Returning fields with more than 255 characters in a Web Browse

[JPMacDonald]

I am trying to build a browse screen for a catalog type table that has a number of fields that are 500 characters and at least one that is 1500 characters.

I was using a combination of Last On Line and Spans Multiple Columns to get the catalog data to appear as I wanted it to look in the browse. When browsing through the table and when I hit a record that had a large amount of data in it I noticed that only the first 255 characters were being displayed and that the navigation was affected as well such that I had to hit the Next button a couple of time to get past this record. Same on the Previous button.

So I guess the first question is, can more than 255 characters per field be displayed in a browse screen and if it can how do I make that happen?

Regards

Parker

[Mike Grigsby]

Parker, first, I am a version behind, using NTWS5 still (soon to upgrade), second, I am not a template authority by any means.

But one idea that popped in my head when I read your post is to use the HotImage example. As you scroll through a list of data, more details can be added in the HotImage area of the browse (see the NTWS example). I've taken this route a few times, and it is really very easy to format all kinds of data using this technique, including data with longer strings, combinations of data, formatting, etc.

[Bruce]

>> So I guess the first question is, can more than 255 characters per field be displayed in a browse screen

yes.

<< and if it can how do I make that happen?

set the picture for the field to ''
(ie two single quotes).

The reason it's being chopped at 255 chars is because there's a pic there telling it to do that.

cheers
Bruce

[JPMacDonald]

Mike, thanks for the idea of the Hotimage example, I think I can make use of that as well.

Bruce, I had tried a pic larger than @s255 but it had not occurred to me to try a blank pic, thank you that works just fine.

I wonder if I can get your thoughts on this issue. In the data I was browsing I set the browse to display 3 records at time. At different points traversing the file the navigation buttons would hiccup such that I would have to press the Next button one or more times to get the next page and it was obvious that it had skipped a few records. To make a long story shorter, the data in the table was copied and pasted from a PDF file and all occurrences of single and double quotes got buggered. Single quotes, hex(27) became hex(92) double quotes, hex(22) became hex(93) and hex(94). I fixed up the data and now the browse navigation behaves as expected.

I was wondering if you had an explanation as to why the navigation process gets fouled up by these characters being in one or more of the returned fields?

Regards

Parker

[Bruce]

Hi Parker,

the behaviour you experienced is consistent with the data not being xHtml complaint. If you have "allow xHtml" ticked on for a column, then you are responsible to make sure the data is indeed xHtml complaint. That mostly has to do with encoding <, >, &, " and ' characters.

Failure to do this results absolutely in the behavior you are reporting.

cheers
Bruce