User input screen class

Ever needed to get information from your user with a true modal form?  If you try to create an input screen using the UI api, you call “Application.form.Add(……..)” but the code continues to run behind the form. It is impossible to request information from the user before moving onto the next line of code.

I have been hitting this wall since I started programing with the SDK.

But I have finaly found a way to do it! By using the only true modal function in the SDK. “MESSAGEBOX”

Message box alone does not give us what we need because it only returns  the numerical value of the button pressed.

But, the message box is just a form. (FormTypeEx = “0”). I figured out that the events for this form continue to be lauched while the function that called it is patiently waiting for the user to click “OK”.

So! By using this, it is possible to convert the message box into an INPUT BOX!

Class to encapsulate the functionality:

Public Class cUserInput

  Private sInput As String = “”

  Private sTitle As String = “”

  Public Function ShowInput(Title As String, Message As String) As String

bLoadInputEvents = True

    sTitle = Title

oApplication.MessageBox(Message)

    ShowInput = sInput

  End Function

  ‘ handles Form event trafic for the form associated to this class instance

  Public Overridable Sub ItemEvents(ByRef pVal As SAPbouiCOM.ItemEvent, ByRef BubbleEvent As Boolean)

    Try

      Select Case pVal.EventType

        Case et_ITEM_PRESSED

e_ItemPressed(pVal, BubbleEvent)

        Case et_FORM_LOAD

e_FormLoad(pVal, BubbleEvent)

      End Select

    Catch ex As Exception

oApplication.MessageBox(ex.Message)

    End Try

  End Sub

  Protected Overridable Sub e_FormLoad(ByRef pVal As SAPbouiCOM.ItemEvent, ByRef BubbleEvent As Boolean)

    If pVal.BeforeAction = False Then

      Dim oform As SAPbouiCOM.Form = oApplication.Forms.Item(pVal.FormUID)

oform.Title = sTitle

      oform.Items.Add(“eInput”, SAPbouiCOM.BoFormItemTypes.it_EDIT)

oform.Items.Item(“eInput”).Top = oform.Items.Item(“7”).Top + oform.Items.Item(“7”).Height + 10

oform.Items.Item(“eInput”).Left = oform.Items.Item(“7”).Left

oform.Items.Item(“eInput”).Width = 150

      oform = Nothing

    End If

  End Sub

  Protected Overridable Sub e_ItemPressed(ByRef pVal As SAPbouiCOM.ItemEvent, ByRef BubbleEvent As Boolean)

    If pVal.ItemUID = “1” And pVal.BeforeAction Then

      sInput = oApplication.Forms.Item(pVal.FormUID).Items.Item(“eInput”).Specific.String

      If sInput = “” Then

BubbleEvent = False

      Else

bLoadInputEvents = False

      End If

    End If

  End Sub

End Class

Using the class:

Global variables

  Public Shared bLoadInputEvents As Boolean = False

  Public Shared oUserInput As cUserInput

Function Call:

    Dim sPassword As String

    ‘Instanciate class

oUserInput = New cUserInput

    ‘Call function that will ask our query and wait for the response.

    sPassword = oUserInput.ShowInput(“Password”, “What is your password?”)

    ‘Check results!

    If sPassword = “1234” Then

oApplication.MessageBox(“Correct!”)

    Else

oApplication.MessageBox(“Incorrect!”)

    End If

oUserInput = Nothing

Event Handling

Private Shared Sub oApplication_ItemEvent(ByVal FormUID As String, ByRef pVal As SAPbouiCOM.ItemEvent, ByRef BubbleEvent As Boolean) Handles oApplication.ItemEvent

    Try

      ‘Catch message input box events.

      If pVal.FormTypeEx = “0” And bLoadInputEvents Then

oUserInput.ItemEvents(pVal, BubbleEvent)

      End If

    Catch ex As Exception

oApplication.StatusBar.SetText(ex.Message)

    End Try

  End Sub

Results

I hope this helps someone else as much as it helped me!

Cheers !

Denis Doiron

Acabuco Inc.