The DialogControl service manages the controls belonging to a dialog defined with the Basic Dialog Editor. Each instance of the current service represents a single control within a dialog box.

The focus is set on getting and setting the values displayed by the controls of the dialogue box. Formatting is accessible via the XControlModel and XControlView properties.

Note that the unique DialogControl.Value property content varies according to the control type.

A special attention is given to controls of type tree control. It is easy to populate a tree, either branch by branch, or with a set of branches at once. Populating a tree control can be performed statically or dynamically.

The SFDialogs.DialogControl service is closely related to the SFDialogs.Dialog service.

Service invocation

Before using the DialogControl service the ScriptForge library needs to be loaded or imported:

• Basic macros require to load ScriptForge library using the following statement:

GlobalScope.BasicLibraries.loadLibrary("ScriptForge")

• Python scripts require an import from scriptforge module:

from scriptforge import CreateScriptService

The DialogControl service is invoked from an existing Dialog service instance through its Controls() method. The dialog must be initiated with the SFDialogs.Dialog service.


      Dim myDialog As Object, myControl As Object
      Set myDialog = CreateScriptService("SFDialogs.Dialog", "GlobalScope", myLibrary, DialogName)
      Set myControl = myDialog.Controls("myTextBox")
      myControl.Value = "Dialog started at " & Now()
      myDialog.Execute()
      ' ... process the controls actual values
      myDialog.Terminate()


     from time import localtime, strftime
     dlg = CreateScriptService('SFDialogs.Dialog', 'GlobalScope', lib-name, dlg-name)
     text = dlg.Controls('myTextBox')
     text.Value = "Dialog started at " + strftime("%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S", localtime())
     dlg.Execute()
     # ... process the controls actual values
     dlg.Terminate()

Alternatively a control instance can be retrieved via the SFDialogs.DialogEvent service, providing the dialog was initiated with the Dialog service. DialogEvent returns the SFDialogs.DialogControl class instance that triggered the event.


      Sub SomeEvent(ByRef poEvent As Object)
          Dim oControl As Object
          Set oControl = CreateScriptService("SFDialogs.DialogEvent", poEvent)
          ' ...
      End Sub


     def some-event(event: uno):
         ctrl = CreateScriptService('SFDialogs.DialogEvent', event)
         # ...

Note that in previous examples, the prefix "SFDialogs." may be omitted.

Control types

The DialogControl service is available for these control types:

Button
CheckBox
ComboBox
CurrencyField
DateField
FileControl
FixedLine
FixedText
FormattedField
GroupBox
ImageControl
ListBox
NumericField
PatternField
ProgressBar
RadioButton
ScrollBar
TableControl
TextField
TimeField
TreeControl

