Making URLS in textboxes be clickable in the Clarify Classic Client
I was recently posed a question about how to make a URL in a textbox be automatically clickable.
I’ve posted in the past about using hyperlinks in the Clarify Client, but this question was a bit different.
For example, on the Account form in Clarify, there is a web site textbox.
If you type in a URL in that textbox, it is automatically turned into a clickable hyperlink.
Lets say that you wanted to do something similar on a custom form.
You add a textbox to the form, set its contextual object properly, type in a URL, and then – nothing.
It’s not automagically converted into a hyperlink. What’s going on here?
Website control on the Account form
What Clarify is doing on that website field on the account form is that they’re actually using a multiline textbox instead of a normal (single-line) textbox.
We can see that if we look at that control using UI Editor:
And multiline textboxes automatically turn URLs into clickable links.
They’ve sized that control so that it looks like a single line textbox. But if you type a carriage return in that textbox, you can see that it works, and you just barely make out the up/down scrollbar on the side.
Option B
So, you could go that same route, and use a multiline textbox, just as Clarify did.
Or, here’s another idea:
Use a single line textbox, but after the textbox, add a label whose source contextual object and field name are the same as the textbox.
To make it look like a hyperlink, set its Hyperlink property to Yes, set its ForeColor to Blue, and its font to be underlined.
Then, whatever text shows up in that textbox will also be displayed as a label that is a clickable URL.
Wrap-up
And there you go – one more way to make the Clarify Client behave like a web app.
Or, you know, you could just replace the Clarify Client with a proper web app!
Just when I thought I was out (of Clarify Classic Client work)…they pull me back in.
