The RichTextBox control

Designer Properties

A Rich Textbox control is generally used for displaying, entering and manipulating text with formatting. The RichTextBox control does everything a textbox control does, but it can also display fonts, colors, links, margins, load text and images from a file. Although it adds more complexity when compared to a regular textbox, it provides much needed features.

The RichTextBox control can be used with any Sharepoint text field, but it order to unlock all its features you have to bind it to a textbox defined with multiple lines of text. It automatically recognizes the type of text allowed with the rich textbox field and enables or disables the features available for use, as shown below:

Multiple line of Text columns with Plain Text mode selected, the RichTextBox control renders as a simple TextBox with no additional options to format text.

For Enhanced rich text columns, the control displays all the available toolbar options.

Type : RichTextBox

Name

Provides a unique name for the control.

Binding

Indicates if the control is

Unbound
Bound to list column
Is a label for a control bound to list column

Enabled for new records

Sets if the control will be enabled or disabled when the forms handles a new record

Enabled for existing records

Sets if the control will be enabled or disabled when the forms handles an existing record

Required

Marks the cotnrol as Required.

By default, the system recognizes required fields and marks them with this flag. Additionaly, controls can be marked as required event if the bound column is not.

Enabled Formula

Set an expression then will be evaluated during run-time and enable or disable the control.

The expression must be in javascript and should return a boolean value.

Dependencies between controls are automatically identified and the expression is re-calculated every time a control affecting the formula changes.

Example :

Code

form.GetControl("c_Status").GetValue() != "Open" && form.UserInGroup("Administrators")

Visibility Formula

Define a valid formula (using javascript) that will be evaluated during runtime to show or hide the control.

The expression should return a boolean value.

For example :

Code

form.FieldValue("c_Status") != "Rejected" || form.UserID() == "1"

Value

This property defines how the control will get its value.

Here are the available options :

The value is Static (this is the default for label controls)
The value will be provided by the user (Not applicable for labels)
The value will be calculated by a formula
The value will be retrieved from a list query
The value will be provided by a web service call
The value will be provided by a SQL query

Static value

A static text must be set in the appropriate designer control.

Formula

A javascript expression must be set that will provide the value for the control.

If the formula contains references to other controls, dependencies will be automatically identifies during run-time and the value will be updated to reflect changes.

Example :

Code

form.FieldValue("c_Active") ? "Yes" : "No"

There is an additional option that instructs the form to perform calculations only for new records. Existing records will keep their original value.

List Query

A predefined list query is bound to the value of the control. So during form initialization, the specified list query is executed and if it returns any item, it selects the first one and it will apply the value to the label based on the following rule :

If a Field Name has been selected in the corresponding box, that specific column will be used from the list item to fill the control value.

If the Field Name is left blank, the first column retrieved will be used.

Web Service

The same as above, the required web service is selected and after the web service retrieves data, the first item will be used to update the control value. If no Field Name is set, the control will receive the first field of the retrieved item.

SQL Query

Works the same way ListQueries and Web Service works.

Default Value

The default value has any effect only of the control is bound to a list column.

For unbound controls, the default value is ignored.

You may set a static value here or use a formula by starting your input with the "equals" (=) sign.

Example :

Code

="User : " + form.UserFullName()

Layout Properties

Width

Defines the width of the control.

When the value is zero, the maximum allowed width will be used.

Height

Defines the control height.

If the value is zero, the height property will not be set.

H.Alignment

Defines the horizontal alignment of the parent cell (values : left, right, center)

V.Alignment

Defines the vertical alignment of the parent cell (values : top, bottom, center)

Fore Color

Not Applicable for the RichTextBox control.

Back Color

Not Applicable for the RichTextBox control.

Cell Color

Defines the color of the parent cell.

Margin

Sets the margin applied to the control, that is, the spacing between the control and the cell borders.

Font Style

Not Applicable for the RichTextBox control.

Lookup Details

Not Applicable for this control

Extra Configuration

AutoHideToolbar

When this property is set to true, the Editor's toolbar is hidden by default and is auto-displayed when the control receives focus.

FontNames

Font names separated by semilocon (;) to be used in the font dropdown list of the rich textbox editor. If empty, the default font list is used.

AutoSizeViewMode

When this property is set to true, in ViewMode, the control's height is adjusted according to its value.

Script

Sets the script that will be executed at the value-change event of the control.

Example :

Code

var value = form.GetControl("c_Title").GetValue();

if (value == "Open") form.HideSection("Details");

else form.ShowSection("Details");

The RichTextBox control

The RichTextBox control