Is this possible in Developer 6 ?

Question

Hi
I am trying to build this piece of functionality in Developer 6.
It's been done in PowerBuilder before and we are converting the
application to Developer.
1. User clicks on a button on the screen.
2. The cursor changes into a cross
3. User can now draw a rectangle anywhere on the screen (with
the
'cross cursor' - click, drag the mouse to draw the rectangle (you
should see the rectangle lines as the mouse is moved, un-click.
4. Once, the rectagle is drawn, I would like to keep the X,Y
coordinates of the rectangle - top left corner (X,Y) and bottom
right corner (X,Y)
Thanks
Julian.
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Answer 1

I can give you a couple of possibilities but I'm not sure either
one serves your purpose.
The first is the Show Palette property on an image item. When
this is set to yes a tool palette is displayed with the image at
runtime. One of the tools is a selection box similar to what you
describe. This is applicable only within an image item so I
doubt it will help.
The other option I can think of is to use event triggers to
create and display a box on screen. This solution uses a text
item with the background color set to the same as the canvas and
no bevel so it appears as a single line box. Initially the
item's visible property is set to No. The start and stop
coordinates of the box are stored as parameters and a parameter
is used to set a flag for tracking the mouse movements and
resizing the box or not.
Items Used:
YOUR_BOX Text item in data block YOUR_BLOCK.
STOP_X, STOP_Y, START_X, and START_Y are Parameters of data
type number.
TRACK is a Parameter of data type char.
WHEN_MOUSE_DOWN trigger
BEGIN
:PARAMETER.TRACK := 'Y';
SET_ITEM_PROPERTY ('YOUR_BLOCK.YOUR_BOX', VISIBLE,
PROPERTY_TRUE);
SET_ITEM_PROPERTY ('YOUR_BLOCK.YOUR_BOX', POSITION,
:SYSTEM.MOUSE_X_POS , :SYSTEM.MOUSE_Y_POS);
SET_ITEM_PROPERTY ('YOUR_BLOCK.YOUR_BOX', WIDTH, 1);
SET_ITEM_PROPERTY ('YOUR_BLOCK.YOUR_BOX', HEIGHT, 1);
:PARAMETER.START_Y := :SYSTEM.MOUSE_Y_POS;
:PARAMETER.START_X := :SYSTEM.MOUSE_X_POS;
SET_APPLICATION_PROPERTY (CURSOR_STYLE , 'CROSSHAIR');
END;
WHEN_MOUSE_MOVE Trigger
DECLARE
v_width number(3);
v_height number(3);
BEGIN
IF :PARAMETER.TRACK = 'Y' THEN
v_height := :SYSTEM.MOUSE_Y_POS - :PARAMETER.START_Y ;
v_width := :SYSTEM.MOUSE_X_POS - :PARAMETER.START_X;
SET_ITEM_PROPERTY ('YOUR_BLOCK.YOUR_BOX', HEIGHT,
v_height);
SET_ITEM_PROPERTY ('YOUR_BLOCK.YOUR_BOX', WIDTH,
v_width);
END IF;
END;
WHEN_MOUSE_UP Trigger
BEGIN
:PARAMETER.TRACK := 'N';
SET_ITEM_PROPERTY ('DEMO1_DETAIL.BOX', VISIBLE,
PROPERTY_FALSE);
:PARAMETER.STOP_Y := :SYSTEM.MOUSE_Y_POS;
:PARAMETER.STOP_X := :SYSTEM.MOUSE_X_POS;
SET_APPLICATION_PROPERTY (CURSOR_STYLE , 'DEFAULT');
END;
This solution gives you a box on screen with crosshair cursor
that you can resize and have access to the start and end
coordinates but it may not give you the display you want as far
as being transparent. It would be easy enough to enable this or
disable it based on pressing a button.
Good Luck!
Julian (guest) wrote:
: Hi
: I am trying to build this piece of functionality in Developer
6.
: It's been done in PowerBuilder before and we are converting
the
: application to Developer.
: 1. User clicks on a button on the screen.
: 2. The cursor changes into a cross
: 3. User can now draw a rectangle anywhere on the screen (with
: the
: 'cross cursor' - click, drag the mouse to draw the rectangle
(you
: should see the rectangle lines as the mouse is moved, un-click.
: 4. Once, the rectagle is drawn, I would like to keep the X,Y
: coordinates of the rectangle - top left corner (X,Y) and
bottom
: right corner (X,Y)
: Thanks
: Julian.
null