Text Box Control Options

Text box options control the width of the displayed text box.

Text box columns

Specifies the number of characters that can be displayed in the text box control (its HTML “size” attribute).  This setting governs only the display width of the field, not the number of bytes that the underlying database field can accommodate.  Text box columns pertain primarily to string-based field validation types.

The number of characters displayed can be set globally via the “Text box columns” setting in the Global Display Properties dialog for the field.  In this case, leave “Text box columns” setting blank in the field’s Properties dialog.

The maximum number of characters which can be entered into the text box control is governed by the “Text box columns” setting on the Global Display Properties dialog (in HTML terms, its “maxlength” attribute).

Text mode

Specifies whether a single line, password-enabled or multi-line .NET control is generated.

Password text mode

Iron Speed Designer automatically (1) sets the control’s Text Mode property to Password and (2) sets the field validation type to Password if Iron Speed Designer detects that the underlying database field type is of ‘password’ or has ‘password’ in the field name.  Note that the .NET control’s Text Mode property and the Iron Speed Designer field validation type are two separate properties that can be controlled independently in Iron Speed Designer.

When the Password text mode is enabled for the underlying .NET control, the text box will be blank even though there may be underlying data in the database.  Also, the control’s value cannot be pre-set.  (These are .NET text box control behaviors.)  If the application user does not enter a value into the text box, the data remains unchanged in the database when the record is saved.  If the application user enters a value into the text box, the new value is stored in the database when the record is saved, overwriting the previous value, if any.  (These are behaviors of the generated application.)

A problem can occur on Edit Record and Edit Table pages if your password field is required, as can arise if your underlying database field requires a value (i.e., is ‘not NULL’).  The ‘missing value’ error will be displayed if your user saves the record leaving the password field empty (unchanged), i.e., a new value is not entered into the blank password control).  To avoid this, set the displayed field control to ‘not required’ via the Properties dialog so the validation error message is not displayed if your application user leaves the password value unchanged.

To display the actual contents of a password field in the text box, such as on an Edit Record page, set the Text Mode to Single Line.  (Note: asterisks may be displayed if the field validation type is also set to Password.)