Sybernet / Supplied Procedures Reference Release 3.00 Mar 03, 2005

HTTP.SP_HTML_INPUT

SP_HTML_INPUT creates an input field. All of the input fields that you are familar with may be created with this procedure. You can also create a TEXTAREA and SELECT list with this procedure.

It is not required that you use this procedure to create your form screens, but there are several reasons why you may want to. SP_HTML_INPUT supports pre-defined datatypes (such as int, smallint, and tinyint) which are validated on the client before these fields are submitted to your procedure. Input values are mapped so that they appear correctly on your screen. Have you ever wondered how to specify a value containing double quotes? SP_HTML_INPUT will do this for you automatically. The value passed to SELECT and TEXTAREA can be a select statement which is evaluated in real-time.

Perhaps the most compelling reason, however, is that SP_HTML_INPUT will make your input fields look and behave the same among NS4, NS7, and MSIE. NS4 correctly renders text fields with a monospace font-family. NS7 doesn't. NS7 does when when you create this field with SP_HTML_INPUT. MSIE buttons are absolutely pathetic, but look less so when created by SP_HTML_INPUT.

SP_HTML_INPUT will also raise an exception if you attempt to create an input field that it does not know about. HTML ignores invalid types and gives you a text field instead. If you misspell onFocus in an HTML form, HTML will ignore it. If you misspell onFocus when you call SP_HTML_INPUT, Oracle will complain.

All of the parameters are optional just like in regular HTML. All parameters are varchars unless otherwise indicated.

Syntax

procedure sp_html_input
(
    @TYPE           varchar(30)     = NULL      -- Input type.
,   @NAME           varchar(92)     = NULL      -- Name of item.        
,   @VALUE          varchar(255)    = NULL      -- Value of item.
,   @ALERT          varchar(255)    = NULL      -- JavaScript onClick (alert).
,   @CONFIRM        varchar(255)    = NULL      -- JavaScript onClick (confirm).
,   @onBlur         varchar(255)    = NULL      -- JavaScript onBlur event handler.
,   @onClick        varchar(255)    = NULL      -- JavaScript onClick event handler.
,   @onChange       varchar(255)    = NULL      -- JavaScript onChange event handler.
,   @onFocus        varchar(255)    = NULL      -- JavaScript onFocus event handler.
,   @onSelect       varchar(255)    = NULL      -- JavaScript onSelect event handler.
,   @SIZE           varchar(4)      = NULL      -- Size of field.
,   @MAXLENGTH      varchar(3)      = NULL      -- MaxLength of field.
,   @CHECKED        varchar(255)    = NULL      -- CHECKED if @CHECKED = @VALUE
,   @minValue       varchar(128)    = NULL      -- Minimum value allowed.
,   @maxValue       varchar(128)    = NULL      -- Maximum value allowed.
,   @ROWS           varchar(6)      = NULL      -- ROWS (textarea).
,   @COLS           varchar(6)      = NULL      -- COLS (textarea).
,   @WRAP           varchar(9)      = NULL      -- WRAP (textarea).
,   @DELIMETER      char(1)         = ","       -- Delimeter character.
,   @STYLE          varchar(3)      = "107"     -- DATETIME style.
,   @ALIGN          varchar(5)      = NULL      -- Input field is right-aligned?
,   @SCALE          varchar(4)      = NULL      -- Scale.
,   @COMMA          varchar(5)      = NULL      -- Commas are inserted?
,   @DEBUG          varchar(5)      = "FALSE"   -- You looking at me?
,   @PROCNAME       varchar(92)     = NULL      -- syscomments.
,   @BUTTON         varchar(30)     = NULL      -- name in syscomments to search for.
,   @DISABLED       varchar(6)      = "FALSE"   -- TRUE / FALSE
,   @READONLY       varchar(6)      = "FALSE"   -- TRUE / FALSE
,   @tabindex       varchar(4)      = NULL      -- TabIndex
,   @NULLVALUE      varchar(30)     = NULL      -- Force NULL option
,   @PROLOGUE       varchar(255)    = NULL
,   @EPILOGUE       varchar(255)    = NULL
,   @MULTIPLE       varchar(6)      = "FALSE"   -- TRUE / FALSE
,   @SORTED         varchar(6)      = "TRUE"    -- TRUE / FALSE