Properties

Name	ReadOnly	Type	Applicable to	Description
Cancel	No	Boolean	Button	Specifies if a command button has or not the behaviour of a Cancel button.
Caption	No	String	Button, CheckBox, FixedLine, FixedText, GroupBox, RadioButton	Specifies the text associated with the control.
ControlType	Yes	String	All	One of the types listed above.
CurrentNode	No	UNOobject	TreeControl	The currently upmost node selected in the tree control. Refer to XmutableTreeNode in Application Programming Interface (API) documentation for detailed information.
Default	No	Boolean	Button	Specifies whether a command button is the default (OK) button.
Enabled	No	Boolean	All	Specifies if the control is accessible with the cursor.
Format	No	String	DateField, TimeField, FormattedField (read-only)	Specifies the format used to display dates and times. It must be one these strings: For dates: "Standard (short)", "Standard (short YY)", "Standard (short YYYY)", "Standard (long)", "DD/MM/YY", "MM/DD/YY", "YY/MM/DD", "DD/MM/YYYY", "MM/DD/YYYY" , "YYYY/MM/DD", "YY-MM-DD", "YYYY-MM-DD". For times: "24h short", "24h long", "12h short", "12h long".
ListCount	Yes	Long	ComboBox, ListBox, TableControl	Specifies the number of rows in a ListBox, a ComboBox or a TableControl.
ListIndex	No	Long	ComboBox, ListBox, TableControl	Specifies which item is selected in a ListBox, a ComboBox or a TableControl.
Locked	No	Boolean	ComboBox, CurrencyField, DateField, FileControl, FormattedField, ListBox, NumericField, PatternField, TextField, TimeField	Specifies if the control is read-only.
MultiSelect	No	Boolean	ListBox	Specifies whether a user can make multiple selections in a listbox.
Name	Yes	String	All	The name of the control.
Page	No	Integer	All	A dialog may have several pages that can be traversed by the user step by step. The Page property of the Dialog object defines which page of the dialog is active. The Page property of a control defines the page of the dialog on which the control is visible.
Parent	Yes	Dialogservice	All	The parent SFDialogs.Dialog class object instance.
Picture	No	String	Button, ImageControl	Specifies the file name containing a bitmap or other type of graphic to be displayed on the specified control. The filename must comply with the FileNaming attribute of the ScriptForge.FileSystem service.
RootNode	Yes	UNOobject	TreeControl	An object representing the lowest root node (usually there is only one such root node). Refer to XmutableTreeNode in Application Programming Interface (API) documentation for detailed information.
RowSource	No	Array of strings	ComboBox, ListBox	Specifies the data contained in a combobox or a listbox.
Text	Yes	String	ComboBox, FileControl, FormattedField, PatternField, TextField	Gives access to the text being displayed by the control.
TipText	No	String	All	Specifies the text that appears as a tooltip when you hold the mouse pointer over the control.
TripleState	No	Boolean	CheckBox	Specifies if the checkbox control may appear dimmed (grayed) or not.
Value	No	Variant	Refer to Value property
Visible	No	Boolean	All	Specifies if the control is hidden or visible.
XControlModel	Yes	UNOobject	All	The UNO object representing the control model. Refer to XControlModel and UnoControlDialogModel in Application Programming Interface (API) documentation for detailed information.
XControlView	Yes	UNOobject	All	The UNO object representing the control view. Refer to XControl and UnoControlDialog in Application Programming Interface (API) documentation for detailed information.
XTreeDataModel	Yes	UNOobject	TreeControl	The UNO object representing the tree control data model. Refer to XMutableTreeDataModel in Application Programming Interface (API) documentation for detailed information.

The Value property

Control type	Type	Description
Button	Boolean	For toggle buttons only
CheckBox	Boolean or Integer	0, False: not checked1, True: checked2: grayed, don't know
ComboBox	String	The selected value. The ListIndex property is an alternate option.
CurrencyField	Numeric
DateField	Date
FileControl	String	A file name formatted in accordance with the FileNaming property of the ScriptForge.FileSystem service
FormattedField	String or Numeric
ListBox	String or array of strings	The selected row(s) as a scalar or as an array depending on the MultiSelect attribute
NumericField	Numeric
PatternField	String
ProgressBar	Numeric	Must be within the predefined bounds
RadioButton	Boolean	Each button has its own name. They are linked together if their TAB positions are contiguous. If a radiobutton is set to True, the other related buttons are automatically set to False
ScrollBar	Numeric	Must be within the predefined bounds
TableControl	Array	One-dimensional array with the data of the currently selected row.
TextField	String	The text appearing in the field
TimeField	Date

Event properties

Returns a URI string with the reference to the script triggered by the event. Read its specification in the scripting framework URI specification.

