Control Settings

Each form control has a set of properties that define how it functions. The properties may change based on the type of control, but there are some basic properties that are used by all controls.

• The Settings panel is always displayed on the right side of the screen and stays open as you click through the existing controls on the layout.

Certain settings are found on most controls. These common settings are described below. Settings that are specific to a type of control are then discussed in the following sections.

• Field displays the column name in the underlying table used by this control.
  • The associated field is automatically displayed when the control is created using a database field.
  • If the control is added to the form via the Control Type Method, available fields are listed in the drop-down list.
  • This value is not displayed for Section Title, File Upload, and Button controls.

• Data Type displays the database data type of the column used by this control. This is shown for information only.

• Table Name displays the underlying table used by this form. This is shown for information only.

• Control Type displays the type of control in use.
  • Available values are displayed in the drop-down list.

• Editable controls access to the field on the page. If Editable is selected the field can be entered (or the button clicked). Otherwise the field cannot be entered and will be skipped in the tabbing order.

• Visible defines if a field is displayed on the page. If Visible is selected the field is displayed. Otherwise the field is not displayed. This is helpful when fields are populated with “system” values that are not of interest to the user, but need to be captured for subsequent processing.
• If a field is not visible, the editable option is irrelevant since the field cannot be seen.

• Required indicates that the user must provide a value in the field before the record can be saved.
• Required fields are marked with a small red * next to the caption to alert the user.

• Submit with form indicates that the field is associated with a column in the underlying table. Any data placed in the field will be saved in the database record.
• Clearing the Submit with form option can be used in special situations where you want information to be displayed in a field but not be saved in the database.

• Primary indicates that this field is the value used as the primary key in the database table.
• The primary field option is enabled automatically based on the underlying database table structure.
• The primary field control must be placed in the form layout in order for the form can be saved.
• The primary field option should never be changed as it will cause the form to stop working.

• Initial Focus indicates that the cursor is to be positioned in this field when a form is first opened or cleared for a new record.
• This is a special use case since the cursor is automatically positioned at the first editable field on the page.
• Tab order start from this field and moves to the next editable field when this option is used.
• Only one field can be designated with this option.

• Character Length defines the maximum number of characters that can be entered in a field of the control.
  • For text fields the value can be less than the number of characters defined in the database if you wish to restrict the value entered.
  • For numeric fields the value should be the maximum number of digits you want to accept in the field. Because of the way data is stored this may be greater than the number of bytes defined for the column in the database.
  • For date fields the value should be large enough to accommodate the date as it is defined by the selected Culture.
  • This option is only displayed for Text Box, Numeric Text Box, Date Picker, and Time Picker controls.
    For the next three controls, see Using the Color Picker for additional information on selecting and applying colors.
• On lost focus load form indicates the form will retrieve the record based on the data on the field. This option is only applicable to Primary fields

• Default Value is used to populate the control field with an initial value when a new record is created.
  • The value can be any value that is consistent with the type of control (e.g. text for Text Box controls, numbers for Number Text Box controls, and dates for Date controls).
  • This option is only available on fields that accept text/number/date input.

• Versago provides the following system values that can be used as defaults:
  • {UserProfile.$Id} – returns the internal user ID code (integer)
  • {UserProfile.$UserName}- returns the email address (user name)
  • {UserProfile.$FirstName} – returns the user’s first name
  • {UserProfile.$LastName} – returns the user’s last name
  • {UserProfile.$CompanyName} – returns the user’s Company name
  • $GETDATE() - returns current date

• Copy header value to grid control (Header-to-row)
  • This process can be used to use a value from a control in the header section as the default for a control in each new row in the grid (row) section.
  • {formdata.$control_name} - where $control_name is the source control field name
  • $control_name value is case sensitive.

• Formula is used to provide various types of calculation operations that can be used to populate a field based on values in other fields.
  • Formulas can only be applied to numeric and date values.
  • Calculation formulas are used to place the results of a computation using values of two (or more) other controls. Fixed values can also be used in control-level calculations.
  • Aggregate formulas are used to provide either a sum or average of values in the details (rows) section of the form and report them in a header-level field.