,   @alt            varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {CDATA}
,   @accessKey      char(1)         = NULL      -- {CHARACTER}
,   @accept         varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {CONTENTTYPES}
    --
    -- coreattrs
    --
,   @id             varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {ID}
,   @class          varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {CDATA}
,   @decoration     varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {STYLESHEET}
,   @title          varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {TEXT}
    --
    -- il8n
    --
,   @lang           varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {LANGUAGECODE}
,   @dir            varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {ltr|rtl}
    --
    -- events
    --
,   @onDblClick     varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {SCRIPT}
,   @onMouseDown    varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {SCRIPT}
,   @onMouseUp      varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {SCRIPT}
,   @onMouseOver    varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {SCRIPT}
,   @onMouseMove    varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {SCRIPT}
,   @onMouseOut     varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {SCRIPT}
,   @onKeyPress     varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {SCRIPT}
,   @onKeyDown      varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {SCRIPT}
,   @onKeyUp        varchar(255)    = NULL      -- {SCRIPT}
)

Parameters

type

name

value

alert

confirm

onblur

onclick

onchange

onfocus

onselect

tagsize

maxlength

checked

minvalue

maxvalue

rows

cols

wrap

delimeter

style

align

scale

comma

debug

procname

button

Types

The following types are recognized by SP_HTML_INPUT. These types include the standard HTML input types as well as predefined types that correspond to similarly named datatypes in Sybase and Oracle.

The predefined types can include a default tag size, maxlength, value, minValue, maxValue, and scaling. You have the ability to override any or all of these defaults. A BIT type, for example, may be specified with a maxValue of 3.

text

button

checkbox

radio

reset

submit

password

file

hidden

select

    VALUE = 'Red,Green,Blue'

    VALUE = '1=Red,2=Green,3=Blue'

    VALUE = ',Red,Green,Blue'

    VALUE = 'SELECT NAME FROM HTTP.COLORS'

    VALUE = 'SELECT VALUE, NAME FROM HTTP.COLORS'

    VALUE = 'SELECT VALUE, NAME FROM HTTP.COLORS ORDER BY VALUE'

textarea

    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input
    (
        @TYPE      = 'TEXTAREA'
    ,   @VALUE     = 'Please fill this in'
    ,   @ROWS      = '20'
    ,   @COLS      = '60'
    )   ;

    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input
    (
        @TYPE      = 'TEXTAREA'
    ,   @VALUE     = 'SELECT DESCRIPTION FROM HTTP.HTTP_HELPTEXT WHERE ROW_ID = ''Welcome'''
    ,   @ROWS      = '20'
    ,   @COLS      = '60'
    ,   @MAXLENGTH = '32767'
    )   ;

alpha

bit

char

date

datetime

decimal

int

money

number

numeric

phone

smalldatetime

smallint

smallmoney

ssn

telephone

time

tinyint

varvhar

varchar2

Defaults

The following table summarizes the default tag sizes and the min and max values. When calling SP_HTML_INPUT, you have the ability to override any of these values.

Styles

DATE, DATETIME, and SMALLDATETIME are essentially the same data type. The table above illustrates each for style 107. The remaining styles are defined here.

Maintenance

You may be asking yourself if you can create your own primitive datatypes. The answer is yes because all of these types are stored in the table called HTTP.HTTP_DATATYPES. Here is an example that defines a new type called COLOR. It creates a drop-down list of all colors from the table HTTP.HTTP_COLORS.

Don't be misled into thinking that you must add your own types to use this procedure. On the contrary, unless you expect the above type (COLOR) to be used in several places, I would advise that you do not create such a type.

Example

The first example is a simple input field. There are two things to note about this example: the procedure will automtically quote the ADDRESS value for you, and this value will not be concatenated to any other string because that might result in truncation.

 
   exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

       @TYPE     = 'text'
   ,   @NAME     = 'address'
   ,   @VALUE    = ADDRESS
   ,   @SIZE     = '30'

Example

Here are two radio buttons. sp_html_input will automatically determine if the button is checked based on the parameter name (PIZZA). This is actually very convenient because to do this yourself you would have to test whether or not PIZZA was equal to each button value.

