GuiTextEditCtrl validate and finding controls in a GUI

First I wanted to share how to find a control even if the name of the control conflicts in the global namespace:

function findSubGUI(%this,%name){
   for(%i = 0; %i < %this.getcount(); %i++){  
      %gui = %this.getObject(%i);  
      if(isObject(%gui))
         if(%gui.name $= %name)  
            return %gui;
   } 
   
   return 0;
}

Just provide the top gui control name for %this and the name of the sub control for %name.


Now I wanted to share how to use validate on a GuiTextEditCtrl:

function GenTerrainGui::validateInputs(%this){
   // check for valid filename
   %filenameobj = findSubGUI(%this,"TerrainFilename");
   if(%filenameobj){
      %filename = trim(%filenameobj.getText());      
      %len = strlen(%filename);
      %end = strlwr(getSubStr(%filename,%len-4,4));      
      if(%end !$= ".ter"){
         %filenameobj.setText(%filename @ ".ter");
      }else{
         %filenameobj.setText(%filename);
      }
   }
}

I had tried using .text to get the value of the text, and to set the value of the text. This does not work. To get the value of the text in the field of the widget you must use getText() otherwise you get the old value. SetText seems to work to set the actual value. Not sure if it differs from .text = <value>. However, it seems to work.

I am posting this as a thread rather than a resource to solicit any better ideas for how to do the above. I took some trial and error to get this working and I am hoping there might be better ways to do this.