Sprezzatura :: Making Databases Happen

By Captain C | Tuesday, 24 April 2012 10:10 | 0 Comments

As you'll doubtless know there are several core routines used in Basic+ to interact with OI forms, probably the three most important being:

Get_Property()

Set_Property()

Send_Message()

To maximize performance when dealing with properties it is common practice to pass @rm-delimited arrays to Get_Property and Set_Property like so:

0001  /* 

0002     Example to illustrate accessing properties via @rm-delimited arrays.

0003      

0004     i.e to replace code like this:

0005     

0006        call set_Property( @window, "TEXT", "Customers" )

0007        call set_Property( @window, "TRACKINGSIZE", trkSize )

0008        call set_property( @window, "VISIBLE", TRUE$ ) 

0009        

0010     ... and so on...

0011  */

0012  

0013     objxArray =        @window

0014     propArray =        "TEXT"

0015     dataArray =        "CUSTOMERS"

0016   

0017     objxArray := @rm : @window

0018     proparray := @rm : "TRACKINGSIZE"

0019     dataArray := @rm : trkSize

0020  

0021     objxArray := @rm : @window

0022     propArray := @rm : "VISIBLE"

0023     dataArray := @rm : TRUE$

0024  

0025     call set_Property( objxArray, propArray, dataArray )

0026

A recent support query from one of our clients was to enquire if the Send_Message() function also supported a similar interface, and unfortunately the answer is no - it does not accept @rm-delimited arguments when invoked.

However the question did trigger a distant memory that led me to dig up a very old email thread from many years ago between ourselves and developers at Revelation, during which a similar capability was discussed and implemented, but alas, it appears, never documented.

Whilst Send_Message() itself doesn't support @rm-delimited arrays of message data, the Set_Property() function does support a "SEND_MESSAGE" property which can be used in a similar manner - you simply wrap the message name and arguments into an @fm-delimited array and use this as the new property value to set.

e.g.

0001  /* 

0002     Example to illustrate calling messages via @rm-delimited 

0003     arrays. 

0004      

0005     i.e to replace code like this: 

0006       

0007       call send_Message( @window, "COLOR_BY_POS", colPos, rowPos, cellColor ) 

0008       call send_Message( @window, "COLSTYLE", colPos, colStyle ) 

0009        

0010    ... and so on... 

0011  */

0012  

0013     colPos    = 3

0014     rowPos    = 0

0015     cellColor = RED$ : @fm : WHITE$ : @fm : GREEN$ : @fm : YELLOW$

0016  

0017     convert @fm to @vm in cellColor

0018  

0019     objxArray =        @window : ".TABLE_1"

0020     propArray =        "SEND_MESSAGE"

0021     dataArray =        "COLOR_BY_POS" : @fm : colPos : @fm : rowPos : |

0022                        @fm : cellColor

0023  

0024     objxArray := @rm : @window : ".TABLE_1"

0025     proparray := @rm : "SEND_MESSAGE"

0026     dataArray := @rm : "COLSTYLE" : @fm : colPos : @fm : colStyle

0027  

0028     call set_Property( objxArray, propArray, dataArray )

0029

Notice the convert statement in the code above - if you use any system delimiters in your message arguments (@fm,@vm,@svm,@tm) then you must convert them down a level, because the SEND_MESSAGE property will convert them up a level before executing the message internally.

In this way we can duplicate the stacking behaviour of Get and Set_Property for Send_Message.

Labels: OpenInsight

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