Output Process Design - Raw Text Widget

Effective with Release 5.0.0, Raw Text widgets on output images have a defined behavior.

Overview

Prior to Release 5.0.0, Raw Text widgets and Label widgets on output images could be used interchangeably and would produce the same result. Effective with Release 5.0.0, Raw Text widgets on output process images have their own distinct behavior which is different than the behavior of Label widgets. The 'Sync Widget Elements' utility will automatically convert all Raw Text widgets on output images to be Label widgets. This conversion will allow existing output processes that were designed with Raw Text widgets to continue to produce the desired results. This conversion will happen automatically the first time you enter Application Design for the application, unless you have already run it manually as part of installing Release 5.

RAW TEXT Widgets

A widget defined as RAW TEXT will not honor html tags, whereas one defined as a LABEL or TEXT AREA will do so. RAW TEXT may be used on ALPHA and TEXT fields. RAW TEXT indicates that the data should be printed as stored with no formatting applied by APPX.

When used with either an ALPHA field or a TEXT field RAW TEXT will not apply any html formatting. Data will not word-wrap, and instead will break on a character with a default position of the top and left of the widget area. Underscores for required spaces and APPX paragraph characters will print as data. Widget attributes will be honored. If no widget attributes are set the result of a RAW TEXT widget should be the same as an ALPHA field printed with no widget.

The table below summarizes the behaviors of various output process widget types for ALPHA and TEXT fields as of Release 5.0.0:

Field Type / Widget Type	No Widget	RAW TEXT	LABEL	TEXT AREA
ALPHA	No change to current behavior: Does not format embedded html Does not word-wrap text Wraps characters at end of each row of field Truncates characters at end of last row of field Prints underscores and APPX end-of-paragraph characters as data	New behavior: Does not format embedded html Does not word-wrap text Wraps characters at end of each row of field Prints underscore characters and APPX end-of-paragraph characters as data Default text position is left top of widget area Honors widget attributes If no widget attributes are specified for a RAW TEXT widget, the result is the same as if no widget type was specified.	No change to current behavior: Applies html formating. Does not word-wrap text. Prints elipses when truncating text that will not fit within the field. Prints underscore and APPX end-of-paragraph characters as data Default text position is left center All spaces treated as required spaces	No change to current behavior Applies html formating. Word-wraps text based on field width. Prints underscore and APPX end-of-paragraph characters as data Default text position is left top All spaces treated as required spaces
TEXT	No change to current behavior: Does not format embedded html Word-wraps text based on row length of field Truncates words at end of last row of field Honors APPX end-of-paragraph characters Substitutes spaces for underscore characters	New behavior: (same as ALPHA field) Does not format embedded html Does not word-wrap text (wraps characters) Prints underscore characters and APPX end-of-paragraph characters as data Default text position is left top of widget area Honors widget attributes If no widget attributes are specified for a RAW TEXT widget, the result is the same as if the TEXT field was an ALPHA field with no widget type specified.	No change to current behavior Same as TEXT AREA widget except that the default text position is left center.	No change to current behavior Applies html formating. Word-wraps text based on field width. Honors APPX end-of-paragraph characters. Substitutes required spaces for underscore characters. Default text position is left top

Issues:

2206 OPEN - TEXT AREA widget control is not available for alpha fields

2207 OPEN - Text areas do not wrap or truncate consistently

2208 OPEN - Text Area widgets do not line up properly

Comments:

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-- SteveFrizzell - 30 Sep 2008