Highlight the cursor item text

Question

Hi,
I converted forms version 3 to 6 and using 6i too. In forms6 when a screen is opened,
the item text where the cursor is, is highlighted. But in 6i the cursor is just
blinking on the left side of the text. Can I make the text of the item highlighted ? Is there something's wrong with the installation?
Phebe.

Answer 1

We went to great lengths to highlight the current item in our forms. But it takes some special code. Heres what we do:
<p>Create a visual attribute with only its Background Color property set. We we named the visual attribute 'CURRENTITEM', and set the background color to yellow.
<p>In a form-level When-new-item-instance trigger:    DISPLAY_ITEM(:SYSTEM.CURSOR_ITEM,'CURRENTITEM');In a form-level Post-text-item trigger:  DISPLAY_ITEM(:SYSTEM.TRIGGER_ITEM,NULL);<p>We have some additional code that sets an item red if there is an edit error, but that gets more complicated.
...Somebody emailed me asking how, so here it is:
<p>Create a visual attribute with background color = red, foreground color = black. Name it ERRORITEM.
<p>To turn the item red, all you need is:
    DISPLAY_ITEM(:SYSTEM.CURSOR_ITEM,'ERRORITEM');<p>The tricky part is to cause the item to turn red when the error occurs in a when-validate-item trigger, and the cursor is not already in that field. We use a package variable in a Forms package, say we name the package P1, and name the variable Error_item.
<p>In a when-validate-record trigger, do this:
If :this_block.some_item = [some error condition] then
  P1.Error_item := 'THIS_BLOCK.SOME_ITEM';
  Message('This item is incorrect');
  Dummy_timer_id = Create_timer('ERROR_ITEM',20,No_repeat);
  Raise form_trigger_failure;
End if;<p>In the when-timer-expired trigger:
  If get_application_property(Timer_name) = 'ERROR_ITEM' then
    Go_Item( P1.Error_item);
  End if;<p>In the when-new-item-instance form-level trigger:
If P1.Error_item is not null then
  If :system.trigger_item <> P1.Error_item then
    Go_Item( P1.Error_item);
     Return;
  Else
    Display_item( P1.Error_item, ERRORITEM );
    P1.Error_item := null;
    Return;
  End if;
Else
  Display_item(:System.trigger_item, CURRENTITEM );
End if;