With the introduction of the form to the code environment a programmer can create true window applications and be free from the single window database applications of old.  There are many solid and highly valuable applications written years ago which can be dusted off and renovated. Now SmartWare programmers can compete for the applications which today's firms and end users are asking for.

A form is a window and behaves like the windows we all have come to use.  The form can hold controls such as buttons, fields, graphs, pictures, text boxes, combo boxes, and list boxes.  The forms are created in the Form Editor.  The code associated with the form and the controls of the form can be accessed from the Form Editor.

From the Database module choose File -- Modify -- Form-View.  Select a form to modify and it will be opened in the Form Editor.  The code that is associated with this form is governed by the SPL Editor which can be accessed from the Form Editor.  From within the Form Editor choose from the menu, Edit -- View-Code to open the SPL Editor.

The Toolbars

The Form Editor has three toolbars which are very useful.

Property Sheets

Fields

ToolBox

If Property Sheet is not present the commands Edit – Toolbars – Property Sheet – Show  will provide a means of accessing the property sheet.  The property sheet will show and control the configuration of the form and the controls on the form. 

Within Edit – Toolbars are options for Fields and ToolBox. 

If a database is attached to the form the fields are available to the form.  These fields can be dropped on to the form and act as edit controls.  If the fields  do not appear, this option may need to be set to Show.  Databases can be attached via the menu option Attach.

The ToolBox is a toolbar containing the most common controls a form will use.  these controls can also be created from the menu with the Create option.

Smartware syntax is expanding with the addition of event driven programming.  Here is a very short attempt to answer some of the most frequently asked questions concerning syntax.

1.  In form views file names and field names are separated with the double dot operator.

example

CUSTOMER..FirstName

2.  In SQL queries file names and field names are separated with the single dot operator.

CUSTOMER.FirstName

example

CUSTOMER.FirstName

3.  In SQL queries, literals are set in single quotations - not double quotations. In all other areas of SmartWare literals are set in double quotations.  Single quotations are a standard convention of SQL and not SmartWare.

SELECT * from NATION

WHERE NATION.FirstName = 'Johnson'

4.  If a field name includes a space, use square brackets to enclose it.  [ ] or double quotations.  As a general rule use square bracket all the time, even if there are no spaces in the field name.

example

[First Name]

Events are monitored by SmartWare, when these events fire the code associate with the event is executed. Code sample:

Function Button1_DoubleClick()

file load form-view "05.vwf"

End Function

Controls are very common in today's world.  Controls can include:

Buttons

List Boxes

Combo Boxes

Boxes and Rectangles

Charts

Label and Notes

Pictures

Data Source

Page Break

Lines

Tables

ActiveX Controls

These controls can be placed on a form. In code a control uses its Control Name. The Toolbox in the Form Editor will provide access to these controls as will the menu options.  SmartWare uses a Command Reference model in which the menu options can represent valid code.  If you wish to create a control via code, the menu structure is identical to the Command Reference.

The following will detail the options available for the Form that are offered in the Property Sheet. To make a change to a setting, simply Left Click your mouse on the Property you want to change and the property will turn blue. Clicking on the Property Title a second time will lock the property in place. You may change the property at any time. The Controls that are marked with True or False are changed by simply clicking the check box. The following Controls will offer a drop down box when clicked: Font Name; Border Style; and Window Border.

If the property sheet is not visible, it can be accessed in the Form Editor with the commands: EDIT -- TOOLBARS -- PROPERTY-SHEET -- SHOW

The General Property Sheet Controls

Section

The Section property is used to set the section that the control appears in. Forms have one section, the detail section, so all Form controls should have "0" for their Section value.  Window Reports have multiple sections and therefore multiple section values.

                                                         

Control Name

The Control Name property is used to set the name by which the control will be referred through SPL (SmartWare Programming Language).

Position Properties

The following controls, Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Width and Height are designed to allow you to place the Form View in the exact position on the screen you desire. You will notice that when building a Form View, there is a grid presented that corresponds to inches. The defaults are in inches. Changing any of these values will immediately resize the working area for the form box. Typically, the Left and Top Controls will remain at 0 which can be interpreted and the upper left corner of the form starts at the upper left corner of the screen.

