Helplevel 4

Post by **Susan Smith** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:15 pm

Hi Gordon,

Can you explain a bit more to me about HELPLEVEL 4?

This is what is in the 4.2e release notes on the FTP site:
"Helplevel 4 supports tooltips, but suppresses field help windows."

If I just want to use tooltips in a few places, yet I still have regular field help windows in other places, how would I enable Helplevel 4 in this situation? And I assume that this means that when you hover over the field that the tooltip appears without any further keystroke? Can I have a column in a listview designated with Helplevel 4? I have one long comment field that will not entirely be visible in the space I have for its listview column. I'd like the user to be able to SEE that there is a comment available by displaying the beginning of it, and then if they hover over that the entire comment will be visible. Is that what HELPLEVEL 4 can do?

One other thing. In the past, we have used the term USERLEVEL to designate the help levels. Has this changed to HELPLEVEL now?

Thanks.

-- Susan

Post by **gordon** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:58 pm

The term USERLEVEL refers to the level assigned to each user.

HELPLEVEL refers to the level number appearing at the beginning of each fieldhelp string which BR compares to USERLEVEL to determine whether or not to display that particular help message. A field help window is displayed when the HELPLEVEL is equal to or less than the USERLEVEL

Therefore a USERLEVEL of 2 would see field help windows with a HELPLEVEL of 2 or 1.

This would exclude any field help windows from appearing if the HELPLEVEL were set to 4, which is exactly what is desired here.

Tooltips appear when hovering over a field irrespective of USERLEVEL.

Post by **Susan Smith** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:23 pm

Oh! So in other words, HELPLEVEL isn't a command or config option. It's just an another option for the existing field help string (or rather a REPLACEMENT for the 1,2 or 3 that is already there)? All I have to do is change that number to a 4 in any fieldhelp string where I want a tooltip to appear INSTEAD of a field help window. And I can mix and match them (between 1,2,3 & 4) just as I always have. Do I have that right?

So one of my existing field help strings:
10010 DATA "XXXX1B; N=NEW \n R=Replacement \n C=Cancel \n O=Ongoing ;"
would become:
10010 DATA "XXXX4B; N=NEW \n R=Replacement \n C=Cancel \n O=Ongoing ;"

Lastly, about listviews and tooltips:
Is there a way to have a tooltip appear when you hover over a cell that is only partially visible because the column width is too narrow?

-- Susan

Post by **gordon** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:37 pm

Oh! So in other words, HELPLEVEL isn't a command or config option. It's just an another option for the existing field help string (or rather a REPLACEMENT for the 1,2 or 3 that is already there)?

No it not a replacement for anything. It IS the 1, 2 or 3 at the beginning of each help string. It's just that previously a HELPLEVEL of 4 was not valid. Now it is.

All I have to do is change that number to a 4 in any fieldhelp string where I want a tooltip to appear INSTEAD of a field help window. And I can mix and match them (between 1,2,3 & 4) just as I always have. Do I have that right?

Close. Tooltips are not displayed in place of field help. They appear based on hovering independently from field help windows. They do, however use the same text.

Your examples are correct.

Is there a way to have a tooltip appear when you hover over a cell that is only partially visible because the column width is too narrow?

Yes. Put the cell content in the help string.

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:21 am

gordon wrote:
Is there a way to have a tooltip appear when you hover over a cell that is only partially visible because the column width is too narrow?
Yes. Put the cell content in the help string.

Can you specify individual field help for each cell in a listview?

Larry TIetz · Post by **Larry TIetz** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:35 am

Just Testing

gtisdale · Post by **gtisdale** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 8:16 am

My understanding is that the practical aspect of this has to do with the relationship between USERLEVEL and HELPLEVEL.

If the USERLEVEL is above the HELPLEVEL, that is, USERLEVEL=2 and HELPLEVEL=3, then the old HELP TEXT would NOT display. If USERLEVEL was equal to or below the HELPLEVEL then the HELP Text would display.

In GUI mode the tool tip would ALWAYS display in mouseover.

By adding a HELPLEVEL 4 and only allowing a USERLEVEL from 1 to 3 it allows you to designate that the old style help never displays,(USERLEVEL can never be equal to or greater than HELPLEVEL) only the tool tip.

However, if the user does the CTRL-Y (or its equivalent remapped key combination) then the old HELP TEXT will appear.

FNGeorge

Post by **gordon** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 9:52 am

No you can't. I was thinking of a field and not a cell.

Sorry about that. And thanks Gabriel for pointing that out.

So there is no way that I know of to have hover expand a cell like there is a field.

What an excellent idea for 4.3 development!

Post by **Susan Smith** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 3:39 pm

George,

In response to your post, I believe that you are entirely correct. I've been testing the "HELPLEVEL 4" feature today, and your explanation DOES describe the behavior that I have witnessed.

In my case, since I am using BR 4.2 and prefer to have tooltips and NEVER see the field help windows, I will take advantage of this new feature and change my Helplevel constant (for lack of a better description) in the field help text string to "4".

Thank you for the clarification.

-- Susan