LV 2013 SP1, Win7
For years OS X, and lately Windows, has had the idea of "Placeholder" text for string-entry fields (controls).
The idea is that if the field is blank, then it shows some help text ("enter your name here") in gray italics in the field.
It's gray to indicate that it's not the real text in that field.
As soon as you tab into or click into that field, the placeholder disappears, and the text you type is normal black.
If you leave the field (tab/click elsewhere), if the field is blank, the placeholder comes back; if not, the text you typed remains.
I have a situation where this is the perfect solution, but there is no built-in LV facility for doing it (Is it too late to sneak it into LV2014? 😉
The pseudo-code for what I want to do is this:
When writing control:
If new value == blank
Set control value to placeholder text
Set control font to gray/italics
else
Set control value to new value
Set control font to black/normal
end
When focus arrives:
If control font == gray
Set control value to blank
Set control font to black/normal
end
When focus leaves:
if control value == blank
Set control value to placeholder text
Set control font to gray/italics
else
Set control font to black/normal
end
When reading control:
if control font == gray
report blank
else
report control value
end
--- That seems easy enough, except I see no way for LV to trigger the focus arriving / leaving.
The EVENT structure has no such events.
I don't see an INVOKE NODE that would help.
I don't see a PROPERTY that would help.
I suppose I could detect a MOUSE DOWN .OR. KEY DOWN and use that as the FOCUS ARRIVES trigger.
That's a slight change in the behavior, but I could live with it.
But I don't see a way to detect the focus leaving.
Any ideas?