Name	ReadOnly	Description as labelled in the Basic IDE
OnActionPerformed	Yes	Execute action
OnAdjustmentValueChanged	Yes	While adjusting
OnFocusGained	Yes	When receiving focus
OnFocusLost	Yes	When losing focus
OnItemStateChanged	Yes	Item status changed
OnKeyPressed	Yes	Key pressed
OnKeyReleased	Yes	Key released
OnMouseDragged	Yes	Mouse moved while key presses
OnMouseEntered	Yes	Mouse inside
OnMouseExited	Yes	Mouse outside
OnMouseMoved	Yes	Mouse moved
OnMousePressed	Yes	Mouse button pressed
OnMouseReleased	Yes	Mouse button released
OnNodeExpanded	No	(Not in Basic IDE) when the expansion button is pressed on a node in a tree control
OnNodeSelected	No	(Not in Basic IDE) when a node in a tree control is selected
OnTextChanged	Yes	Text modified

Methods

List of Methods in the DialogControl Service
AddSubNode AddSubTree CreateRoot	FindNode SetFocus	SetTableData WriteLine

AddSubNode

Create and return a new node of the tree control as a UNO object subordinate to a parent node. Refer to XMutableTreeNode in Application Programming Interface (API) documentation for detailed information.

This method may be called before displaying the dialog box to build the initial tree. It may also be called from a dialog or control event - using the OnNodeExpanded event - to complete the tree dynamically.

Syntax:

svc.AddSubNode(parentnode: uno, displayvalue: str, opt datavalue: any): uno

Parameters:

parentnode: A node UNO object, of type com.sun.star.awt.tree.XMutableTreeNode.

displayvalue: The text appearing in the tree control box.

datavalue: Any value associated with the new node. datavalue may be a string, a number or a date. Omit the argument when not applicable.

Example:

Office Basic and Python examples pick up current document's myDialog dialog from Standard library.

In Basic


      Dim oDlg As Object, myTree As Object, myNode As Object, theRoot As Object
      Set oDlg = CreateScriptService("Dialog",,, "myDialog")
      Set myTree = oDlg.Controls("myTreeControl")
      Set theRoot = myTree.CreateRoot("Tree top")
      Set myNode = myTree.AddSubNode(theRoot, "A branch ...")

In Python


     dlg = CreateScriptService('SFDialogs.Dialog', None, None, 'myDialog')
     tree = dlg.Controls('myTreeControl')
     root = tree.CreateRoot('Tree top')
     node = tree.AddSubNode(root, 'A branch ...')

AddSubTree

Return True when a subtree, subordinate to a parent node, could be inserted successfully in a tree control. If the parent node had already child nodes before calling this method, the child nodes are erased.

Syntax:

svc.AddSubTree(parentnode: uno, flattree: any, opt withdatavalue: bool): bool

Parameters:

parentnode: A node UNO object, of type com.sun.star.awt.tree.XMutableTreeNode.

flattree: a two dimension array sorted on the columns containing the display values. Such an array can be issued by the GetRows method applied on the SFDatabases.Database service. When an array item containing the text to be displayed is Empty or Null, no new subnode is created and the remainder of the row is skipped.


      Flat tree    >>>>    Resulting subtree
      A1	B1	C1             |--   A1	
      A1	B1	C2                   |--   B1
      A1	B2	C3                         |--  C1
      A2	B3	C4                         |--  C2
      A2	B3	C5                   |--   B2
      A3	B4	C6                         |--  C3
                             |--   A2
                                   |--   B3
                                         |--  C4
                                         |--  C5
                             |--   A3
                                   |--   B4
                                         |--  C6

withdatavalue: When False default value is used, every column of flattree contains the text to be displayed in the tree control. When True, the texts to be displayed (displayvalue) are in columns 0, 2, 4, ... while the data values (datavalue) are in columns 1, 3, 5, ...

Example:

In Basic


      Dim myTree As Object, theRoot As Object, oDb As Object, vData As Variant
      Set myTree = myDialog.Controls("myTreeControl")
      Set theRoot = myTree.CreateRoot("By product category")
      Set oDb = CreateScriptService("SFDatabases.Database", "/home/.../mydatabase.odb")
      vData = oDb.GetRows("SELECT [Category].[Name], [Category].[ID], [Product].[Name], [Product].[ID] " -
          & "FROM [Category], [Product] WHERE [Product].[CategoryID] = [Category].[ID] " -
          & "ORDER BY [Category].[Name], [Product].[Name]")
      myTree.AddSubTree(theRoot, vData, WithDataValue := True)

