A status message is a string of text that appears in the status area of a window and describes the function of the field-level object that has input focus.

Note:

The status area is an optional feature of an OpenEdge application window. It displays one line of message text at the bottom of the window. Its appearance is controlled by the STATUS-AREA attribute. Thus, if the STATUS-AREA is disabled on a window, no help message appears. While a dialog box does not have a status area, help strings defined for fields on a dialog box are displayed in the status area of its parent window.

Also, when you use the HELP attribute to display help text for a widget, ABL (Advanced Business Language) overwrites any status text (defined with the STATUS statement) with the HELP text.

Status messages are a good way to provide cursory information about a database field or a field-level object in your application.

OpenEdge provides the ability to associate status messages with database fields and those field-level objects that can receive input focus. These messages are easy to implement and produce a preliminary level of help for your application. When the user tabs through certain field-level objects (fill-in fields, buttons, combo boxes, selection lists, editors, toggle boxes, radio sets, and sliders) that are enabled for input on an application interface, OpenEdge displays help text in the status area of the current window, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 1. Status bar message for a field-level object


There are three methods for creating help text in the status area:

  • Defining help text for database fields in the schema definition via the Data Dictionary
  • Creating help text for field-level widgets with ABL statements and the HELP attribute
  • Creating help text for field-level widgets in the Advanced Properties dialog box in the AppBuilder

The sections that follow discuss these methods for creating help text.