Programming Guide - Actian

Chapter 4: Programming FramesThis section contains the following topics:How You Can Invoke Frames (see page 95)How You Can Use Ghost Frames (see page 111)How You Can Run Non-interactive Applications (see page 111)This chapter describes how to program frames. A frame is a window thatconsists of a form, with or without a menu, used to display and input data.How You Can Invoke FramesThe callframe, openframe, and gotoframe statements invoke frames andprovide options for executing additional frames. They differ in how they handlecontrol and communication between frames and how they pass and returnvalues.However, there are also many similarities among these commands. Oneexample is the process by which the calling frame can place the called frameinto a particular state, presenting the user with continuity between frames.This section presents the differences and similarities in the usage of thesethree statements.FrameExec ObjectEach time you open a frame with the openframe, callframe, or gotoframestatement, OpenROAD creates a FrameExec object for the frame. FrameExec isthe OpenROAD system class that contains information about the runninginstance of a frame, such as the parent frame, the list of fields that arecurrently selected, and the starting menu for the frame. The FrameExec objectalso provides methods for manipulating the frame, such as the SendUserEventmethod for communicating with other frames and the methods for openingpredefined pop-up frames. For a complete list of the FrameExec attributes andmethods, see the Language Reference Guide online help.There is one FrameExec object for each running instance of the frame. If youopen the same frame more than once, OpenROAD creates a separateFrameExec object for each instance of the frame.Programming Frames 95