Column Settings
The Column Settings screen allows you to change the attributes of the any columns for display on the final form. For each selected column you may make it a Text Field, Text Area or Choice pull-down list and modify its physical properties. To change the properties for a field, first click the field in the list. When finished with a columns settings, modify another field by clicking that one. Press Accept only when all properties have been set for all fields. On all JDesignerPro builder screens, you only press Accept after all the properties for a screen have been set, not after each entry.
Press the Reset button if you want to undo all your selections and changes.
General:
Mouse pointer text. Enter the text that you wish to see in the tool tip message for this column when the mouse is held over this component.
Status bar text. Enter the text that you wish to see in the status bar for this column when the mouse is held over this component.
Label color, Text color, Text Background color. Choose the colors for this component and it's label.
SQL Select. Modify the SQL column name for this column if necessary. Generally this will only be used if you want to make some sort of conversion to the column before it is displayed.
Field Type:
Field Type list. Fields in JDesignerPro applications can be changed to be Text Field, Text Area, JDPChoice, JDPComboBox, Radio buttons, Checkbox, JDPSpinner, JDPDate (pull down list). Choose the type you desire for a field in the pull down list. The default is TextField. When you choose an item from this list, the lower portion of the tab will change to show a different set of properties.
The TextArea selection will make a width field appear. This width field determines the vertical size of the text area. Use this for Notes and similar large text entry fields.
TextField, TextArea:
Field Size. This sets the character width of the field.
Editable. Choose whether or not to make this field editable by the end user.
Default value. This is the value that JDesignerPro will always put in this field. The default is to leave it empty.
Entry required. Choose whether or not the user must make an entry in this field.
Edit Mask. Either choose the edit mask from the pulldown or enter your own. The character substitution value for character fields is an underscore (_) and for numeric columns the substitution value is 9 or 0.
Error message. This is the error message that will appear if the user does not enter anything into a required entry field. If nothing is entered here, a default message will appear at run time.
Checkbox, JDPSpinner, JDPDate:
No special parameters exist for these components.
JDPChoice, JDPCombobox, RadioButtons
Text Value / Actual Value. The JDPChoice and JDPCombobox selections will make a set of fields appear in a list form on the builder screen. The properties, Values come from, and Text Value/Actual Value, determine what is in the criteria pull down. Simply enter the list of Text values (displayed in the choice) and Actual values (used when updating the database) that you require for this pulldown.
In these fields you can enter the entries for a static pull down. The left side is for the text that the user will see in the pull down. The right side is for the SQL equivalent of what will be the value in the database. For example, the left side might have these entries: Pay Net 30, Pay Net 60, Pay On Invoice, Ship COD. While the actual values that go into the database will be 30, 60, OI, COD. Unlike the search panel grid definition, here you use no equals sign or quotes ( = ) syntax, just the text value. So your list table would look like this:
The static list table appears by default. However, you may make the field a pull down list that comes from another table. Choose Database table/columns from the pull down, Values come from. Of course you dont have to abbreviate. Both side might say "Pay Net 30".
Loading a Choice from a database table
If you want the choice to populate from the database choose the Database/table/columns from the Values come from pulldown. Then select the table, columns to use to display values in the pulldown and the column that contains the actual values to be used when updating the database. If you need to you can replace the Pulldown SQL clause with a different value. For example if you wish to just display distinct values in the choice modify the SQL to be something like the following:
DISTINCT stor_id
first_name+' '+last_name
Values come from. This is a switch to go between a static criteria pull down and one that comes from another table in the Text Value / Actual Value list. If you choose "Fields entered here" you will see the list for static entries. Changing this pull down to "Database table/columns" will reveal three panels. The first panel is a list of the tables available in the chosen database. From this you click once on a table and the column names will populate the right-side panels. The middle panel, Pull down Column, is where you choose the value that the user will see in the criteria list. The Actual Value Column is what value will be entered in the database when the user selects a search column, the search will actually be done with the data in the Actual Value column.
Special Where Clause. This property field is for entering a SQL statement to filter the returned data in some custom way that you require. The format for entry is like: State=CA. You do not need to enter "Select...".
Layout:
Layout using a Tab panel. If you would like to lay out your columns on a set of tabs then enter the names of the tabs here. Place each tab name on a new line.
Record Locking:
Select record locking column. See the notes on this panel for how to use the built in record locking mechanism. This feature resolves the problem of two people making changes to the same row of a table which normally would result in the first person's changes being lost.