Widget Reference

This section contains reference entries that describe the ABL widgets. Widgets are handle-based objects that provide visual representations of data and other elements of a user interface.

Like all handle-based objects, widgets support attributes and methods to access and manipulate widget state and behavior. Widgets also support events to which an application can respond to interact with the state and behavior of each widget. For more information on the attributes and methods listed for each widget, see the “Handle Attributes and Methods Reference” section. For more information on the events listed for each widget, see the “Handle-based Object Events Reference” section. For information on non-visual handle-based objects, see the “Handle Reference” section.

You may consider a user‑interface widget to be supported for all interfaces and on all operating systems unless otherwise indicated in the reference entry. These user‑interface widgets do not apply to SpeedScript programming.

Because widgets are not realized in batch mode, you cannot use any method or attribute that requires the widget to be realized in batch mode.

Note:

Of the common attributes listed for the following widgets, BGCOLOR, FGCOLOR, FONT, MOVABLE, RESIZABLE, and SELECTABLE apply only to graphical interfaces; DCOLOR and PFCOLOR apply only to character interfaces. In character interfaces, all attributes and methods that reference pixels (for example HEIGHT-PIXELS) use a system default pixel value for the equivalent value in characters.

The following descriptions refer to both compile-time and run-time behavior, features that the language generally supports and determines at compile time and actions directed by using these features at run time. When describing compile-time features or actions, this section references ABL or the ABL compiler. When describing ABL-directed actions taken at run time, this section references the ABL Virtual Machine (AVM).