 
    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

        @TYPE      = 'radio'
    ,   @NAME      = 'PIZZA'
    ,   @VALUE     = 'Cheese'
    ,   @CHECKED   = @PIZZA

    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

        @TYPE      = 'radio'
    ,   @NAME      = 'PIZZA'
    ,   @VALUE     = 'Pepperoni'
    ,   @CHECKED   = @PIZZA

Example

The next example illustrates how you can use Sybase datatypes when calling sp_html_input.

 
    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

        @TYPE      = 'SMALLINT'
    ,   @NAME      = 'Balance'

Example

Because they were not specified, the Sybernet SDK will automatically set both SIZE and MAXLENGTH to 6. It will also validate that the value in this field is a whole number between -32,768 and 32,767. Here's another example that overrides these defaults:

 
    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

        @TYPE      = 'INT'
    ,   @NAME      = 'Account'
    ,   @SIZE      = '30'
    ,   MAXLENGTH = '30'
    ,   @minValue  = '200000'
    ,   @maxValue  = '299999'

Example

The next example specifies the Sybase datetype DATETIME and validates that the date entered is at least November 25, 1996.

 
    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

        @TYPE      = 'DATETIME'
    ,   @NAME      = 'Birthday'
    ,   @minValue  = 'Nov 25, 1996'

Example

A standard submit button which displays a confirmation before submitting the form. The button is named because the procedure that receives this form wants to know which button the user clicked.

 
    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

        @TYPE       = 'submit'
    ,   @NAME       = 'button'
    ,   @VALUE      = 'Save'
    ,   @CONFIRM    = 'Are you sure you want to save this form?'

Example

Similar to the example above except an alert is displayed and the form is not submitted. Normally, this would be preceded by some condition that tests whether or not the user is allowed to click this button.

 
    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

        @TYPE       = 'submit'
    ,   @NAME       = 'button'
    ,   @VALUE      = 'Drop'
    ,   @ALERT      = 'You are not permitted to drop this form!'

Example

This is just a simple button that behaves exactly like the BACK button on your browser's tool bar. Notice that it uses the onClick event handler and supplies the entire JavaScript code in the onClick parameter.

 
    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

        @TYPE        = 'button'
    ,   @VALUE       = 'Back'
    ,   @onClick     = 'window.history.back()'

Example

Version 2.22 of the Sybernet SDK introduced 3 new parameters that allow you to control how numeric data is displayed and edited by the user. They are ALIGN, SCALE and COMMA.

ALIGN may be either TRUE, FALSE or NULL. When TRUE, numeric data is right-aligned.

SCALE is a positive integer that determines the number of decimal digits that are displayed and edited. If zero, no decimal digits are displayed.

COMMAS may be either TRUE, FALSE or NULL. When TRUE, commas are inserted at the expected location.

 
    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

        @TYPE       = 'NUMERIC'
    ,   @VALUE      = '1,234.5678'
    ,   @ALIGN      = 'TRUE'
    ,   @SCALE      = '2'
    ,   @COMMAS     = 'TRUE'

Example

The following example illutrates how to create a drop-down list. The value part is simply a list of names separated by commas. The list is sorted automatically:

    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

        @TYPE          = 'SELECT'
    ,   @NAME          = 'FOOD'
    ,   @VALUE         = 'Apples,Oranges,Pears,Turnips,Grapefruit,Watermelon,Pizza,Chicken'

Example

The same example except that I want to specify both the value and text values. To do this I simply pass these as pairs separated by an equal sign. The list is sorted by the text value in this case:

    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

        @TYPE          = 'SELECT'
    ,   @NAME          = 'FOOD'
    ,   @VALUE         = '1=Apples,2=Oranges,3=Pears,4=Turnips,5=Grapefruit,6=Watermelon,7=Pizza,8=Chicken'

Example

The following example illustrates how to create a list dynamically using a table:

    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

        @TYPE          = 'SELECT'
    ,   @NAME          = 'PLATFORM'
    ,   @VALUE         = 'SELECT PLATFORM FROM CRON_PLATFORMS'

Example

The following example illustrates how to select both value and text from a table. Because an order by clause was specified, the list is not sorted:

    exec http.dbo.sp_html_input

        @TYPE          = 'SELECT'
    ,   @NAME          = 'DATENAMES'
    ,   @VALUE         = 'select selectedIndex, datename from cron_datenames order by selectedIndex'

See Also