Send_Message function (deprecated in OI 10)
Exec_Method function
Description
Requests a specific action from a form or control.
The Send_Message function has been deprecated in OpenInsight 10, however it still works as it ever has. It has been replaced by a new function named Exec_Method which exposes the same interface as Send_Message, and it also supports more than four parameters. It is a drop-in replacement when you need to use it.
This was done for several reasons:
* When talking about object-based systems the usual jargon includes references to properties, methods and events. However with OpenInsight we have always used the term "messages" when referring to an object's methods because of the Send_Message function. We thought it was about time to use more standard terminology, like we do with the Basic+ OleExecMethod function for example.
* Send_Message is very close to the name of the core Windows API SendMessage function and sometimes it is just too confusing trying to explain which one you actually mean when you are discussing how to manipulate an object.
Syntax
response = Send_Message(controlID, message, param1, param2, param3, param4)
Parameters
controlID is the fully qualified name of the form or control.
Choose a message from the following list.
| Action | Message |
|---|---|
| Text | The text to display in the status line or System Monitor. |
| Number of characters in an edit table column. | COLCHARS |
| Label of the specified edit table column. | COLLABEL |
| Set the background color, foreground color, selected background color, and/or selected foreground color, for a specified cell in an edit table. | COLOR_BY_POS |
| Styles, of edit table columns. | COLSTYLE |
| Widths of edit table columns. | COLWIDTH |
| Copies the current selection from an edit control or combo box to the clipboard. | COPY |
| Deletes (cuts) the current selection from an edit control or combo box and copies the deleted text to the clipboard. | CUT |
| Deletes a row in a Combo box, edit table, and list box. | DELETE |
| Deletes an item from a visible or non-visible part of a (hierarchical) list. | DELETE_EX |
| Delete an edit table column. | DELETECOL |
| Expands or collapses hierarchical list box. | EXPAND |
| Used to search for text within an edit box control. | FINDTEXT |
| Font for text of specified item. | FONT_BY_POS |
| Used to retrieve selected text’s character format within an edit box control. | GETCHARFORMAT |
| Insert new row or rows into list box, edit table, etc. | INSERT |
| Insert new item or items into a visible or non-visible part of a (hierarchical) list. | INSERT_EX |
| Inserts column into an edit table. | INSERTCOL |
| Arranges MDI child windows in cascaded format. | MDICASCADE |
| Arranges minimized MDI child windows. | MDIICONARRANGE |
| Arranges MDI child windows in tiled format. | MDITILE |
| Moves rows within an edit table control. | MOVE_ROW |
| Inserts data from the clipboard at the current cursor position. | PASTE |
| Determines the cell, within an edit table, that the mouse cursor is over. | POS_BY_CURSOR |
| Position of a list item. | POS_BY_TEXT |
| Enable or disable events for specified control. | QUALIFY_EVENT |
| Used to ensure that controls are placed properly into the Z order when created. | RESETZORDER |
| Set or retrieve the height of all rows in an edit table control. | ROWHEIGHT |
| Scroll a window. | SCROLL |
| Position of a non-visible list item in a hierarchical list. | SELPOS_EX_BY_POS |
| Used to set selected text’s character format within an edit box control. | SETCHARFORMAT |
| Text of a list item. | TEXT_BY_POS |
| Undoes the previous operation. | UNDO |
| Updates the image of an item in a list box with bitmaps. | UPDATE |