The program presents a console form and can respond immediately to a user event, as when the user presses the Tab key to move an on-screen cursor to the next field. Validation is on a field-by-field basis, and you can restrict the cursor to the current field until the user has typed valid data there.
Console UI is available only in EGL programs generated for Java. Console UI might be useful for programs that are not migrated from I4GL if you require a non-web interface.
EGL provides a set of parts specifically for Console UI; see Console UI parts. Various formatting aspects of the display are controlled by properties specific to these parts; for more information, see the related reference links.
One common method of displaying columns of information in a Console UI window involves using an ArrayDictionary part. For more information, see Using an array dictionary in Console UI.
The EGL Language Reference covers only the language aspects of Console UI. For a more detailed overview, including information about using Console UI in the workbench, refer to the EGL Programmer's Guide.
You can bind Console UI fields to variables at the time you declare the field (see ConsoleField) or you can bind them with the openUI statement when the program begins its interaction with the user (see openUI).
You can also use Console UI in line mode, where your code reads or writes only one line at a time. This mode is appropriate for batch processing; for example, you might create a UNIX cron job that performs administrative work that cannot be run in interactive mode, and that simply sends unformatted output to stdout without using a form.
| Platform | Issue |
|---|---|
| COBOL generation | EGL does not support Console UI for COBOL generation. |