Input Item Types

There are five types of items found in APPX applications. Each one has its own set of rules regarding what characters you are allowed to enter, as follows:

• Alphanumeric allows entry of any combination of letters, numbers, or characters, in general. Depending on the application, a variety of edit checks may be performed. Alphanumeric fields may span multiple lines on the screen.
• Numeric allows entry of one number or a contiguous string of numbers. A leading or trailing minus sign and decimal point are treated as valid characters. Commas (to separate thousands) or currency symbols (such as $) are not considered valid characters.
• Date/Time allows entry of up to eight date/time components: century (cc), year (yy), month (mm), day (dd), hour (hh), minute (mm), second (ss), and tenths and hundredths (th) of a second. Most date/time items typically include some combination of year/month/day, but the exact components in each item depend upon the design of your application. You are prompted as to which parts to enter at which position in each date/time item, by the presence of the corresponding two-character abbreviation listed above. Only valid components (such as minutes from 00 through 60) are accepted after you select Enter .
• Logic answers the question “yes” or “no” and is usually represented by a checkbox. APPX allows you to click the checkbox and toggle it to represent “yes” or “no". A check mark means “yes” and a blank checkbox means “no”. In some cases, you can often leave a logic item with a question mark inside , meaning that you do not know the answer yet. For example, you may not know whether a particular customer wants to receive special mailings, so you leave the question mark until you find out. Some logic items require you to set the checkbox to “yes” or “no”. Logic fields, however, may sometimes be seen as a single character field with values of “Y” or “N” to represent “yes” and “no” respectively.
• Text is a free-form alphanumeric field for entering comments or other information in paragraph format. You can indicate the end of each paragraph so that APPX automatically begins the new paragraph on a new line. APPX also automatically wraps your text from one line to another, breaking the text between two words.