Adding Background Text, Boxes, or Lines in a Scrollable Region

Designer: It is not possible to add boxes to a scrollable region in the Designer. You can, however, define background text and vertical lines. The vertical lines must be wholly contained within the scrollable region. See the Designer User's Guide for more information.

Code: Background text and lines can be located in the scrollable region. Background items are associated with the form, not the scrollable region. Therefore, when you define a background item with bg_txtdef() or bg_linedef(), you specify the location in the form window for these items.

When defining background items that will appear in a scrollable region, you should not overwrite any area of the scrollable region where there is a column of prompts or scrollable fields.

Also, the order in which you define background items that are located in the scrollable region is important. When a form is displayed, the background items (including prompts) are displayed first. Then the items are displayed. Since a scrollable region is an item, its associated box and fill attribute will overwrite any background items existing in that region already. Therefore, you want to define background items located in the scrollable region after you define the scrollable region itself.

As an example, Figure 10.2 shows a data form containing a name and phone number field in a scrollable region. This is similar to the one shown in Figure 10.1 except that instead of repeating the prompts in each visible row, column heads located in the scrollable region border are used. A background line was added to divide the two columns of fields. The order of calls to define the form would be as follows:

dfmp = fm_def(0, 0, 13, 80, LNORMAL, BDR_DLNP);

bg_txtdef(4, CENTER_TXT, "Information Requests", LNORMAL, dfmp);

srp = sr_def(8, 0, 8, 78, LNORMAL, BDR_SLNP, DATAROWQ, mystruct,

           sizeof(MYSTRUCT), dfmp);

srf_def(1, NULLP, 1, pic_def("X", 23), F_STRING, mystruct.name[0], srp);

srf_def(35, NULLP, 35, "(UUU)UUU-UUUU", F_STRING, mystruct.phone[0], srp);

bg_txtdef(8, 1, "Name", LNORMAL, dfmp);

bg_txtdef(8, 36, "Phone Number", LNORMAL, dfmp);

bg_linedef(9, 34, 6, DOWN, LNORMAL, LINE_SLNP, dfmp);

Figure 10.2: Background Items Located in a Scrollable Region