Question

I’m using Cognos and I’m trying to catch the enter key so that the user’s input is checked before the prompt is submitted.

Even if you don’t have experience in cognos, I would appreciate it if you looked at my code 🙂 It’s pretty much a drag and drop program for business reports.

I have a Text Box Prompt on my cognos prompt page and I’m trying to set a 3 char minimum for user input. I have surrounded that Text Box Prompt with a div using HTML Items as shown below.

<div onKeyDown="return keyMon(event)"> Cognos Text Box </div>

I then have another HTML Item that contains the function keyMon(), as shown below:

<script>
function keyMon(e3)
{
    var key = e3 || window.event;

    if(key.keyCode == 13){

        var fW = (typeof getFormWarpRequest == "function" ?
        getFormWarpRequest() : document.forms["formWarpRequest"]);
        if ( !fW || fW == undefined) {
            fW = ( formWarpRequest_THIS_ ?
            formWarpRequest_THIS_ : formWarpRequest_NS_ );
        }
    
        var custValue = fW._textEditBoxCustomerPrompt;  

        if(custValue.value.length > 0){
            if(custValue.value.length >= 3){
                promptAction('next'); //Submit the user's input
            }else{
                alert("Please enter a search value that is 3 or more characters long.");
                return false;
            }
        }
    }
}
</script>

As I said above, this works fine with IE. When it runs in Firefox, it picks up the Enter key, the alert box pops up as it should, but only for a millisecond and then disappears. But it still proceeds to the next page. So obviously the "return false;" isn’t doing much.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I managed to put a band-aid on it… Instead of returning false, I cleared out the Parameter Text Box, thus making the prompt not submit. Then I fired the alert.

If anyone has the solution to my original question, please feel free to add it because it’s really bugging me.

<script>
function keyMon(e3)
{
    var key = e3 || window.event;

    if(key.keyCode == 13){

        var fW = (typeof getFormWarpRequest == "function" ?
        getFormWarpRequest() : document.forms["formWarpRequest"]);
        if ( !fW || fW == undefined) {
            fW = ( formWarpRequest_THIS_ ?
            formWarpRequest_THIS_ : formWarpRequest_NS_ );
        }

        var custValue = fW._textEditBoxCustomerPrompt;  

        if(custValue.value.length > 0){
            if(custValue.value.length >= 3){
                promptAction('next'); //Submit the user's input
            }else{
                //Delaying the alert box so that the user's enter press will not exit the alert box.
                setTimeout("alert('Please enter a search value that is 3 or more characters long.')",250);
                fW._textEditBoxCustomerPrompt.value = "";   
            }
        }
    }
}
</script>