In Python


     SQL-STMT = "SELECT [Category].[Name], [Category].[ID], [Product].[Name], [Product].[ID] \
         FROM [Category], [Product] WHERE [Product].[CategoryID] = [Category].[ID] \
         ORDER BY [Category].[Name], [Product].[Name]"
     tree = dlg.Controls('myTreeControl')
     root = tree.CreateRoot('By Product category')
     db = CreateScriptService('SFDatabases.Database', '/home/.../mydatabase.odb')
     sub-tree = db.GetRows(SQL-STMT)
     tree.AddSubTree(root, sub-tree, withdatavalue=True)

CreateRoot

Returns a new root node of the tree control, as a node UNO object of type com.sun.star.awt.tree.XMutableTreeNode. The new tree root is inserted below pre-existing root nodes. Refer to XMutableTreeNode in Application Programming Interface (API) documentation for detailed information.

This method may be called before displaying the dialog box to build the initial tree. It may also be called from a dialog or control event to complete the tree dynamically.

Syntax:

svc.CreateRoot(displayvalue: str, opt datavalue: any): uno

Parameters:

displayvalue: The text appearing in the tree control box.

datavalue: Any value associated with the new node. datavalue may be a string, a number or a date. Omit the argument when not applicable.

Example:

In Basic


      Dim myTree As Object, myNode As Object
      Set myTree = myDialog.Controls("myTreeControl")
      Set myNode = myTree.CreateRoot("Tree starts here ...")

In Python


     tree = dlg.Controls('myTreeControl')
     node = tree.CreateRoot('Tree starts here ...')

FindNode

Traverses the tree and finds recursively, starting from the root, a node meeting some criteria. Either - 1 match is enough - having its display value matching displayvalue pattern or having its data value equal to datavalue. The comparisons may be or not case-sensitive. The first matching occurrence is returned as a node UNO object of type com.sun.star.awt.tree.XMutableTreeNode. Refer to XMutableTreeNode in Application Programming Interface (API) documentation for detailed information.

When not found, the method returns Nothing, to be tested with the IsNull() builtin function.

This method may be called before displaying the dialog box to build the initial tree. It may also be called from a dialog or control event.

Syntax:

svc.FindNode(displayvalue: str = '', opt datavalue: any, casesensitive = False): uno

Parameters:

One argument out of displayvalue or datavalue must be specified. If both present, one match is sufficient to select the node.

displayvalue: The pattern to be matched. Refer to SF-String.IsLike() method for the list of possible wildcards. When equal to the zero-length string (default), this display value is not searched for.

datavalue: Any value associated with the new node. datavalue may be a string, a number or a date. Omit the argument when not applicable.

casesensitive: Default value is False

Example:

In Basic


      Dim myTree As Object, myNode As Object
      Set myTree = myDialog.Controls("myTreeControl")
      Set myNode = myTree.FindNode("*Sophie*", CaseSensitive := True)

In Python


     tree = dlg.Controls('myTreeControl')
     node = FindNode('*Sophie*', casesensitive=True)
     if node is None:
         # ...

SetFocus

Set the focus on the control. Return True if focusing was successful.

This method is often called from a dialog or control event.

Syntax:

svc.SetFocus(): bool

Example:

In Basic


      Dim oControl As Object
      Set oDlg = CreateScriptService("SFDialogs.Dialog",,, "myDialog")
      Set oControl = oDlg.Controls("thisControl")
      oControl.SetFocus()

In Python


      dlg = CreateScriptService('Dialog', None, None, 'myDialog')
      ctrl = dlg.Controls('thisControl')
      ctrl.SetFocus()

SetTableData

Fills a TableControl with the given data. All preexisting data is cleared before inserting the new data passed as argument.

When the TableControl is added to the dialog, it is possible to use the Basic IDE to define whether column and row headers will be shown in the table. If the TableControl has column and/or row headers, the first column and/or row in the provided data array are used as labels for the table headers.

