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Quick Tip - Use Fixed Text Areas instead of Text Cells
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CATSWeb V6 introduced Fixed Text Areas which are more powerful and flexible than the optional Text Cells from prior major versions. Use Fixed Text Areas in new form designs. Although still supported for backwards compatibility, Text Cells are functionally obsolete.
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Text Cell controls may be used in CATSWeb forms for the following purposes:
- Provide an empty cell to enhance a form layout.
- Provide a means of displaying arbitrary text within a form.
- Provide a convenient location for drill down links that perform functions independent of a particular control or field.
Many of the field definition parameters are disabled for text cells. The following parameters have special meanings in text cells:
- Caption - The caption determines how the text cell field is listed in the field definitions list, but it is not actually used in the control on a form.
- Link Text - The link text is used as the caption of the text cell on a form. To implement a blank cell, leave the link text blank. The link text must be specified if the text cell will be used as a drill down link.
- Default Value - The default value is used to specify what text appears in the cell that would normally be occupied by a field. To implement a blank cell, leave the default value blank.
Once a text cell is installed into a form by giving it a non-zero order parameter, drill down links can be added to it, just like any other control. One notable difference is that the URL or Stored Procedure data links associated with the drill down link cannot use the "Field Value" parameter, since the text cell has no associated field, and therefore no value. The "Field Name" parameter can be used however, and the name of the text cell control is provided.
ActiveX DLL data links are not affected by the drill down link originating from a text cell. The reason is that the entire record is passed to the ActiveX DLL, rather than individual field names or values.
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