Field widths

[arturox]

On my Phone Db the field display for every field is quite narrow, no problem for most fields, but a couple of fields need to be wider to be of any viewing use.
Open DB select DB Properties - Fields - Field nn scroll down to "Pixels Shown" set to larger number.
"Max Characters" set that for average required.
"Save changes"
"Yes"
No Change...

I've played with pixels, even up to 999 and various character amounts, but no change in the visual display of the field.

Either, what am I doing wrong?
Or
What is wrong with the application?

*Particular field used for x'periments is the phone number field, so here in the UK requires at least 12 numeric characters.*

Thanks
Ax

[arturox]

Okay folks, I have it sussed.
I was adjusting the fields of the actual DB which is a waste of time, dunno why it's there as it does nothing.

Continuing the investigation revealed I had to play with "Views" and Edit the"Default View" fields.
To get my needed min of 12 numerics for the phone field, required a setting of 100.

Gordon Bennett... 100 what for *'s sake!?

I do wish coders would get their brain out in the real world, where we use things like Alpha Numeric Characters.
01234 567ABC

TBH. In this context, have no interest in how many pixels a display is, all I want is the 11 characters and one space displayed.

Dave

[arturox]

Apologies for being a bit brittle yesterday... Increased Medication dosage was getting on top of me.

Anyhow, I would like to know the unknowable.
What is the relationship between a field width of 100 (What evers) being required to display 12 Alpha Numerics?

Thank
Ax

[dhaupert]

Hi there,

No worries- I have to agree that the pixels shown is not intuitive any more. Back when it was a Palm device and the resolution was fixed at 160 pixels wide, the setting made sense, but nowadays it's more confusing with all of the various screen sizes and densities.

To answer your question the pixels is a number of the individual dots on the screen. Depending on the font and it's size, that can mean any number of characters. Since modern fonts don't have a fixed width (eg, the letter 'w' is wider than the letter 'i'), you can't really come up with a number of characters per pixel unless using a fixed font like the courier font, and at a set size.

Otherwise, it is just typically a trial and error to get it right- on some platforms we offer a visual resize, but s60 is not one of them at this time. Sorry!

[arturox]

Thanks for the rough guide... I do understand.

Ax

FWIW. I was out and about today, and made a lot of use of HanDBase with my book collection DB on the E63.
It worked very well.
Cheers
Ax