Using the Visual Designer to Add New Fields or Controls

System administrators can add new fields or controls to a tab by dragging a component from the Toolbox to the desired location on the form and configuring the input map for that component.
Keep in mind that the Visual Designer is a development environment, and errors may appear in your client's Session Exceptions viewer as you add and configure new parts. These errors should have no impact on your form as long as you remember to configure all of the part's required properties and its General tab prior to saving and exiting the Visual Designer environment.

Follow these steps to use the Visual Designer to add a part to a tab:

1. Identify the fields or controls that you want to add the form and confirm that the necessary fields already exists in the associated entity. You should have an end result in mind before loading the Visual Designer.

   Unless you are using a drawing component (such as a Line Separator or Group Box), you can only add parts that corresponds to fields that already exist in the corresponding entity. In other words, a part needs to link to an existing Entity Fields record in the corresponding entity.

   Likewise, if adding a control that uses an embedded link (such as the Addresses Control, Phones Control, or Code Script Control), the entity must already have the necessary embedded link configured in its Entities record.

   See the individual component descriptions at About the Supported Visual Designer Components for more information on the each component's requirements.

2. Open the Visual Designer for the desired form tab. See Opening the Visual Designer.
3. Resize the form and rearrange existing parts, as necessary.
4. Select a component from the Toolbox.
   • See About the Supported Visual Designer Components  for the list of supported components and each component's input properties.
      
5. Do one of the following to add a new field or control to the form that uses the selected component:
   1. Drag the selected component from the Toolbox to the form. The selected component is added to the top of the tab.
   2. Double-click the component in the Toolbox. A new form template part that uses this component is added to the center of the form.
   3. While the component is selected in the Toolbox, click on the form. A new form template part that uses this component is added to the location you clicked.
      
      
6. Use the anchors to resize the new form template part on the form to the desired length and width. (You can also use the design buttons that appear when you select multiple parts to resize the part based on an existing part already on the form.)
7. Configure the new part's input properties on the Aptify Form Template Properties dialog's Properties tab.
   • When you place a new part on a form, the Aptify Form Template Properties dialog loads the input properties for the specified component on the Properties tab. See About the Supported Visual Designer Components for information on the input properties for each component.
   • The system automatically inserts <Required> as the source for required inputs, as shown in the example below. You must update all instances where the term, <Required>, appears in the Source column to appropriate value.
   • In order for all data-related parts to function properly, you may need to link the new part to an entity field that exists in the form's entity (and it that entity's table). For example, you can only add a new EmployeeID link box to the -SampleServices form if the SampleServices entity already has an EmployeeID linked field defined.

   • If you want to link a new part's caption so it displays a Culture String that is specified at the Entity Field level, leave the LabelCaption property blank or enter the field's default Display Name.

     Use Static Value as the Source Type for all of the Input Properties for Visual Designer components.

     
     

8. Configure the settings on the General tab.

   • This includes specifying the Part Name for the new Form Template Parts record that the designer will create for the field/control.

     To prevent problems deploying this form template and to prevent the system from inadvertently overwriting any parts you have created or modified, you should assign each part a unique name.

   • By default, the Width Sizing is None. If you want the field to automatically resize when the form resizes, set Width Sizing to Fill. All generated fields on a form created by the Aptify Baseline Form Template Generator have Width Sizing set to Fill and resize automatically when the form is resized.
   • Also, configure the Tab Index based on the new field's location on the form.
     
     
9. Enter any relevant information on the Comments tab.
10. Click off of the part to update its appearance on the form (for example, if you specified a LabelCaption, this caption will now appear on the form).
    • Note that in some cases, you may need to save the form and close the Visual Designer and the form before all of your changes appear on the form (this may include the display of the caption).
       
11. Add additional parts or make other modifications to the form, as necessary.
12. Click the Save Form Template button on the Aptify Form Template Properties dialog to save your changes to the form and exit from Visual Designer mode.
    • Click Yes when notified that the form template will become non-generated if it is currently generated. Upon save, the system will mark the corresponding Form Templates record as non-generated when you save changes made using the Visual Designer.
       
13. Close all open records.