• Alignment defines how the text is displayed in the field of the control.
  • Options are Left, Center, and Right.
  • This option is not displayed for File Upload, Signature, and Button controls.

• Caption is the value that is displayed to the user for this control.
  • The value can be changed at any time.
  • For the button control this value is the text displayed on the button.

• Help Text is used to provide additional information to the user when the hovers over the field.
  • This option is only available on fields that accept text/number/date input.
  • The maximum size of help text is 100 characters.

• Fill Color defines the color used as the background of the field of the control.
• Click on the drop-down arrow to access the color-picker tool.
• The default fill color is white.
• This option is not available on Button controls.

• Text Color defines the color used for text/numbers entered/displayed in the field of the control.
• Click on the drop-down arrow to access the color-picker tool.
• The default text color is black.
• This option is not available on Button controls.

• Caption Color defines the color used for the text of a field caption.
• Click on the drop-down arrow to access the color-picker tool.
• The default caption color is black
• This option is not available on Button controls.

Formatting is available for Date and Time Picker controls using the Format drop-down.

1. Be sure the Control Type is Date Picker.
2. Set the Format to Date or DateTime.
3. Select the desired Culture from the list
   1. Also select the desired time format (12 hour or 24 hour) if you are also capturing a time value.
   2. If your Format is Date, the user will not see an icon to set the time value. The time value will be saved as midnight (00:00.000)
   3. If your Format is DateTime, the user will also see an icon to set the time value. The time value will be saved based on the user-entered value.

1. Be sure the Control Type is Time Picker.
2. Set the Format to Time.
3. Select the desired Culture from the list.
4. When a Time Picker is used the date is saved as 01-01-1900 and the time is saved based on the user entered value.

Formatting is available for Numeric Text Box controls using the Format and Decimal Place functions. There are two options for formatting numeric values: Decimal, or Currency.

• Decimal formatting is used to present numbers as decimal numbers.

1. Select the desired Culture from the drop-down list.
2. Set the desired number of decimal places (up to 6).
   1. The decimal value is rounded if more than the specified number of characters is entered to the right of the decimal point.

• Currency formatting is used to present numbers with the appropriate currency symbol and decimal formatting.

1. Select the desired Culture from the drop-down list.
2. Set the desired number of decimal places (up to 6).
   1. The decimal value is rounded if more than the specified number of characters is entered to the right of the decimal point.

Lookup List are available for Text Box and dynamic Drop-down List controls.

Lookups are used retrieve a values available for the user from an existing data view. When a lookup list is used, the user can only select from these values, so consistency of input data is ensured. A field with a lookup list displays a “filter” indicator at the right end of the field.

1. On the “Control Settings” tab, select “Textbox” as the Control Type.
2. Select the data view to be used from the Lookup Report menu
3. The [ …] ellipsis button to the right of the Lookup menu is used to define Filters (i.e. form controls values that can be used as input filters to the lookup report) and Mappings (i.e. form controls that will receive their input value from fields in the user-selected record in the lookup report).
   1. At least one Output field must be configured. This will be the control where the lookup is being applied and should be the value to be displayed to the user.
   2. Additional output fields may also be defined. These are typically other values associated with the lookup value.
4. The list of values in the lookup will be sorted according to the sorting configured in the look up data view.

The Image control is used to display an image in the form presentation. Images are most commonly used in a Detail Section control to display things like items in an order form. However, there is no restriction against using an image control in the main (header) section of the form as well. An example might be displaying the item associated with a Service Call, or displaying the logo of a company in an order entry form.

The data type of the underlying database field is Text. This is because the data is actually a file path pointer to the location of the image file, which is stored on disk. The file path information is saved as part of the form data. The image can then be displayed in a report associated with the form.

The Format drop-down selection defines the size of the image in the form. Two options are available: 45 x 45 pixels and 65 x 65 pixels. A large image is displayed when the user hovers over the image on the form, and an even large image is displayed as a pop-out when the user clicks on the image.

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