Unlike the text object, a text input object is designed for text to be inputted within the screen itself by a user.
Think of any online form you’ve ever filled out — any field expecting text is a text input object.
Accessing value of a Text Input object
The Text Input object will hold whatever value it is set to. This value can be altered by using the Update Controls on Screen action.
When an action requires you to 'Assign a value', you can use the value set in the text input object.
Example:
The below image shows an Assign Value to Action Result action. It will assign the value stored in the text input object called "TextInput".
Text Input Object Properties
When you select the text input object, you will be able to set its settings, display format, validation rules, style, and events.
Settings
Caption: The caption is text normally displayed to prompt the user what to input. Also used to uniquely identify the object within actions.
☑ Hide Caption: If you’re just labeling the control for your own information but don’t want the text to show in the live screen, check this box.
Load State: The initial state when the screen loads.
Default Value: The default value in the text input box.
Input Lines: How tall the input box should be, expressed in lines.
Placeholder: This is to give sample input text (e.g. “your name here”).
Keyboard Type: This specifies what the text box expects and formats input accordingly. Types include:
text: Allow all input.
password: Displays only stars.
email: Not used for input text, only displaying.
url: Not used for input text, only displaying.
number: Only numbers can be inputted.
tel: Not used for input text, only displaying.
search: Not used for input text, only displaying.
Width: How wide should your control be in relation to its container. For more information, check out Styling Basics.
Style
A Text Input object can be a normal word, or a number, or a date. Using Format as, you can set how the text is displayed. It will give an error if the user does not enter the proper input, however. For example, if it is to be formatted as a short date, then an a date will be expected.
None: No format
Number: Display as a number. If chosen, you can also select decimal rounding and thousands separator.
Short Date: If a date and time, display date as "MMM-DD-YYYY".
Short Date and Time: If a date and time display short date with time.
Long Date: If a date and time, display date with "Day, Month DD, YYYY"
Long Date and Time: If a date and time, display long date with time.
Time: If a date and time, format to display time.
Hour: If a time, show just the hour of the time.
Day of Week: If a date, show only the day of the week.
Month: If a date, show only the month.
Month and Year: If a date, show only month and year.
Year: If a date, show only year.
Validation Rules
Input objects can have validation rules. Find more information in our article on Field Validation.
Style
Background color: Set the background color of this control from the preset Method palette.
Text size/color: Change the color and size of your text.
Caption color/size/text alignment: Choose the color, size, and alignment of the text in your caption.
Border size/color/style: Change the size, color and style of text input's border.
Actions / Events
Change: Event triggers when text changes in the object.
Focus: Event triggers when object gains focus (e.g. user tabs to or clicks in text box).
Lose Focus: Event triggers when object loses focus (eg. user tabs to or clicks another control).