Table 1–1: Basic 4GL Object Types
Role
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Object
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Description
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Organizer
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Window
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The outermost organizer object. It is not modal, can have a menu bar and pulldowns, and can parent all other objects.
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Dialog Box
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Technically a type of Frame with its own dedicated Window. Dialog Boxes are modal, cannot have a menu bar, cannot be resized, and must be parented by a Window. You typically use them for capturing user input on a specific issue.
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Frame
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An object that delimits a rectangular area and defines a TAB-traversal group. Frames can have their own border and title bar. You can use Frames to organize and display other objects.
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Rectangle
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A static object that visually delimits a rectangular area. You can use a Rectangle to group other objects for emphasis. A Rectangle does not define a traversal group or have any active characteristics; it is purely a visual object.
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Data Access
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Query
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A group of related instructions that tell Progress to find a subset of records from one or more database tables. This is a standalone object, but several objects have a query function embedded in them.
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Data Display and Capture
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Data Browser
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An object that displays the results of a database query in row/column tabular format. Each row represents a record, and each column a field. Usually called a Browse widget.
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(Data Display and Capture)
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Combo Box
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An object that combines a Fill–in with a Selection List. The Fill–in shows the current value. The user can set the value by typing into the Fill–in, or by picking an item from those in the List.
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Data Viewer
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An object that displays the results of a database query one record at a time, using one Fill–in per field. Also called a DB Fields widget
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Editor
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A field-level object that allows editing of large (typically multi-line) character fields. By default, Editors support features such as cut, copy, paste, and word-wrap.
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Fill–in (Edit box)
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A field-level object that accepts user input, typically a single line of text. The system evaluates that text, possibly performing additional processing such as type conversion and validation, and assigns the result to a database field or a variable.
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Radio-button Set
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A group of buttons representing a set of values for a variable, only one of which can be valid at a given time. Selecting a button automatically deselects the previous choice.
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Selection List (Pick List)
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A scrollable list of character strings. The strings are the possible values for an underlying field or variable. You can use a Selection List to allow an end user to select one or several items from a predetermined list of character values.
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(Data Display and Capture)
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Slider Control
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A virtual knob that the user moves along a track. The track represents some subrange of INTEGER; a built-in readout displays the current value. The limiting values are -32,768 and 32,767. Only a value of type INTEGER, without extent, can be displayed by a Slider.
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Toggle Box (Check Box)
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A small, square box that represents a logical value. You can use groups of Check Boxes to represent sets of properties.
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Action Control
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Button (Pushbutton)
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A field-level object that a user typically selects to invoke some action. AppBuilder offers one generic Pushbutton plus others predefined for special purposes.
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Other
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Text Object (Static Text)
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Standalone text that is not bound to any other object, though it might appear to be.
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Image Object (Static Image)
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A static field-level object used to display a bitmap from a graphics file. Progress supports many different graphic formats under MS-Windows.
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