Each form in an application can have a form name, form series, attached tables, windows, menus, constants and form scripts. The Form Definition window is used to create forms.
Before you create forms, outline the goals of the form – which windows will the form use, which tables will be accessed by the windows in the form, what additional menus could help users complete tasks in the form, and what scripts will need to run for the form to operate properly in your application. For example, if your goal is to create a form to maintain customer records, plan how you want users to complete tasks for entering and maintaining customer records.
Forms can be given any name, but if your application is stand-alone, there are two specially named forms that should be part of your application.
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If your application will integrate with Microsoft Dynamics GP, you won’t need to create the Main Menu or About Box forms because Microsoft Dynamics GP already has them. |
When you create a form, you must specify the series the form is part of. The form series allows you to group related forms in a Dexterity application together using categories like Sales, Financial and System. For example, you could assign all of the forms used in an Inventory application to the Inventory series. You will use these series groupings when you use the Modifier or use Dexterity Utilities to perform dictionary maintenance activities.
Tables must be attached to a form so the windows associated with the form will have access to the information in the tables. You must attach the tables to the form before you can reference the tables in scripts.
To attach tables to a form, click the Tables tab in the Form Definition window. The Form Definition window will list the tables attached to the form and allow you to attach additional tables.
Click Attach to open the Table Lookup window. Select a table to attach and click OK; the table will be attached to the form. To detach the table from the form, select the table in the list of tables in the Form Definition window and click Detach.
Clicking Options opens the Table Options window, which allows you to specify how the form will access a particular table. The form can access the table in read-only, read/write, or exclusive use modes. You also can choose whether the table will be opened the first time it’s accessed by a script or when the form is opened. If the table is a SQL table, the cursor block size can also be specified.
Each form can have windows, menus, constants and scripts associated with it. Adding windows to forms is discussed in Windows, form-based menus are discussed in Form-based Menus, and constants are described in Constants. Commands are discussed in Commands. Form scripts, which allow you to add functionality when a form opens or closes, are discussed in Attaching Scripts.