Button bar — version history

u_pbt_buttonbar · Introduced in 3.0

A row of command buttons — icon, label or both — in a single component; a click returns the button's key. Introduced in 3.0, where it replaces the deprecated button component.

4.0 — October 2026 #

New #

• of_focus_button(as_key) puts the keyboard focus on one button — "No" rather than "Yes" before a destructive question; -5 on an unknown key, -4 when the button is disabled, hidden or not drawn.
• An icon-only button is named to a screen reader by its tooltip, otherwise by its key.
• [symbol=name] tag in rich text: eighteen monochrome glyphs that follow the text colour (clock, location, person, calendar, phone, mail, warning…); an unknown name stays as text.

Fixed #

• Enter triggers the button that has the keyboard focus, as in Windows; the default button (is_default) fires when no button of the bar has the focus, and the focused button wears the default look meanwhile (is_default read back is unchanged).
• A default or cancel button that is disabled or hidden, and the is_shortcut letter of a disabled or hidden button, no longer swallow Enter, Esc or Alt+letter: the key stays with the window, PowerBuilder controls included.
• A multi-letter is_shortcut ("Save") works from anywhere in the window (Alt+S, the first letter); Alt+letter skips an unusable button and tries the next one carrying the letter.
• A shortcut given by the application to a button is no longer erased when the button is disabled and re-enabled, or when its is_shortcut letter changes; an explicit shortcut wins over a button's Alt letter.
• With two components in the same window (two MDI sheets, two panels), Enter, Esc or a shortcut go to the one closest to the focus, no longer to the first one created; Enter on a focused PowerBuilder CommandButton presses that button (not the bar's default one), and Enter or Esc in an open DropDownListBox stays with the list.
• Holding Enter down no longer triggers the button repeatedly.
• A property change no longer rebuilds the whole bar: focus and pressed state survive it; hiding the focused button moves the focus to its neighbour.
• A bar too narrow no longer drops its first buttons: labels shorten with "…" down to a 64-pixel floor.
• A single tab stop; the Left and Right arrows swap in right-to-left reading, where separators and badge are also placed on the correct side.
• The default button stays readable while pressed.
• ii_padding_x negative gives the space back to the theme, like ii_padding_y and ii_gap (it fell back to 12); the separator line is drawn only between touching buttons (ii_gap = 0).
• Reading back il_back_color_hover or il_text_color_hover of an item never coloured returns -1 (the theme's colour), like the other item colours (it returned 0, black).
• Enter or Esc pressed in the component, when it does not use them, goes back to the window: the PowerBuilder Default or Cancel CommandButton fires (the key was lost).
• A disabled component (ib_enabled = false) leaves the Tab order; enabled again (or after of_reset), it takes its place back.
• With no language chosen by the application, the component announces English to screen readers (it announced French).
• is_theme_style, is_theme_mode and il_theme_accent read back the style and mode shown and the component's own accent (-1 when it has none); an unknown or badly written value is ignored instead of leaving the component without a theme, and an axis left empty follows the application's theme.
• The application accent (PBT_SetDefaultThemeAccent) survives a change of theme, is followed as long as the component has no accent of its own, and repaints everything derived from it (hover, pressed, selections); Windows high contrast is supported.
• Typing a character with AltGr in a PowerBuilder field (the euro of a French keyboard, AltGr+E) no longer fires a Ctrl+Alt shortcut of that key.
• Rich text: a closing tag closes its own tag only ([b]A[i]B[/b]C leaves C in italics only), a ] escaped by of_escape_markup right after a tag no longer breaks the formatting around it, and [picture=…] accepts a data URI and a file name containing a comma.

Behavior changes #

• of_add_button / of_insert_button on a key already taken or containing / or |, and of_remove_button / of_move_button on an unknown key, return -5 (they returned 0 and were ignored).
• of_remove_button and of_clear_buttons take the button's Alt letter, the application's shortcuts, colours and tooltip away with it, and release its handle (IsValid() returns false); removing the is_default or is_cancel button, or clearing the bar, empties that property.
• of_register_shortcut(chord) without a key, or with a key naming no button, returns -5 (it returned 0 and swallowed the key).
• of_count returns a long and of_keys_at takes a long rank.
• See the 3 → 4 migration guide, sections 11.3, 11.13 and 11.41.
• Rich text: a markup image on a network share ([picture=\\server\share\x.png]) is no longer shown: go through of_icon(), which embeds it.

3.0 — September 2026 #

New #

• First release: buttons by key (of_add_button, of_insert_button, of_move_button, of_remove_button, of_clear_buttons), with icon, label or both, and a single event ue_clicked(as_key).
• is_default (the accent button that Enter triggers) and is_cancel (the one Esc triggers), like the OK and Cancel of a dialog box.
• Layout: is_align (start, center, end, justify), ii_gap between buttons, ii_padding_x and ii_padding_y around the row.
• Button handle n_pbt_buttonbar_button (of_button(key)): is_text, is_image, ib_enabled, ib_visible, il_badge, is_shortcut (Alt+letter, underlined in the label) and per-button colours.
• ue_script_error: a script error in the page reaches PowerBuilder with its message instead of being lost.
• of_set_property, of_get_property and of_component_name: drive a property by its name (settings screen, saved configuration).
• of_count, of_keys_at and of_has: what the component holds can be asked, at every level.