Working with a Dynamic Information Line

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# Working with a Dynamic Information Line

Event-driven applications are much more user-friendly when text in the dynamic information line (DIL) explains the dialog element that currently has the focus. A dialog element has the focus if it can receive the end user's keyboard input.

You have two options to relate a dialog element to a DIL text:

- Use the dialog editor (most likely because it is the easiest way); or

- use Natural code to specify everything dynamically.

#### When you use the dialog editor, you will have to go through the following steps:

1. Set the attribute `HAS-DIL` to `TRUE` for the dialog by marking the Dyn. Info Line entry in the Dialog Attributes window.

2. Set the attribute `DIL-TEXT` to "diltextstring" for the dialog element. Choose the Source... button to the right of the DIL Text: entry in the attributes window. The window Specify attribute Source appears. Choose one of the attribute sources and enter the text in the Value field. Ensure that "diltextstring" explains the dialog element's usage in a short phrase.

When you use Natural code, the above two steps may look like this:

    ...
    PERSDATA-DIALOG.HAS-DIL := TRUE  /* Set HAS-DIL To TRUE
    #PB-1.DIL-TEXT := 'DILTEXTSTRING'   /* Assign the text string
    ...

Note
The `STATUS-TEXT` and the `DIL-TEXT` are displayed in the same area if the dialog has a status line and a text is displayed on the DIL.