Dynamic Regular Expression

vinsnash

MS Access allows an input mask that is dynamic i.e. as the user keys in the data the data is automatically formatted according to the expression.

!(999")"000-0000;0;_

With the above expression as the user types the phone number digits the parens and hyphen are automatically added in the correct place. The number is formatted as (999)999-9999 automatically for the user.

Will this work for Aware input masks?

Vins Nash

aware_support

I can't see why not...

vinsnash

Well nothing is that simple is it?

Following the User Guide on input masks the instructions are to edit the UIConfig.props file. The guide also states that a new entry must begin with "TextInputMask". However the 1st thing you see is the entry for the "US Phone" is "TextInputMask1". Does that mean additional entries must be "Mask2", "Mask3" and so on?

I copied a new entry from MS Access as

TextInputMask2=Alt Phone#/!(999")"000-0000;0;_/

After restarting the configuration tool "Alt Phone" appeared in the input mask selection drop down. However using it causes an error message

"XML returned from server does not have the root element"

Evidently there are elements in the expression I copied from MS Access that Aware does not recognize or maybe the "Mask2" throws it off. In MS Access the parenthesis and hyphen of the phone number are added as the user types the digits. The number may be wrong but you can't enter a bad format. The Aware "US Phone" mask indicates an error when the user fails to enter the parenthesis and the hyphen.

If Aware could produce a mask that does that it would really help streamlining input.

The link suggested in the User Guide doesn't appear to address the use of the double escape "//" or "?" and I can't find those in the the appendix either. I confess when it comes to stuff like this all I can do is copy examples that seem to work.

Thanks

Vins Nash