How to: Set Up Colored Indicators on Cues by Using the Style and StyleExpr Property
You can configure a cue with a colored indicator that appears along its top border to provide a visual indication to users about the value of data in the cue. You can configure the indicator to behave in the following ways.
The indicator has a static color.
In this case, the indicator appears with a specified color at all times. For more information, see Configuring Static Color Indication on a Cue.
The indicator changes color conditionally, based on the data in the cue.
This is the most typical behavior. When the data in the cue hits a specified value, the indicator changes color. There are 4 colors to choose from, which enables you to configure different colors for different data intervals. For more information, see Configuring Conditional Color Indication on a Cue.
You set up the indicator by using the StyleExpr Property and Style Property for the field that defines the cue and, in most cases, by adding AL code to the page object.
The following table describes the values of the Style property and the corresponding indicator color. You will need to know these values for whichever behavior that you implement.
| Value | Color |
|---|---|
| Standard | None (uses the background color of cue) |
| Favorable | Green |
| Unfavorable | Red |
| Ambiguous | Yellow |
| Subordinate | Grey |
Configuring Static Color Indication on a Cue
Use the following procedure to configure a colored indicator on the cue that appears at all times.
To configure a static color on a cue
Open the page in Page Designer.
Select the field that you want to format, and on the View menu, choose Properties.
Set the Style property value to one of the formats that are described in the preceding table.
Set the StyleExpr property value to true.
Configuring Conditional Color Indication on a Cue
To configure the indicator to change color conditionally based on the data in the cue field, you use a combination of AL code and the StyleExpr property and/or Style property. In the AL code of the page which contains the cue, you add code that evaluates the cue field's data and sets a variable based on the evaluation. A typical place to add the code is on OnAfterGetRecord Trigger. The variable can have a data type of Boolean, Codeunit, or Text. You will use the variable on the StyleExpr property of the cue field to determine which color to apply to the indicator. The data type that you use for the variable will depend on what you want to achieve, and it will also influence the configuration. The following table describes the differences when using a Boolean data type compared to a Text or Codeunit data type.
| Variable Data Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Boolean | If you use a Boolean variable, you can only configure one color condition for the cue. When the StyleExpr property set to a variable that has a Boolean data type, and the variable is true, then indicator uses the color that is specified by Style property value. |
| Text or Codeunit | If you use a Text or Codeunit variable, you can configure up to four different color conditions for the indicator. When the StyleExpr property is set to a variable of the Text or Codeunit data type, the Style property is not used. Instead, the variable must be explicitly set in AL code to one of the following values that specify the color: Favorable, Unfavorable, Ambiguous, and Subordinate. These values correspond to the values of the Style property. |
To configure color indication by using a Boolean variable
Add AL code that evaluates the cue field data and sets a Boolean variable to true when the data meets the conditions for which you want to apply the indicator.
For example, page 9060 SO Processor Activities in the CRONUS International Ltd. demonstration database contains the cue field "Sales Quotes - Open". You want the indicator to turn red when the number of open sales quotes exceeds 10. To do this, you can add a variable called ColorVar that has the data type Boolean, and then add the following code to the OnAfterGetRecord trigger.
IF ("Sales Quotes - Open" > 10) THEN ColorVar := TRUE;Set the cue field's StyleExpr property to the variable.
For the example in the step 1, you set the property to ColorVar.
Set the Style property on the cue field to the value that corresponds to the color indication that you want.
For the example, you set the value Unfavorable to configure the color to red.
To configure color indication by using a Text or Codeunit variable
Add AL code that evaluates the cue field data and sets a Text or Codeunit variable to one of the following values for each condition that you want color indication: Favorable, Unfavorable, Ambiguous, and Subordinate. For the corresponding colors for these values, see the table in the introduction of this topic
For example, page 9060 SO Processor Activities in the CRONUS International Ltd. demonstration database contains the cue field "Sales Quotes - Open". You want the indicator to have the following color conditions:
Green when the number of open sales quotes is 10 or less
Yellow when open sales quotes is greater than 10
Red when open sales quotes is greater than 20
To do this, you can add a variable called ColorVar that has the data type Text or Codeunit, and then add the following code to the OnAfterGetRecord trigger.
IF ("Sales Quotes - Open" <= 10) THEN ColorVar := 'Favorable' ELSE IF("Sales Quotes - Open" > 20) THEN ColorVar := 'Unfavorable' ELSE ("Sales Quotes - Open") ColorVar := 'Ambiguous';Set the cue field's StyleExpr property to the variable.
For the example in the step 1, you set the property to ColorVar.