Radio Button
The Radio Button () form object represents a group of radio buttons (option buttons) that provide a fixed number of options, from which you can choose one. It is typically useful when you have just a few options (with many options, consider using a list box or combo box instead). Enter the name of the radio button object in the Name field.
From the Orientation list, choose Vertical (the default) or Horizontal to have the radio buttons lined up vertically or horizontally.
The Settings window contains the following sections.
Source
In this section, you select the data source for the radio button. The section contains a tree with a filtered view of the trees in the Application Builder and Model Builder windows. The nodes either represent some sort of data or have children that do. For radio buttons, you can select from variables in the model and variables under Declarations in the Application Builder, including Unit Set nodes. You can extend the list of available data nodes by clicking the Switch to Model Builder and Activate Data Access button () in the Source section header, which takes you to the Model Builder, and then selecting a node in the Model Builder branch whose data you want to access. With this button active, the Settings window of the selected node displays a Select Data Source check box (a green square) next to the settings that you can include. Click to select the check box to include the data as an available source node for radio buttons.
When you select a node that represents data, the Use as Source toolbar button () below the tree becomes enabled. You can click it or, alternatively, press Enter, double-click, or right-click the node and choose Use as Source to add it as the selected source. You can also click the Create New Declaration and Use It as Source button () or the Create New Form Declaration and Use It as Source button () in the Source section header to create a new global or local (in the form) variable declaration for the radio button and use it as the source. A Create and Use Declaration dialog box opens so that you can select the data type of the source (if applicable), its name, and its initial value (if applicable). The name cannot be in conflict with any existing variable declaration. Click the Edit Node toolbar button () below the tree to move to the corresponding node. If necessary, the program switches to the Model Builder.
After selecting a node as the source, it will appear as the selected source under Selected source.
If you try to use the same data source in several form objects, you may encounter some strange side effects. The initial value for the source may not be what you expect. You may also experience serious errors if the initial value of one form object is invalid for one of the other form objects.
In the Initial value list, choose a method to define an initial value for the combo box. The options are First allowed value; From data source (the default, to use the value specified by the selected data source); and Custom value. For the Custom value option, a Value list shows the allowed values currently present for the form object and depends on the selected available choice lists and their values. If the data source is a setting from the embedded model that has a list of allowed values, those values are also included in the Value list. If a selected initial value becomes invalid because it has been removed from the choice list, for instance, it is kept as an initial value with the text Invalid initial value followed by the value.
Choice List
In the Selected list, add Choice List nodes that contribute allowed values to the radio buttons, where each valid value represents one radio button. If the selected data source is a list with a set of allowed values, only a subset of those values may appear as a radio button. All other values in the selected choice lists are ignored. Available Choice List nodes appear under Available. Click the Add Selected button to add the selected Choice List node to the list under Selected. Click the Remove Selected button to remove a selected Choice List node from the list under Selected. You can also double-click a Choice List node to move it from Available to Selected and the other way around. Click the Add New Choice List () or Add New Form Choice List () button in the Choice List section’s toolbar to open a Choice List or Form Choice List window where you can define a new choice list under the global Declarations node or a local Declarations node under the Form node, respectively. Add the allowed values in the Value column and their corresponding names in the Display name column. Click OK to add the new choice list as a Choice List node () under the Declarations node in the Application Builder tree and directly under Selected.
If you select a property that has a list of allowed values as the data source in the Source section, that property becomes a node initially placed in the Selected list. You can move it to the Available list, thereby clearing the list of allowed values. You can move it back again or add a custom choice list with values that also belong to the list of values for the property. If the property list and a Choice List node are both in the Selected list, they will be merged. Identical values pick the description from the first item in the list under Selected. In this way, you can rename one of the items in the property list. If you decide to switch the source to another property in the embedded model that also has a list of allowed values, the previous property list node is removed from both the Available and Selected lists, and the new node is added to the Selected list.
Position And Size
This section contains all layout settings for a radio button in the grid of the parent form.
You can control the horizontal and vertical alignment of the radio buttons using the following lists:
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From the Horizontal alignment list, choose Left, Center, or Right.
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From the Vertical alignment list, choose Middle, Top, or Bottom.
In the grid mode, you can also choose Fill, which automatically expands the form object to fill the cell in the horizontal or vertical direction (where applicable).
