udf bubblehelp

[MoGrace]

Re: udf bubblehelp

Many might know about the description line and that the first 'as' is case sensitive - but it's been a well kept secret from me until now! When my functions won't give a lookup in the IW, I try a standard function like form.view() and then mine will work. (Actually in v11 it sometimes works, in v10 it never worked...)

Edit:
I have been checking my UDF's to see if this new info will make any difference or not. I happen to have a
function Ira wrote and he used caps for the first 'AS' (which is the default if you create the function from the
code editor toolbar.) And his bubble help works fine. Could it be the AS is only necessary if you want to get a lookup list for the function's variable (layoutname, eg)?

[Lance Gurd]

Re: udf bubblehelp

Thanks for the pointers Garry, and Selwyn

[Garry Flanigan]

Re: udf bubblehelp

I followed this up with Selwyn and can share our findings.

The following does not lead to Code Editor auto-complete working:

FUNCTION _MMA AS N (FundMemberNum AS N, StartDate AS D, EndDate AS D, cn AS sql::Connection )
'Description:Returns amount for a specified account (FundMemberNum)
etc, etc

whereas

FUNCTION _MMA [COLOR="#FF0000"]as[/COLOR] N (FundMemberNum AS N, StartDate AS D, EndDate AS D, cn[COLOR="#FF0000"] AS p[/COLOR] )
'Description:Returns amount for a specified account (FundMemberNum)
etc, etc

does make auto-complete work.
When the UDF does get listed by auto-complete in the Code Editor, as many will know, if the line immediately under the FUNCTION declaration line starts with 'Description: as shown above then bubblehelp will also be available for the function.

Selwyn advised that:
- ' as ' is case sensitive, but only when defining the return type, in the parameters it does not matter
- it also looks like complex types in the function prototype are not currently supported but Alpha will look into it

I also find sometimes that I need to close and re-open Alpha for some fuctions to appear, but I can live with that.

I hope this helps some others.

[Garry Flanigan]

I have searched but cannot find anything in the wiki about udf bubblehelp.
For example, if I create the following udf:

FUNCTION test_udf AS C (x as n )
'Description:This is a test description	
	test_udf = "blah"
END FUNCTION

and now go to the interactive window and type "te" (no inverted comma's) I get bubblehelp indicating the type and name of parameter to pass and get the description appearing below the cursor (the "This is a test description" bit).

But this does not work for all functions I create.

For example:

FUNCTION udfwithverylongname AS C (x AS C, y AS N )
'Description:This is a test udf with very long name 
	udfwithverylongname = "blah"
END FUNCTION

never gets bubblehelp.

So, what are the secrets to making this work every time?