LOAD-MOUSE-POINTER( ) method

(Windows only; Graphical interfaces only)

Specifies the mouse pointer to display when the pointer is moved over the widget. If you apply this method to a frame, field group, or window, the same mouse pointer is displayed when it is moved across all child widgets within the frame, field group, or window. However, if you load a different mouse pointer for a child widget, the child widget mouse pointer is displayed when it is moved over that child.

Return type:

LOGICAL

Applies to:

BROWSE widget (browse and column), BUTTON widget, COMBO-BOX widget, DIALOG-BOX widget, EDITOR widget, FILL-IN widget, FRAME widget, RADIO-SET widget, SELECTION-LIST widget, SLIDER widget, TOGGLE-BOX widget, WINDOW widget

 

Syntax 

LOAD-MOUSE-POINTER ( pointer-name )

pointer-name

A character-string expression that specifies the name of a mouse pointer.

ABL provides a collection of mouse pointers that you can use in graphical applications. Table 85 names and describes each mouse pointer in the collection.

 

Table 85:

ABL mouse pointers

Pointer name	Description
APPSTARTING	Arrow with an hourglass beside it
ARROW	Standard arrow cursor
CROSS	Cross hairs
HELP	Arrow with a question mark beside it
IBEAM	I-beam text cursor
NO	Circle with a slash through it
RECTANGLE	(NT 3.51 only) White rectangle
SIZE	Sizing rectangle
SIZE-E	Size to right
SIZE-N	Size to top
SIZE-NE	Size to top right
SIZE-NW	Size to top left
SIZE-S	Size to bottom
SIZE-SE	Size to bottom right
SIZE-SW	Size to bottom left
SIZE-W	Size to left
UPARROW	Up arrow
WAIT	System busy
GLOVE	Glove/finger
COMPILER-WAIT	Compiler busy

If the mouse pointer is loaded successfully, the method returns TRUE.

In addition to the mouse pointers that ABL supplies, you can also use a bitmap that you supply that is in the form of a Windows cursor (.cur or .ani) file. To use such a bitmap, substitute the name of the Windows cursor file for pointer-name.

For browse columns, if you do not specify a mouse pointer, the AVM uses the mouse pointer the user specified for the browse.

In Windows, you can specify a URL pathname. If you specify a fully-qualified URL, LOAD-MOUSE-POINTER( ) loads the pointer file directly without searching directories or URLs in PROPATH. Valid URL protocols include HTTP and HTTPS.

Note:

URL pathnames cannot contain the percent symbol (%). If an error exists in a URL specified on the PROPATH, the LOAD-MOUSE-POINTER( ) method continues searching with the next PROPATH entry.

If you specify URL pathnames on the PROPATH and your application repeatedly uses the LOAD-MOUSE-POINTER( ) method with a URL pathname, you can improve performance by using the SEARCH function once to determine the full URL pathname to the directory containing the pointer files. Use this value to create a fully-qualified URL pathname for pointer-name and avoid repeated searches of the PROPATH.