FieldHelp

For disambiguation purposes, see also the full screen processing section Field Help.

The FieldHelp config specification (available for use in the BRConfig.sys file and with the CONFIG command) identifies the text attributes and border type that are to be used whenever field help windows are specified in INPUT FIELDS, RINPUT FIELDS, INPUT SELECT and RINPUT SELECT statements.

Syntax

Diagram Defaults

1. N (Normal) attribute or retain previous setting.
2. S (single-lined) border or retain previous setting.

Start-up Default

FIELDHELP N=N, BORDER=NN

Parameters

The "N=" keyword is used to identify the monochrome or color attributes which are to be used for text that appears in the field help window. It must be followed by the desired attributes. See Attributes for more information about the options and syntax for this parameter.

The "BORDER=" keyword must be followed by one of six border specifications. Four of these specifications have been pre-designed:

1. "B" indicates that the border is to be blank (this works well when followed by the R (reverse) attribute);
2. "D" indicates a double-line border (some terminals may not allow this, in which case a single-line border is displayed instead);
3. "H" indicates that a shadowed or highlighted border should be used,
4. "S" indicates that a single-lined border should be used.

The "corners" and "8 chars" border specifications can be used to custom design field help window borders. Business Rules accepts valid line drawing characters for each of these specifications (pressing Ctrl-\\ allows you to access graphics characters with the 0-9 and period (.) keys). To use the "corners" parameter, you must specify only the top left and bottom right graphics characters (in that order). To use the "8 chars" parameter, you must specify the characters to be used for all corners and all sides. However, as of 4.3, Border=H and "8 chars" are no longer supported except that a new OPTION 62 permits S, D, B, H or an eight character string followed by a colon and then attributes.

The "attributes" parameter may be specified immediately after the border specification (no spaces). The attributes specified here will affect the visual display of the border itself. See Attributes for more information about the options and syntax for this parameter.

Technical Considerations

• The CONFIG command can be used to override the BRConfig.sys file's FIELDHELP specification.
• The FIELDHELP specification is the only Business Rules instruction that can be used to specify the appearance of text and borders for field help windows. The N= and BORDER parameters that you may see in other Business Rules specifications (such as OPEN window, PRINT border, INPUT FIELDS, RINPUT FIELDS, INPUT SELECT and RINPUT SELECT) have no effect on field help windows; instead, they affect windows which are opened as separate files.
• Although abbreviations should not be used with the BRConfig.sys file, the FIELDHELP keyword may be abbreviated to FI when it is specified with the CONFIG command.
• See Terminal Considerations for special considerations for Unix / Linux terminals when using field help windows.
• It is important to understand that field help windows are separate from windows that are opened with the OPEN window statement. The FIELDHELP specification affects the border type and attributes of field help windows only.