Lesson 2: Form Tutorial

Create the basic form

Now you create the basic form. To do this you select a predefined InfoMaker form style and the data to be displayed in the form.

Click the New button in the PowerBar.

Shown is the Power Bar with the New button circled.

The New dialog box displays.

Select the Object tab if it is not already on top.

The Object tab page contains the icon for creating any type of new form and icons for the various report presentation styles.

Shown is a report titled Maintain Contact Information. At its left is a form with text fields for displaying and editing or entering ID, Last and First Name, Job Role, and so forth. At top right are buttons labeled Add a contact, Delete a contact, and Save changes. Under them is a scrollable grid of entries with a row of data for each entry that maps to the fields in the form on the left.

Select the Form icon and click OK.

The New Form dialog box displays. It contains the data sources and form styles you can choose.

Shown is the New Form dialog box . A group box at top is labeled Data Source and has icons labeled Quick Select, sequel Select, and Query. At bottom is a group box labeled Form Style with icons labeled Free Form, Grid, Master / Detail One To Many, and Master / Detail Many To One.

About data sources Quick Select is simply for choosing columns and specifying selection criteria and sorting, which is what you want for this tutorial.

SQL Select is for using other SQL options not available with Quick Select.

Query is for specifying the name of a query that describes the data source. You define queries in the Query painter.

About form styles A form style is a predefined way of presenting and processing information on the form. Usually the style includes the common database functions (insert, delete, and update).

InfoMaker comes with a set of form styles. PowerBuilder® users at your site can create additional styles, which also display in the New Form dialog box.

Click Quick Select and Free Form to select them (the words are highlighted).

Shown is the New Form dialog box . A group box at top is labeled Data Source and has icons labeled Quick Select, sequel Select, and Query. The Quick Select icon is circled. At bottom is a group box labeled Form Style with icons labeled Free Form, Grid, Master / Detail One To Many, and Master / Detail Many To One. The Free Form icon is circled.

Click OK.

The Quick Select dialog box displays. In this dialog box you select the table to use and the columns you want to include in the form.

Shown is the Quick Select dialog box. At left is a scrollable display labeled Tables with a listing of tables to select. At right is a display area for selecting Columns for a given table. At bottom is an area for entering optional sort and selection criteria. Text instructs the user to click the right mouse button to display comments for a table or column.

Click contact in the Tables box.

The columns for the contact table display. You include all columns in the form.

Shown is the Quick Select dialog box. At left is a scrollable display labeled Tables with a table named contact highlighted. At right is a display area showing the Columns for the contact table. At bottom is an area for entering optional sort and selection criteria.

Click the Add All button.

All columns are selected. They display in a grid at the bottom of the dialog box.

You could reorder columns and enter sorting and selection criteria in this grid. For your form you do not need to do any of these things.

Click OK.

Your form displays. It uses the columns and form style you selected. The text labels come from the extended attribute system tables. Instead of data, the names of the database columns appear where the data values will be displayed.

Shown is a form with a series of labeled text fields for items such as ID, Last Name, First Name, and Job Role. Within the fields, the names of the database columns such as contact _ last _ name are displayed where the actual data will appear.

The extended attribute system tables The extended attribute system tables store information about data such as labels and display formats. When you create forms and reports, InfoMaker uses extended attribute information to create the basic form or report.

You put information into the extended attribute system tables using the Database painter. For example, in the Table tutorial you define the label Job Role: for the title column. Then when you use the title column in a form or report, InfoMaker uses the label Job Role:.