Orphan Field Removal and Jump Conversion Utility (P4FLDTS)

The Forms Designer does not allow orphan fields or jumps to orphan fields in a function specification because orphan fields do not belong to any group level object. A function with orphan fields cannot be painted.

All jumps, including backward jumps, to orphan fields are converted to forward '999' jumps. A backward jump is any jump to an orphan field declared before the current LS. If you are uncertain whether a function has backward jumps, you should manually edit the function and remove these jumps, otherwise GEN error 535 will occur.

The P4FLDTS utility function performs the conversion by:

Examining a function and converting its absolute field jumps to their relative equivalent
Converting orphan field jumps to a standard ‘999’ forward jumps and finally
Deleting the orphan fields.

The P4FLDTS utility is invoked in two scenarios:

Implicitly using a function retrieval request by the Forms Designer
Explicitly using a batch request.

Implicit Conversion Using Forms Designer Request

When you request a function that has not been converted during a Forms Designer session, host services attempts to convert it. If orphan field jumps are detected during the conversion process, an error dialog box displays informing you to fix the function by executing the explicit, batch conversion utility.

Explicit Conversion Using Batch Request

If a jump to an orphan field is detected during the conversion, one of the three following actions may be chosen:

Fix - Replaces jumps to orphan field with jumps to 999
Ignore - Leaves jumps to orphan fields in specification
Cancel - Leaves entire function specification in original state

If you choose the Ignore option, the function can be painted, but it will not generate until you manually fix the orphan field jumps. If you choose Cancel, you must also manually fix the function before you can use the Forms Designer.

Marquee Select of objects within a box is not support in this version of Forms Designer.

Comment on this topic

Topic ID: 530030