In a similar way as the dynamic information line, the status bar makes an event-driven application more user-friendly.

The programmer has two options to relate a dialog element to a status bar:

• use the dialog editor (most likely because it is the easiest way); and

• use Natural code to specify everything dynamically.

When you use the dialog editor, you will have to set the attribute HAS-STATUS-BAR to TRUE for the dialog by marking the Status Bar entry in the Dialog Attributes window. The HAS-STATUS-BAR attribute determines whether the status bar may be modified. If HAS-STATUS-BAR is false, but HAS-DIL is true, the status bar appears, but is only used as dynamic information line.

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

... 
PERSDATA-DIALOG.HAS-STATUS-BAR := TRUE  /* Set HAS-STATUS-BAR To TRUE 
PERSADTA-DIALOG.STATUS-TEXT := 'HELLO'  /* Set the text to 'Hello' 
...