The need to specify the alignment is most obvious when working in the grid mode, as it controls how the form object is aligned in its grid cell. Aligning the form object is useful in the sketch mode too. When running the application in any client other than the Windows client, the form objects may not be positioned exactly as seen in the form windows. This is because the form objects may have a different size in other clients, giving them a slightly different positioning. Specifying the alignment ensures that the form objects are aligned as you want them to be in all clients.
The Width and Height fields are unavailable because the dimensions of the radio buttons are determined by the software.
Additionally, in the sketch mode, you can specify the absolute position of the radio button using the Position x and Position y fields. In the grid mode, you can position the object in the grid and see the grid position as the Row, Column, Row span, and Column span values.
The form windows update these size and positioning settings through the draw operations performed there, such as resizing and moving the object.
Cell Margin
Under Cell margin (in grid mode only), you can control the margins around the form object. By default, the margins are taken from the parent form. From the Cell margin list, choose:
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None, for no margin around the form object
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From parent form (the default), to use the margins set for the parent form
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Custom, to specify the margins for the form object in the Horizontal and Vertical text fields
Appearance
In this section, you can control the appearance of the background and the text in the radio button.
From the Text color list, select Inherit (the default) to inherit the text color from the setting in the Form node, or select one of the predefined colors, such as Black. Select Custom to choose a custom text color from the color palette.
From the Background color list, select a color to use as the background in the radio button: Transparent (the default), any of the predefined basic colors, or Custom, which makes it possible to select a custom color from a color palette.
The font and the font size for the text in the array input fields use the font settings from the Forms node by default. Select a font from the Font list: Default font or any of the available fonts. If needed, choose or enter a font size (in points) in the Font size combo box. The default is to use the Default size for the font.
You can also select the Bold check box to use a boldface font, the Italic check box to use italics (an italic font), and the Underline check box to use underlined text.
Under State, you can control the initial state of the radio button when users run the application. By default, the radio button is visible and enabled. Clear the Visible or Enabled check box if you want to make the initial state so that the radio button is hidden or unavailable. You can then make it visible or enable it using a method. In the Form Editor, the state of the form object is indicated by a change in its appearance. Objects that are hidden become visible when selected in the Form Editor.
Events
You can specify a method or command sequence to run when data in the radio button changes. The On data change list contains None (the default) and any available methods or command sequence. You can add the following types of events by choosing from the Create Global Method menu () to the right of the On data change list:
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Choose Create Global Method () to create a global method. Type the name of the global method in the Name field of the Create Global Method dialog box that opens and then click OK. The global method is then added under Methods, and its Method Editor window opens.
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Choose Create Form Method () to create a form method. Type the name of the form method in the Name field of the Create Form Method dialog box that opens and then click OK. The form method is then added under the Methods node under the Form node, and its Method Editor window opens.
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Choose Create Local Method () to create a local method. Its Method Editor window opens.
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Choose Create Command Sequence () to create a command sequence using the Create Command Sequence dialog box that opens. There you can choose commands from the available Forms, GUI Commands, Declarations, Form Declarations, Methods, Form Methods, Libraries, and Model folders. To add a command, right-click the desired command node and choose the command to use (Run, for example). The command then appears in the list of commands below. You can edit that command sequence using the toolbar buttons for moving and deleting commands below the table. Click the Convert to Method button () and choose Convert to Method or Convert to Form Method to convert the command sequence to a method. Click the Go to Method button () below the table to select the method in the Application Builder tree and open the method in a Method Editor window. For commands that include arguments, click the Edit Argument button () to choose an argument in the Edit Argument dialog box that opens.
There can only be one local method and one command sequence so if you add one or both of them, the menu will instead contain Remove Local Method () and Remove Command Sequence (), respectively. Click one of them to delete the local method or command sequence.
The selected method in the On data change list then changes to the created method or command sequence. You can also Ctrl+Alt-click the radio button object or right-click it to create a local method or (by choosing Edit Method or Edit Local Method) to open the method associated with the command. To open the selected method or command sequence, click the Go to Source button (). The focus then moves to the method’s editor window or the Command Sequence dialog box, respectively.
For events triggered by data change, the event is triggered after the new data value is stored in the data source.
If you select more than one form object and they all support the On data change event, you can specify a method to, for example, make them inform users that plots and outputs are invalid.