MDTOFF

Category
Screen Building
Additional information
MDTOFF is only partially supported. It is supported for the case where it is used to set a changed data tag off so that the CHANGE keyword response indicator will not be triggered. For example, imagine a record RECORD1 is written to the screen. The user then changes a field in RECORD1, so the changed data tag for that field is set on. When RECORD1 is read, if there is a CHANGE keyword specified on the record, the CHANGE response indicator will be turned on. After that, if another record RECORD2 with MDTOFF specified is written, the changed data tag for the field on RECORD1 will be cleared and when RECORD1 is read a second time, the CHANGE response indicator for the record will no longer be turned on.

However, MDTOFF is not currently supported to affect on-screen behaviour such as validity checking. For example, say a record RECORDA has a field FIELDA with both VALUES and DSPATR(MDT) specified. Before RECORDA is written to the screen, FIELDA is given a value that is not specified in its values keyword. Then RECORDA is written to the screen and the user must change the value of FIELDA to a value specified in its VALUES keyword or validity checking will fail if the user presses "Enter" or a command function key. However, if a record RECORDB with MDTOFF is written to the screen, it will clear the changed data tag set on FIELDA and the validity checking will be bypassed if the user presses "Enter" or a command function key. In WebFacing, we do not currently support these type of on-screen behaviour consequences of MDTOFF.


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