Left

The default is: 0.00 inches

Top

The default is: 0.00 inches

Right

The default is: 5.00 inches

Bottom

The default is: 3.00 inches

Width

The default is: 5.00 inches

Height

The default is: 3.00 inches

Font Name

If you desire to change font for the item you are working on, click on the font name and you will be presented with a listing of all fonts currently installed on your computer. Select the font you want. Form Views can a have a different font for any of the components of the form.

Font Size

If you desire to change the font size of the item on the Form View you are working on, click on the Control and type the size of the font you desire. The only limitation of this is the size that a given font will support. SmartWare  does not support fractional size font. (8.5)

Font Italic

The default is False, meaning No. To italicize the font you are working on, click in the empty square box to the right of the control. This will italicize the font. To change back to regular appearance, click and the check mark will go away.

Font Underline

The default is False, meaning No. To underline the font you are working on, click in the empty square box to the right of the control. This will underline the font. To change back to regular appearance, click and the check mark will go away.

Font Weight

The default is Bold. Click on this control and you are presented with a drop down box that will offer the following options: Thin, Extra Light; Light; Normal; Medium; Semi Bold, Bold, Extra Bold, and Heavy.

The font options give full flexibility to control the appearance of the field names and data.

Value

This property of a control can be many things.  If the control is an edit field, the value will be the text of the edit field.  The Value property can be used in code. For clarity, the value of a control is the value the control is at present holding.  For example a field holds a value in each of its records. As a reminder, Control Name identifies the control in code, whereas value is what is held by the control.

Back Color, Fore Color and Border Color

These controls are designed to alter the colors of your Form View background, foreground, and border. The default colors are RGB 0,0,0. Click on the control you desire to change and you will notice an icon appear to the right of the color control. This is the Windows palette. Click on this icon and you will be presented with the Windows color palette and you can choose an existing color or blend any combination of Red, Green and Blue to customize the appearance of your Form view. When you change the color of any of these controls, the 0,0,0 default color listed will change to reflect the blended combination of Red, Green and Blue.

Elsewhere in the documentation are details of the RGB command, new with this version. The color palette can be used to experiment with exact color combinations values to be used with the RGB function in SPL programs.

Border Style

Click on this control and you are presented with three options for Border Style: Sunken, Flat and Transparent

Visible

The Visible property is used to set whether the control is shown at run-time.

Tab Stop

If you desire the Tab key to move from field to field in the input order, leave this the default of True. This applies to controls on form, not when you are building a form. Each control that can be part of the input order has a "Tab Stop" and "Tab Index" property.  If you want the control to be part of the input order, you set "Tab Stop" to Yes.  If you don't want a control to be part of the input order, you set it to "No".

To set the order, you go to the control you want to be first in the input order and set the "Tab Index" property to 0, then the next to 1, etc.

Tab Index

The Tab Index property is used to set the input order of the controls. When you edit this property, all other control's Tab Index properties will also be affected.

Title

Click this control and type in the text you would like to see appear on the title of the Form View you are working on. This change will take immediate effect. The title of a form is used to name the window.  There are many commands which are used to control the properties of the windows in the user environment.  The title of a form is the name of the window it represents.

Window Border

Click here and there will be three options: Thin, Sizable and None. The default is Sizeable.  This properties will effect how the window opens and whether it can be resized.  Be care when using these properties as they can restrict the behavior of a window in code.

Modal

The Modal property is used to set the whether the form is modal. A form that is modal is like a dialog box. Everything under a modal form is disabled, and you cannot use menus.

System Menu

The System Menu property is used to set whether the form's title bar has a system menu on the left.  The System Menu is the set of three icons in the upper left corner representing Maximize, Minimize, and Close.

Maximum Enabled

This control enables a window to be maximized. The default is True. If you do not want this Form View to be maximized, click to false.

Minimum Enabled

This control enables a window to be Minimized. The default is True. If you do not want this Form View to be minimized, click to false.

Center Window

The default is false. If you want this Form View to always center on the screen, click to Yes.

Sort

If you desire a sort to be executed upon loading the Form View, type in the name of the sort you want. Upon loading the view, it is automatically sorted.

Query File

If you desire a query to be executed upon loading the Form View, type in the name of the query you want or browse to the query file. Upon loading the view, it is automatically queried.

Show Query Results

If you want the results of the pre selected query to be shown, leave this control at its default, true. If you wish that the results are not shown, click to false.