how do you determine an element type?

[eKelman]

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone could tell me what property or call I could use to determine the displayType of an element.

I am looping through the elements on a form and need to determine whether or not it is a text area.

Thanks

[jcompagner]

see: getElementType() on elements

for 6 you can do for example: if (element instanceof RuntimeTextField)

[eKelman]

Johan,

Thank you.

[antonio]

Johan,

I made this global method that uses getElementType(), to change the background colour when entering any (named) field on a form via the onElementFocusGained and onElementFocusLost form events. I want only to do this for TEXT_FIELD and TYPE_AHEAD.

Code: Select all

function onElementFocusChanged(event) {
   var vElem = event.getElementName()
   var vEventType = event.getType()
   var vForm = event.getFormName()
   if (vElem && vForm)
   {   
      var vElementType = forms[vForm].elements[vElem].getElementType();
      application.output(vElementType)
      if (vElementType == ELEMENT_TYPES.TEXT_FIELD || vElementType == ELEMENT_TYPES.TYPE_AHEAD) // doesn't look nice on combobox
      {
         if (vEventType == "focusGained")
         {
            forms[vForm].elements[vElem].bgcolor =  '#ffffcc' // pale yellow
         }
         else { // reset to white on focus lost
            forms[vForm].elements[vElem].bgcolor = '#ffffff' // white
         }            
      }
   }
}


Works for TEXT_FIELD, but for TYPE_AHEAD fields I get this error

Java class "com.servoy.j2db.scripting.info.ELEMENT_TYPES" has no public instance field or method named "TYPE_AHEAD".

Checking the Application>Constants node, it's not there, nor COMBOBOX, even though both are returned with getElementType();

Can you suggest a work around?

[antonio]

Found that this throws an error

if (vElementType == ELEMENT_TYPES.TYPE_AHEAD)

But this works

if (vElementType == "TYPE_AHEAD")

Which I guess is obvious but I expected all the element types to be in the ELEMENT_TYPES set of constants.

[pbakker]

Hi Antonio,

The anomaly of the missing element type constants is something already fixed for the upcoming Servoy 6.

Paul

[antonio]

Thanks Paul, roll on V6!