Progress
Language 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 the Progress Programming Handbook .

Keyboard events have default effects depending on the widget that receives the event. For example, the “A” key label event displays an upper-case “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:

Table 65 describes universal key function events.

Table 65: 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 66 describes navigation key function events.

Table 66: 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 67 describes field editing key function events.

Table 67: 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 68 describes these events.

Table 68: 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.


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