Accessing Form Designer

Form Designer (FD)

From Navigation Manager enter the shortcut FD and the following window will be displayed:

The Form Designer window is split into 4 main areas as shown below

The Data Item Hierarchy window provides the mechanism of

restricting the data items displayed to a manageable subset.

This is the Data Item List window. Once you have selected the function/form you will be presented with the relevant data items.

This area is the Form window and is used to create and amend your forms. It

displays the form and the controls on it.

This area is

This is the status bar currently displaying the Operator ID but it will also display CAPS, NUM locks etc. when selected on your PC.

38.1.1. Creating a New Form

Form Designer provides a variety of application configuration options which allow you to create a consistent look and feel to your forms as well as ensuring some automation when creating forms.

To define the default settings for your forms you will need to set the following options:

Click View on the menu bar and select options.

38.1.2. General Tab

This tab allows you to select the following options:

Open Last Used Form on Startup

Select this option if you are continually working on the same form.

Warn about Check In Failures on Save

Select this option if you want your form to be validated upon saving. The validation requirements are:

All mandatory data items have been added to the form There are no empty grids on the form

Where multiple controls have been added for the same data item, they do not have different default values specified.

There are no empty tab pages on the form.

The warning message indicates which of the validation requirements have failed.

If you decide not to select this option on the General tab, your form is only validated upon check in.

Sort Functions on Id rather than Description

Before creating a new form, select this option if you want to view the functions by Id rather than description.

Check in Form On Close

When closing a form you have three options regarding automatic check in. Forms can be automatically checked in, prompted for checking in or if you specify Never, you are required to check the form in manually, after closing.

Default Form Folder

It is important to specify a Default Form Folder to locally hold your forms. Because the forms are removed from the local folder during check in it is important to ensure that the form folder is not the same as your host folder, because you could end up with no source file.

38.1.3. Server Tab

Perform a Server Compile after Check In

Check this option if you are likely to be compiling only single forms intermittently.

By default this option is unchecked. If the form is not successfully compiled, it can still be successfully checked in.

Information Caching

This allows you to enable Server Information Caching. This ensures that the information normally retrieved from the Server, for example lists of functions, is saved between sessions of Form Designer. Enabling Server Information Caching is not enabled until you exit and restart Form Designer.

This tab page is not accessible if you have opened Form Permissions Editor directly from Navigation Manager.

Initial Window Size (Client Area)

You can change the size of your initial form window to be as large or small as you require. Form Designer's default size is:

Width: 500 pixels Height: 300 pixels

The recommended form size for a 1024 by 768 screen display is:

Width: 1000 pixels Height: 640 pixels

It is recommended that you define this default setting prior to creating your forms.

If only a small number of controls are needed on a form, then it is not always

Initial Layout Grid Settings

You can change the layout grid size of the Form window. The system default is 10 x 10 pixels. Using the check boxes, specify whether you want Show Grid and Snap to Grid to be enabled.

Note: Snap to Grid can be enabled even when the layout grid is not shown.

Layout Style for Multiple Data Item Attributes

The radio buttons on this tab allow you to define the layout style for multiple data item attributes. The thumbnail pictures on the dialog indicate the three options available. The default layout style within a new window is for both labels and controls to be left aligned, i.e. the second option.

Centre Labels Vertically Against Controls

By default, when data items are dragged onto the form the labels are vertically centred against the corresponding data item control. Uncheck this check box if you want the labels to be top aligned against controls.

38.1.4. Controls Tab

This tab page is not accessible if you have opened Form Permissions Editor directly from Navigation Manager.

Buttons

Allows you to change height and width of the default button in pixels. This setting is used when the buttons are added to a form by clicking once in the Form window rather than dragging.

Grid Columns

Allows you to change the default grid column width in pixels.