[MacPerl] modification of dialogs

["Colbatzky,Dr,Florian ANAS THODE" <Florian.Colbatzky@bc.boehringer-ingelheim.com>]

Over the weekend, I programmed a workaround with respect to the problems I
have with dialogs (cf. my recent questions at the end of this mail).

But I would still like to know:

What is the correct syntax for the command MacDialogItems::add_item?

Is there a way to change the title of an existing dialog window and the
title of buttons within an existing dialog window?

Hoping for a little help, as I am not a Perl or Mac-Toolbox hacker. with
many thanks,

Florian

----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Dr. F. Colbatzky          Dept. of Non-clinical Drug Safety        -
- Tel. +49 (7351) 547237    Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma KG, Biberach -
- Fax  +49 (7351) 542183    D-88397 Biberach/Riss                    -

As an exercise to become familar with MacPerl again after a pause of about 2
years, I started a sort of poor man's database based on text files. Now I
would like to offer a search dialog presenting the user a couple of text
fields which allow him to specify which entries he is interested in and
which he may like to modify. When the user clicks OK, the script evaluates
the entries in each field (they may also be empty) and looks for matching
entries in a hash of hashes containing the data. It stores them in a
temporary HoH. And now my problem:

The search dialog is created as usal with MacDialog->new as usual. If there
are matching entries, I would like to 

- change the title of the dialog window, 
- change the text of the OK-Button, 
- add 4 Buttons in case more than one entry is found (a first, previous,
next and last button), let the user look at and modify the matching entries
and finally discard or save the changes.

I haven't found a command for the first problem and apparently used the
wrong command (SetDialogItemText ($dlg->window(), 2, 'Change');) for the
second problem (flickering of the button was the only result I got). 

With respect to the third problem, I tried 
    $first = [kButtonDialogItem(), Rect->new(10, 325, 50, 345), '|<-'];
    $dlg->MacDialogItems::add_item($first);
    $dlg->item_hit (19 => \&First);
(for the other buttons as well). Syntax checks gave ok. When running the
script, I got a "reference not an ARRAY" message. I tried a few varieties,
based on my guesses what arguments the routine add_item might expect. I must
confess that I am very much lost when I try to understand what the routines
in e.g. Dialogs.pm mean and do and what the correct syntax may be, although
I have obtained "MacPerl: Power and ease" and quite a few code examples.

Maybe I should take another approach and destroy the search dialog building
a completely new one. Or is there an even better way to present the user
with a couple of matching entries?


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