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Input Components — Common Features

The input components are the controls the operator uses to give input: buttons, checkboxes, text fields, sliders and so on. They are found in the Input - OpenBridge section of the Perspective Component Palette. Each component has its own page; this page describes what they have in common.

Kind Components
Buttons App Button, Button, Icon Button, Icon Check Button, Slide Button, User Button
Selection Checkbox, Checkbox List, Dropdown Button, Filter Chip, Pivot Item Group, Radio Button Group, Tab Row, Toggle Button Horizontal, Toggle Button Vertical, Toggle Switch
Text and numbers Number Input Field, Stepper Box, Text Input Field, Textarea Field
Sliders Double Slider, Slider
Indicators Icon, Progress Bar, Sequence Loading Spinner, Status Indicator, Tag
Messages and menus Breadcrumb, Chat Message, Floating Item, Message Menu Item, User Menu

The indicators only show something: they hold no value that the operator changes, fire no events and cannot be disabled. The sections on values, events and disabling below do not apply to them.

–––––––– | –––––––––––––––––––– | | Buttons | Button | | Selection | Checkbox | | Text and numbers | Text Input Field | | Sliders | Slider |


A component that holds a value — a checkbox, a text field, a slider — writes the new value to its own property when the operator changes it: checked on a Checkbox, value on a Text Input Field or a Slider.

To connect the component to a tag, bind that property bidirectionally:

  1. Select the component and open the binding of the value property.
  2. Choose a Tag (or Property) binding and select the tag.
  3. Enable Bidirectional.

The component then shows the tag value, and writes to the tag when the operator changes it. With a binding that is not bidirectional, the operator’s change is shown only until the binding writes its value again.

A component that only performs an action, such as a Button, has no value property. It fires an event instead.


Most input components have one component event, onActionPerformed. It fires when the operator uses the component: clicks a button, toggles a checkbox, types in a field, moves a slider.

Event Description Event Object
onActionPerformed Fired when the operator uses the component. —

Some components have events of their own, in addition to or instead of onActionPerformed, often with data in the event object. Each is described on the page of the component:

The event object is empty. A component with a value has written the new value to its property before the event fires, so read it from the component:

def runAction(self, event):
system.perspective.print(self.props.value)

Use the event for actions that must happen when the operator does something, and a bidirectional binding for keeping a tag in step with the value. A component that fires the event repeatedly while the operator works — a text field for every keystroke, a slider while it is dragged — says so on its page.


Most input components have a disabled property. A disabled component is drawn dimmed, does not react to the operator, does not change its value and does not fire events.

Component Disabled
Button Disabled button
Checkbox Disabled checkbox
Text Input Field Disabled text field
Slider Disabled slider

A few components are disabled part by part instead: each row of a Checkbox List and each tab of a Tab Row has its own disabled. Breadcrumb, Floating Item, Message Menu Item and User Menu cannot be disabled.

Bind disabled to disable input when it is not allowed, for instance when the operator does not have the required role or the workstation is not in command. A value can still be changed from a binding or a script while the component is disabled.

Name Description Property Type
disabled Disable input from the operator. Default false. value

Many components can show an icon. The icon is always turned on with a has… property (hasLeadingIcon, hasLeftIcon, …) and selected with a second property that is only shown when the first is true.

The icons are the OpenBridge icons, listed at openbridge.no. An icon property comes in one of two forms:

  • An icon picker. The property has a path that is set by choosing an icon from the picker in the property editor. The OpenBridge icons are in the openbridge library, for example openbridge/search.
  • A name. The property is a text: type the name of the icon, for example openbridge/search.

The page of each component says which form its icon properties have.

Only icons from the openbridge library are drawn. An icon from another library leaves an empty space.

Button with an icon


The input components react to the mouse and keyboard only in Preview Mode.

The list of a Dropdown Button does not open in the Designer, not even in Preview Mode. Test it in a session.

Note: A change made in Preview Mode is written to the component’s property, just as in a session, and is saved with the view. Reset the value before saving if it matters, or bind it so that the binding decides the value.


The colours follow the OpenBridge palette of the session (bright, day, dusk or night).

Button in the night palette

Name Description Property Type
style Standard Perspective style object. object

A few components do not have a style property: App Button, Progress Bar, Slide Button, Status Indicator, User Button and User Menu.

Built on the OpenBridge Design System