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Text Box

Introduction

The Text Box displays a text field control that you can use to enter, edit, and display text in the Viewer. Text Boxes are used to provide various types of input to other modules as well as to display messages of any data type. A Text Box can have formatting such as font, alignment, color, and bordering applied to its entire contents.

Text Limits

The Text Box module has text limits imposed on it during display in the Viewer. Currently text is limited to 131072 characters with 4000 newlines. Individual lines are limited to 65535 characters. Single line and multiple line Text Boxes are measured differently for display during text validation so they can feel like they follow different rules. In single line Text Boxes the text essentially becomes one long line and is thus restricted to 65535 characters.

Viewer Control:

Using the Text Box Control

  • Edit the information in the Text Box with the mouse and keyboard.
  • Pressing ENTER or performing any action that causes the Text Box control to lose focus, such as selecting another control or clicking on the Viewer's background, will trigger its current contents to be sent out the “Get Text” output connector.
  • Press the ENTER key while holding down the SHIFT key to go to the next line and insert a carriage return/line feed. This functionality is only enabled when the Text Box displays multiple lines.
  • Press the ESC key to undo any changes that were made to the Text Box since its last firing and remove it from focus.

Property Panel:

Current Text
Entering text here sets the text value currently contained and displayed by the text box.
Border
Specifies whether or not to display a border around the control in the Viewer.
Type
Specify the type of Text Box to use. “Single” restricts the Text Box to a single line of text in the Viewer. “Multiple” allows multiple lines of text to be entered. “Password” restricts the Text Box to a single line of text, all characters entered are displayed as the * character, and all formatting options and formatting connectors are disabled. When the “Password” type is used, the text entered is still stored as entered. The * characters are only used to conceal the display of the password.
Formatting
The appearance of the text in the Text Box can be changed by adjusting the “Font,” “Size,” “Bold,” “Italic,” “Alignment,” “Text Color” and “Background Color” fields. A preview of how the formatting will appear is provided in the “Example” field.
Format Numbers
If this box is checked the appearance of numbers in the Text Box can be changed by adjusting the “Decimal Places,” “1000 Separator,” and “Symbol” fields.

Input Menu:

Set Text

Sets the text that is displayed in this control.

Accepted Datatypes:
Any
Any message can be displayed by the Text Box.
Triggered Outputs:
Output Message:
Get Text
Formatting Connectors → Set Text Size

Sets the desired size of the displayed text.

Accepted Datatypes:
Number
Text size in points.
Triggered Outputs:
Output Message:
Formatting Connectors → Get Text Size
Formatting Connectors → Set Is Bold

Sets the "Bold" property of the displayed text.

Accepted Datatypes:
True/false
Triggered Outputs:
Output Message:
Formatting Connectors → Get Is Bold
Formatting Connectors → Set Is Italic

Sets the "Italic" property of the displayed text.

Accepted Datatypes:
True/false
Triggered Outputs:
Output Message:
Formatting Connectors → Get Is Italic

Output Menu:

Get Text

Gets the text that is displayed in this control.

Output Datatype:
Text
Triggered By:
Input Message:
Set Text
Action:
Fired when the Text Box loses focus in the Viewer
Action:
Fire-On-Connect
Formatting Connectors → Get Text Size

Gets the size of the displayed text.

Output Datatype:
Number
Size of the text in points
Triggered By:
Input Message:
Formatting Connectors → Set Text Size
Formatting Connectors → Get Is Bold

Gets whether or not the displayed text is 'Bold'.

Output Datatype:
True/false
Triggered By:
Input Message:
Formatting Connectors → Set Is Bold
Formatting Connectors → Get Is Italic

Gets whether or not the displayed text is 'Italic'.

Output Datatype:
True/false
Triggered By:
Input Message:
Set Is Italic