After creating a new frame, you can use the Property Inspector to set its properties. These settings affect how the frame looks and behaves and also impacts how fields look and behave when placed on the frame.

Frame properties include things such as the frame's title, return value, associated icon, and whether the frame is resizable. The following procedure describes the basic steps to set frame properties. The sections following describe the properties that you can set for a frame—the more complex properties are then discussed in greater detail.

Sometimes you need to set complex combinations of properties in the frame you are editing. The SetupName property enables you to do this.

The following properties are common to the Frame Editor and the Frame Template Editor, which is discussed in Alternative Methods for Creating Frames. For more information on property prefixes, see Property Setting Prefixes.

If you set this value to TRUE, when the frame is run, it starts up maximized.

A frame’s DataType attribute, or property, is the data type of its return value. You can set a return value in the Property Inspector.

OpenROAD provides the following frame modes for you to customize for your application:

You can customize the biases for these frame modes to define six different frame behavior modes. For more information about each of these modes, see the Programming Guide.

When the application sets the frame to a specific mode, OpenROAD automatically sets the initial biases for each field and menu item associated with the frame to the ones specified for that mode. A field's bias determines whether the field is visible and how the user can interact with it.

This is important in a multipurpose application that uses a single frame for more than one task. For example, some users may update customer or sales information in a financial application, while others may be allowed only to examine customer and sales data. In such cases, you can use frame modes to change the bias for several or all fields simultaneously.

Whenever you create a frame, Workbench uses the Update mode as the default mode.

For more information about the frame modes, the CurMode attribute of the FrameExec class used to change the frame mode at runtime, or using frame modes and field biases in your 4GL code, see the Programming Guide.

The WindowPlacement property determines where a frame appears on the screen when it is called.

The available placement options are described as follows:

Default: WP_PARENTCENTERED

For each frame you create, you can specify the background pattern—solid, cross-hatch, horizontal lines, bitmap, and so on—and the background color for the entire form.

You can set the background pattern for a user frame using the BgPattern property.

You can modify the background color of a user frame using the BgColor property.

You can apply a background graphic to a frame using the BgBitmap and BgPattern properties.

You can choose a color for a frame that, when used, is transparent.

Depending on your window system and monitor, you can select from four different palettes when you set the colors for a form or a field:

Every OpenROAD frame and frame template has a style sheet. A style sheet defines the appearance of each type of field that can appear on any frame using that template. A style sheet lets you specify certain style attributes for each type of field that you can create for that frame or frame template. These style attributes include visual characteristics such as background color, font, outline width, and bias settings for the field.

A style sheet contains at least one style, or model, for each type of field, and may contain up to eight styles for a field type. The first model of each field, Field Style 1, is used as a default field style. When you create a field on a form, it assumes the visual characteristics of its field style.

When you create a frame, you must specify a frame template on which the frame is based. A frame based on a frame template initially obtains its style sheet from the template. Like frame templates discussed in this chapter, style sheets enable you to develop consistent frame styles and behaviors in your application.

You can use the Style Editor to create a field style or modify a style sheet. The Style Editor is accessible from the Frame Editor or the Frame Template Editor.

For example, you could specify that every button on My_Main_Frame be pale gray, with red text in 8-point bold System font. This example will be used in the following procedure.

If you need more than one style for a field type, you can create additional field styles on the style sheet. You can then base fields of the same type on different styles without having to modify the fields individually.

Each OpenROAD frame or frame template is associated with its own style sheet. However, you can share style sheets between frames in two ways:

For instructions, see the appropriate procedure, following.

For more information about creating frame templates, see Create Your Own Frame Templates.

In the Style Editor, you can save the current style sheet to a file.

You can delete field styles in the Style Editor.