Data input in screens on Thin Clients

To get data input from the user in screens viewed on Thin Clients, you can choose to display a Virtual Keyboard (VK) dialog box that is similar to the On-Screen Keyboard app in Windows.

You can enable the Virtual Keyboard separately for each type of Thin Client:

• For Secure Viewer — which includes the local Viewer that runs as part of the project runtime — configure your project's Viewer settings.

• For Web Thin Client, configure your project's Web settings.

Keep in mind that when you enable the Virtual Keyboard for each type of Thin Client, it will be displayed on all client stations that use the same type of Thin Client to access your project, regardless of whether those stations actually have touchscreens instead of physical keyboards. Consider how this might affect the usability of your project, especially if there will be a mix of client stations.

Keyboard types and options

When you enable the Virtual Keyboard, you can also select a default keyboard type and some additional options. The following tables shows the possible combinations of keyboard types and options:

Keypad

This standard keypad is used to enter numeric values only.

Keypad with the Enable Min/Max fields option selected

This standard keypad is used to enter numeric values only. The minimum and maximum values allowed for the associated tag — as set in the tag properties — are displayed at the bottom of the keypad.

EnhKeypad

This enhanced keypad is used to enter alphanumeric characters on devices that have small displays. The -> button in the bottom-right corner lets the user proceed through sets of keys until they find the specific character they want.

AlphaNumeric

This full keyboard is used to enter alphanumeric characters.

Note: The screen shot above has been scaled to fit this documentation. The actual size of the AlphaNumeric keyboard is comparable to the other keyboards described in this topic.

AlphaNumeric with the Enable multi-line text input option selected

This full keyboard accepts multi-line text with line breaks (CR+LF). When Caps Lock is enabled, the OK/Accept key in the bottom-right corner of the keyboard becomes a Return key instead.

Note: The screen shot above has been scaled to fit this documentation. The actual size of the AlphaNumeric keyboard is comparable to the other keyboards described in this topic.

Once you have enabled the Virtual Keyboard and selected a default keyboard type, it will be used for all data input in your project unless you override it for a specific screen object or function call. For a screen object, you can select another keyboard type in that object's properties. For a function call, you can use the optional function parameters to determine how the . For more information, see the documentation for each screen object and function.

Change the size, position, or language of the Virtual Keyboard

By default, the Virtual Keyboard is displayed near the screen object that invoked it, but you can edit the following properties in your project file (<project name>.app) in order to force the keyboard to be displayed in a fixed size and/or position:

[Keypad]

VKType=<0–3> // 0 (Default) = The Virtual Keyboard will work in default mode

// 1 (Auto Size) = The Virtual Keyboard will automatically resize according to the screen size

// 2 (Manual Size/Position) = The entries below will be used

//Properties for AlphaNumeric

AlphaNumeric-PosX= // The TOP coordinate (in pixels) where the Virtual Keyboard must be displayed

AlphaNumeric-PosY= // The LEFT coordinate (in pixels) where the Virtual Keyboard must be displayed

AlphaNumeric-Width= // Virtual Keyboard width (in pixels)

AlphaNumeric-Height= // Virtual Keyboard height (in pixels)

//Properties for EnhKeypad

EnKeyPad-PosX=

EnKeyPad-PosY=

EnKeyPad-Width=

EnKeyPad-Height=

//Properties for Keypad with Min/Max fields enabled

KeyPadMinMax-PosX=

KeyPadMinMax-PosY=

KeyPadMinMax-Width=

KeyPadMinMax-Height=

//Properties for Keypad with Min/Max fields not enabled

KeyPad-PosX=

KeyPad-PosY=

KeyPad-Width=

KeyPad-Height=

To change the language of the Virtual Keyboard during project run time, use the SetKeyboardLanguage function.