Well I am new at this, and a conceptual question comes up that might help me understand how Alpha programmers think and do...
Let's say you want to pull down five or ten buttons in a nice format in the same place on a lot of different database entry forms... for consistency..
Next Record, Prevous Rec, Save and Enter, New Record, End Job, etc... each one tailored to do the combo of events you feel most appropriate...
I guess one method would be to design and group the buttons on Form A and copy them to the clipboard and retreive then on Form B, then Form C etc.. does that work? and are there other methods ?
Ok.. even if it does, let's try to get more elegant and put it all in one, (the 10 buttons) in a "subform" made to be a certain small size (I haven't figured that out yet but it shouldn't be difficult) and then call that one subform from each parent data entry form with one button..
Looks like maybe you can replace the parent form name in the xbasic code with a variable...
eg. if a form is "Arrival", the generated xbasic code for getting the next records starts with..
'Go to next record in Form 'Arrival' at parent level.
DIM object_name as C
object_name = ":"+"Arrival"
If we create a variable (e.g. vc_form_parent) that a current form always puts its name into.. and stick that in the xbasic code instead of "Arrival", will we have succeeded in using one sub-format for many data entry screens ?
Why do this?
a) save space on each form.. naviation is two-click but
very consistent and clear..
b) if we decide to modify the layout, the schema,
or add new buttons, it only has to be done once...
c) similarly if you want to get fancy based on other
variables like the curent user, again what is allowed
is only on one form..
Conceptually, is this a way to go ?
Why? Why not?
What should I know ?
Thanks...
Let's say you want to pull down five or ten buttons in a nice format in the same place on a lot of different database entry forms... for consistency..
Next Record, Prevous Rec, Save and Enter, New Record, End Job, etc... each one tailored to do the combo of events you feel most appropriate...
I guess one method would be to design and group the buttons on Form A and copy them to the clipboard and retreive then on Form B, then Form C etc.. does that work? and are there other methods ?
Ok.. even if it does, let's try to get more elegant and put it all in one, (the 10 buttons) in a "subform" made to be a certain small size (I haven't figured that out yet but it shouldn't be difficult) and then call that one subform from each parent data entry form with one button..
Looks like maybe you can replace the parent form name in the xbasic code with a variable...
eg. if a form is "Arrival", the generated xbasic code for getting the next records starts with..
'Go to next record in Form 'Arrival' at parent level.
DIM object_name as C
object_name = ":"+"Arrival"
If we create a variable (e.g. vc_form_parent) that a current form always puts its name into.. and stick that in the xbasic code instead of "Arrival", will we have succeeded in using one sub-format for many data entry screens ?
Why do this?
a) save space on each form.. naviation is two-click but
very consistent and clear..
b) if we decide to modify the layout, the schema,
or add new buttons, it only has to be done once...
c) similarly if you want to get fancy based on other
variables like the curent user, again what is allowed
is only on one form..
Conceptually, is this a way to go ?
Why? Why not?
What should I know ?
Thanks...
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