Form controls

Changing the structure of form controls
"Group" control
"Page" control
"Decoration" control
"Table" control
"Button" control
"Check box" control
"Radio button" control

Changing the structure of form controls

You can edit the hierarchical structure of a form on the Controls tab. It is described by the following controls: group, field, table, button, and decoration. You can change the form structure using the toolbar commands and the context menu commands, or by moving attributes and commands from respective editor sections.

Main form parameters are specified for the root item of the Form structure, in its property palette. The assortment of properties is defined by the form metadata object type.

For a report form you can select report result attributes, details data, and report option presentation in the corresponding properties of the property palette.
To select a report result attribute, you should first (if no such attribute exists or if you need to add another report result to a form) create an attribute that will contain a report result in the attributes editor. You should also specify TabularDocument for the attribute type. Also specify this attribute in the attribute selection dialog box, which is opened in the Report result form property. Drag the created attribute from the attributes editor to the controls editor. This adds the control to the form.
The selection of details data or option presentation is performed in a similar manner. The attributes must have the string type.

In the Type property of the property palette each control is assigned a view, which also depends on its type and position in the form structure.

Note. If a default view for an attribute is not available, it means that this attribute cannot be positioned at this level of the form structure. This rule applies to commands as well.

To add a form control, click Add, select a type in the control type selection window, and click OK. In compliance with the type selected for the control, the system selects its view that can be changed in the Type property if required (subject to restrictions specified for the attribute).

When you add a field, in its DataPath property, specify the attribute this control is related to. The easiest way to set this relationship is adding a field by dragging the attribute to the control tree.

For fields and tables, the full name of the related attribute specified in the Data path property is displayed in a tooltip.

You can move a control within a group using the move up and move down commands. You can also drag a control to another group.

If you want to add a context menu to the control, click Show context menu. The command is marked by an icon (when the icon has a border, the command is in effect).

You can set the control visibility in the form opened via the Open link of the Visible property in the property palette.

The editor supports specifying settings for multiple selected controls. You can drag them, copy them to the clipboard, edit, or delete them.

The context menu of each control that has events contains the Events submenu (it lists all the events available for the field). You can use this submenu to open the event handler procedures. The list displays event names. Names of events with no handlers specified are displayed in angle brackets. Events with handlers specified are located at the top.

To navigate to an attribute in the attributes editor, right-click the control and then click Go To. As a result, the object related to this item is activated in the attributes editor.

Form preview

The bottom part of the form editor contains a preview pane. This pane shows the preview of the form being edited, the current control is marked with a border.

The set of selected items is synchronized with the set of selected items in the editor window. The synchronization is automatic and bidirectional.

As with the control editor, when the preview window is active, the property palette displays the properties of the selected controls.

Multiple selection is supported. To select multiple controls, use Ctrl (hold this key while left-clicking the required controls). To exclude a control from the selected controls, left-click it while holding Ctrl (applies only when multiple controls are selected).

You can drag controls and perform clipboard operations, just like in the control editor.

If you hold Ctrl while dragging the selected controls, the controls are copied. We recommend that you hold Ctrl while dragging. While you are dragging a control, the editor is displaying the location where the controls will appear if you release the mouse button.

To open the property palette of a single control, double-click it. To open the property palette for multiple controls, select them and press Alt+Enter.

To select a parent control, left-click it twice (two separate clicks) within a maximum of two seconds. We recommend separating clicks by about a second for them not to be interpreted as double-clicking. You will not navigate to the parent if multiple controls are selected during the first left click.

In the preview window you can use the context menu, which is identical to the control editor menu.

To open the context menu of a single control, right-click it. To open the context menu for multiple controls, select them and right-click any of them.

You can activate any control except for context menus and their items.

The following colors are used to highlight items:

• Blue. The default color.
• Carroty. Automatically created buttons and submenus of command bars. It indicates that the item cannot be customized or moved.
• Gray. The parent item if the current item cannot be highlighted in the preview pane. For example, if you select a context menu button of a field in the editor window, this field is highlighted with gray.
• Green. Used for dragging. The target and its location indicator are highlighted with this color. In the process of dragging the items that are currently active are not changed and no highlighting is applied to them.

Also you can use the Test command to preview and check the form.

If the configuration property Interface compatibility mode is set to Version 8.2. Taxi allowed or Taxi. Version 8.2 allowed, the editor command pane includes the Interface mode button, which allows you to preview the form in both Version 8.2 and Taxi interface modes.
During the preview, the form is displayed in the interface that you selected using the Interface mode button.

Group

A form structure can contain groups of fields and groups of commands. You can customize their view in the properties of the field group, which include the number of columns, use of frames, and the group coherence during the form generation.

The command groups define the menu and submenu items. In a form, these groups are separated from each other by separators.

You can move the structure items between groups. The system automatically checks if the movement is possible. If the movement requires any changes in the control properties (e.g. its view), this change is applied automatically. If this causes changes in the requirements to subordinate controls, these controls are either changed automatically or deleted.

Pages

To add a page to a form:

1. Add a group to the form structure. In its Type property, select Pages.
2. Within this group, create as many subgroups as the number of pages you need. Specify their titles using the appropriate property.
3. Drag the required items from the attribute and command lists or from existing form controls to the created subgroups.

Decorations

A decoration can be a label or a picture. To include a decoration in the form control tree, select the group where you want to add a decoration, click Add, and select Decoration - Label or Decoration - Picture as the control type.

Table

Click Add, then select Table as the control type. Specify its data in the property palette, in the DataPath property. For example, a tabular section can serve as data.

To add a column that is not linked to data, first add a column to the data displayed in the table in the attributes editor, then in the control editor add a field and select the created column in the DataPath property.

To add a command bar to a form, use Show command bar from the table context menu. The command is marked by an icon (when the icon has a border, the command is in effect).

You can freeze one or several columns (so that the columns are always visible when scrolling right or left). To do so, select an item (column) and then, in the property palette, select the freezing option for the Fix in table property. After that the specified column is moved to the selected side (in the sequence of frozen columns). To cancel freezing, for the Fix in table property select No.

Button

Click Add, then select Button as the control type. You can assign a command or a global command to the button in its property palette, in the CommandName property.

The full name of the command is displayed as a button tooltip.

You can also specify the Hyperlink view for a button in its property palette, in the Type property.

Check box

If a form control is intended for editing Boolean data and the control type is Checkbox, you can specify the field type in the CheckBoxType property. Available options are Auto, CheckBox, and Tumbler. If you select Tumbler, in the EditFormat field you can specify presentations for the False and True values.

Radio button

If a form control is intended for editing numeric data and the control type is Radio buttons, you can specify the field type in the RadioButtonType property. Available options are Auto, RadioButton, and Tumbler.