INPUT programming steps

Follow this procedure to use the INPUT dialog instruction.

To implement the INPUT statement:

  1. Create a form specification file, with an optional screen record.
    The screen record identifies the presentation elements to be used by the runtime system to display the records. If you omit the declaration of the screen record in the form file, the runtime system will use the default screen records created by the form compiler for each table listed in the TABLES section and for the FORMONLY pseudo-table.
  2. Make sure that the program controls interruption handling with DEFER INTERRUPT, to manage the validation/cancellation of the interactive dialog.
  3. Define a program RECORD with the DEFINE instruction.
    The members of the program record must correspond to the elements of the screen record, by number and data types.
  4. Open and display the form, using OPEN WINDOW WITH FORM or the OPEN FORM / DISPLAY FORM instructions.
  5. If needed, fill the program record with data, for example, with a result set cursor.
  6. Set the int_flag variable to FALSE.
  7. Implement the INPUT dialog block to handle data input. Set the WITHOUT DEFAULTS option appropriately.
  8. Inside the INPUT statement, control the behavior of the instruction with BEFORE INPUT, BEFORE FIELD, AFTER FIELD, AFTER INPUT and ON ACTION blocks.
  9. After the interaction statement block, test the int_flag predefined variable to check if the dialog was canceled (int_flag=TRUE) or validated (int_flag=FALSE).
    If the int_flag variable is TRUE, you should reset it to FALSE so as not to disturb code that relies on this variable to detect interruption events from the GUI front-end or TUI console.