Another way around this sort of issue is to put in a dummy column in your DataWindow's SELECT and if all the other columns are protected, unprotect the dummy column.  I've used this technique once or twice, and it works reasonably well.  Make the field small, transparent, and with no border, and it will be barely noticeable. 

Adding to the replies of Miguel and René, you can force a setrow( getclickedrow() ) in the clicked event of the DW control to circumvent the "having to click the display column" caveat. Clicking a protected column will thus select the row and set the cursor to the display column.

Here's what I'm using in the clicked event to address this:

long ll_col, ll_protect = 0
string ls_colname, ls_protect

ll_col = getclickedcolumn( )
if ll_col > 0 then
	ls_colname = this.describe( '#' + string(ll_col) + '.name')
	
	ls_protect = this.describe( ls_colname + '.Protect' )
	// If not a number, evaluate the expression
	if not isnumber(ls_protect) then
		// Cutting off leading "1~t" or "0~t"
		ls_protect = Mid( ls_protect, Pos(ls_protect, '~t') + 1 )
		ls_protect = Mid( ls_protect, 1, len(ls_protect)-1)
		ls_protect = this.describe("evaluate(~"" + ls_protect + "~", " + string(getclickedrow()) + ")")
	end if
	
	if isnumber(ls_protect) then
		ll_protect = long(ls_protect)
	// else: give up :)
	end if
end if

if ll_protect = 1 then
/*
 adding
 	or ll_col = 0
 to the condition will also select the row
 if any non-column part of the row was clicked,
 which might be useful
*/
	this.setrow( getclickedrow() )
end if

This might be too elaborate even, a simple 

setrow( getclickedrow() )

in the clicked event probably does the trick already. Might even work without any display columns, but I haven't confirmed this.

Over the years, I've found always the same problem with the 'protect' attribute: if the cursor is within the column you are trying to protect it fails. So if you want to protect all columns, you have a problem.

Therefore, what I do, is to record all tabsequences of all columns in an array in the constructor of the dw. When I want to 'protect' them all, what I do is use the tabsequence property setting it to 0. I'm not sure though if you can still select a row when all columns have tabsequence 0 (no time to test), but I do know it gives way less problems.

When you want to re-enable the columns, you use the array with tabsequences to restore their original values.

Just an idea,

Miguel

Renee's solution works very well.

Create a  computed field.  Make this a numeric column.
Create an expressioin that results in zero or one such that zero means NOT SELECTABLE and one means SELECTABLE.

Set the taborder to zero on this field
Create an expression on the PROTECT property of the row in the detail band and set the expression to be "selectable".

Good Luck,

Olan

Hi Pete,

Yes, this is strange behaviour. We had also such problems. Sometimes it is possible to select such rows, sometimes not.

You need at least one column object that is not protected and can get the focus. You should set it to DisplayOnly as John recommended. But you can't use expression for DisplayOnly property so probably you have to add a dummy column only for this usage. 

Or you could try to add two column objects for one of your columns - one object for edit and one for display. Use expression for visible property to show the column objects dependend on columns protection.

HTH,

René

Hi, Pete -

Use the DisplayOnly property in one column object instead of Protect. The column can then receive focus but the value cannot be changed.