — These events apply to those field-level widgets that can receive focus.
Field editing key function events — These events apply to fill-ins and browse cells.

Table 92 describes universal key function events.

Table 92: Universal key function events

Event	Affected widgets	Progress action
BELL	All except control container, menu, menu item, and submenu.	Trigger dependent (typically used to execute the BELL statement).
END-ERROR	All except menu, menu item, and submenu.	For the first input operation of the program, raise the ENDKEY condition. For subsequent input operations, raise the ERROR condition.
ENDKEY	All except menu, menu item, and submenu.	Raise the ENDKEY condition.
ERROR	All except control container, menu, menu item, and submenu.	Raise the ERROR condition.
GO	All except menu, menu item, and submenu.	Submit the input values for this frame.
HELP	All except menu, menu item, and submenu.	Invoke application help.

Table 93 describes navigation key function events.

Table 93: Navigation key function events 

Event	Affected widgets	Progress action
BACK-TAB	Browse, browse cell, button, combo box, control container, editor, fill-in, radio set, selection list, slider, toggle box.	Move focus to the previous widget in the tab order within the current frame family.
NEXT-FRAME	Browse, browse cell, button, combo box, editor, fill-in, radio set, selection list, slider, toggle box.	Move focus to the next frame parented by the active window.
PREV-FRAME	Browse, browse cell, button, combo box, editor, fill-in, radio set, selection list, slider, toggle box.	Move focus to previous frame parented by the active window.
TAB	Browse, browse cell, button, combo box, control container, editor, fill-in, radio set, selection list, slider, toggle box.	Move focus to the next widget in the tab order within the current frame family.

Table 94 describes field editing key function events.

Table 94: Field editing key function events 

Event	Affected widgets	Progress action
BACKSPACE	Fill-in, browse cell.	Delete one character to the left.
CLEAR	Fill-in, browse cell.	Clear the current field value (character interfaces only).
DELETE-CHARACTER	Fill-in, browse cell.	Delete one character to the right.
RECALL	Fill-in, browse cell.	Restore the field to its value when it was last enabled.
RETURN	Fill-in, browse cell.	Default behavior is different for character and graphical interfaces and dependent on the DATA-ENTRY-RETURN attribute of the SESSION handle.

Default keyboard events

Progress provides two keyboard events that you can use to write default triggers. Table 95 describes these events.

Table 95: Default keyboard events 

Event	Affected widgets	Meaning
ANY-KEY	Browse, browse cell, button, combo box, editor, fill-in, radio set, selection list, slider, toggle box.	Executes for any keyboard event for which the user has not defined a specific trigger.
ANY-PRINTABLE	Browse, browse cell, button, combo box, editor, fill-in, radio set, selection list, slider, toggle box.	Executes for any keyboard event that normally produces a printable character.