This method returns True when successful.

Syntax:

svc.SetTableData(dataarray: any[0..*, 0..*], widths: int[0..*], alignments: str): bool

Parameters:

dataarray: Data to be entered into the table represented as an Array of Arrays in Basic or a tuple of tuples in Python. The data must include column and row headers if they are to be displayed by the TableControl.

widths: Array containing the relative widths of each column. In other words, widths = Array(1, 2) means that the second column is twice as wide as the first one. If the number of values in the array is smaller than the number of columns in the table, then the last value in the array is used to define the width of the remaining columns.

alignments: Defines the alignment in each column as a string in which each character can be "L" (Left), "C" (Centre), "R" (Right) or " " (whitespace, default, meaning left for strings and right for numeric values). If the length of the string is shorter than the number of columns in the table, then the last character in the string is used to define the alignment of the remaining columns.

Example:

In Basic

The following example assumes that the dialog myDialog has a TableControl named Grid1 with "Show row header" and "Show column header" properties set to "Yes".


     Dim myDialog As Object, oTable As Object, tableData As Variant
     myDialog = CreateScriptService("Dialog", "GlobalScope", "Standard", "myDialog")
     oTable = myDialog.Controls("Grid1")
     tableData = Array("Column A", "Column B", "Column C")
     tableData = SF-Array.AppendRow(tableData, Array("Row 1", 1, 2))
     tableData = SF-Array.AppendRow(tableData, Array("Row 2", 3, 4))
     tableData = SF-Array.AppendRow(tableData, Array("Row 3", 5, 6))
     vAlignments = "LCC"
     vWidths = Array(2, 1, 1)
     oTable.SetTableData(tableData, vWidths, vAlignments)
     myDialog.Execute()

The Value property returns the selected row in the table. If no row is selected, an empty Array object is returned. The following code snippet shows how to test if any row is selected in the table.


     rowValues = oTable.Value
     If UBound(rowValues) < 0 Then
         MsgBox "No row selected."
     Else
         MsgBox "Row " & oTable.ListIndex & " is selected."
     End If

In Python


     dlg = CreateScriptService("Dialog", "GlobalScope", "Standard", "myDialog")
     table-control = dlg.Controls("Grid1")
     table-data = (("Column A", "Column B", "Column C"),
                   ("Row 1", 1, 2),
                   ("Row 2", 3, 4),
                   ("Row 3", 5, 6))
     alignments = "LCC"
     widths = (100, 50, 50)
     table-control.SetTableData(table-data, widths, alignments)
     dlg.Execute()


     bas = CreateScriptService("Basic")
     row-values = table-control.Value
     if len(row-values) == 0:
         bas.MsgBox("No row selected.")
     else:
         bas.MsgBox(f"Row {table-control.ListIndex} is selected.")

WriteLine

Add a new line at the end of a multiline text field. A newline character will be inserted when appropriate. The method returns True when successful.

An error is raised if the actual control is not of the type TextField or is not multiline.

Syntax:

svc.WriteLine(opt line: str): bool

Parameters:

Line: The string to insert. Default is an empty line.

Example:

In Basic


      Dim oDlg As Object, oControl As Object
      Set oDlg = CreateScriptService("SFDialogs.Dialog",,, "myDialog")
      Set oControl = oDlg.Controls("thisControl")
      oControl.WriteLine("a new line")

In Python


     dlg = CreateScriptService('SFDialogs.Dialog', None, None, 'myDialog')
     ctrl = dlg.Controls('thisControl')
     ctr.WriteLine("a new line")

All ScriptForge Basic routines or identifiers that are prefixed with an underscore character "-" are reserved for internal use. They are not meant be used in Basic macros or Python scripts.

SFDialogs.DialogControl serviceService invocation Control types Properties The Value property Event properties Methods AddSubNode AddSubTree CreateRoot FindNode SetFocus SetTableData WriteLine Related Topics