Book Contents

How the numeric input cursor point works at run time

Activate

Once the numeric input cursor point object has been selected, that is, has input focus, the user can activate the object by:

  • pressing the Enter key on a keypad or keyboard, or an Enter Key object on the display.
  • pressing the Backspace key on a keypad or keyboard, or a Backspace Key object on the display.
  • pressing a numeric key, a minus sign (-), or a decimal point (.). This will invoke the pop-up and display the number, minus sign or decimal point in the pop-up's scratchpad, with whatever decimal point setting is specified in the Numeric tab.

When the operator activates the numeric input cursor point, the numeric pop-up keypad or scratchpad opens. The operator types a numeric value in the pop-up and presses Enter. The value appears in the cursor point and is sent to the Value connection at the data source.

If a write expression is assigned, the application evaluates the expression and sends the expression value to the Value connection.

Ramp

If the cursor point has input focus, you can press a Move Up Key button object or a cursor up key on an external keyboard or keypad to increase the Value connection by the ramp value, or press a Move Down Key button object or a cursor down key to decrease the Value connection by the ramp value.

If the Optional Expression is assigned (on the Connections tab), the numeric input cursor point will not support ramping.

The ramping behavior at run time also depends on whether you set up auto repeat. Move Up/Down keys have their own auto-repeat properties. Auto-repeat for cursor keys is controlled through the Keyboard settings in the Control Panel on the run-time PanelView Plus 7, PanelView Plus 6, PanelView Plus, or PanelView Plus CE terminal.

Tip:

The cursor point object does not need to have input focus to call a pop-up. It does have to have input focus to perform the ramping function. Check the Key Navigation box (General tab) if you want the operator to be able to navigate to the cursor point with the keyboard and give it input focus.

Display Value

The numeric input cursor point shows the value of the Indicator connection at the data source. The application clears the display before showing a new value. If the Indicator connection is unassigned, the object displays the last value written out.

What is shown

When an operator opens a display at run time, the application reads the values of all assigned controls and updates the display based on these values.

  • If the Value and Indicator controls are unassigned, the numeric input cursor point's display is filled with asterisks (*).
  • If the integer portion of the value, including the decimal point or minus sign, contains more digits than specified for the Number of digits option (in the Numeric tab), the display is filled with asterisks (*).
  • If the numeric input cursor point is sized so that the value cannot be fully shown (and the value including decimal point and minus sign, is within the configured number of digits for the object), any parts of the value that cannot be shown are truncated and the last displayable digit is replaced with an asterisk.
  • If the value does not fit on the first line of the display, and there is room for a second line, the value continues onto the second line.
  • If the Fill left with option is None, and the displayed value is a floating point value between 0 and 1, a leading 0 is placed in front of the decimal point.
  • If the number of places after the decimal point in the returned value is greater than the Decimal places value, the shown value will be rounded off.

See also

Create numeric input cursor points

Configure the numeric input cursor point (General tab)

Set up numeric options for the numeric input cursor point (Numeric tab)

Set up handshaking for the numeric input cursor point (Timing tab)

Set up controls for the numeric input cursor point (Connections tab)

Causes of run-time errors for the numeric input cursor point