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Tips for Using Visual Designer

Owned by admin (Deactivated)
Jan 30, 2018
  • Any field you add to a form with the Visual Designer must already exist in the corresponding entity. For example, you can use the Visual Designer to move a field from one tab to another (by deleting the field from the first tab and then adding it to the second tab).
  • When a user updates a record through a form that includes multiple controls that are bound to the same field, any updates made to one of the bound controls is reflected immediately within the other control(s). This allows you to maintain the same data element across multiple tabs and locations on a single form.
  • If you add parts to a form, you may also want to increase the default size of the form. Follow these steps:
    1. Open the top level form template for that form (typically this record has a name in one of the following formats: Standard Aptify [Entity Name] Form or [Entity Name].Form).
    2. Change the Name and Description of this template to prevent any confusion if the the entity is regenerated in the future. (Otherwise, when if the entity is regenerated, Aptify may create a second form template with the same name. However, the entity's displayed form template should continue to use your modified -layout.)
    3. You may also want to modify the Rank field (so it is less than 100). This will ensure that your new form will always take precedence of any form automatically generated in the future.
    4. Click the Format tab.
    5. Enter a larger number in the Default Height field. This number is in pixels.
    6. Save the record.
    7. Click Yes if prompted that the form is generated and will become non-generated.
    8. Close the record.
    9. You may also want to consider changing the name and rank of any sub-templates and parts that are related to this top level template and save these sub-templates to make them non-generated.
      • This is not a requirement but a best practice recommendation to avoid having duplicate form template names if an entity is regenerated in the future.
  • The LabelCaption for an existing field may differ from the field's default caption if the field has been associated with a Culture String. Note that if you change a field's LabelCaption using the Visual Designer, the new caption you specified will override the field's Culture Strings association (if applicable).
  • When you rearrange fields using the Visual Designer, you should also modify the Tab Index for the fields to update the tab order. (That is, the order in which fields become in focus as a user presses the Tab key.) The Tab Index field is on the General tab of the Aptify Form Template Properties Dialog.
  • If you use the Visual Designer to make changes to a tab's field layout, the corresponding Form Templates record becomes non-generated. If you later want to return to the default generated form, follow these steps:
    1. Follow the steps in Regenerating an Entity to regenerate the entity and regenerate its baseline form templates.
    2. Create a view of Form Templates service where the template's Entity field is the entity whose forms you want to modify.
    3. Locate the non-generated Tab Template in your view.
    4. To disable the modified Tab Template, either modify the ranks of the templates so that the one to disable has a higher rank, or delete the record.
    5. Close and reopen the Aptify client.
    6. Open the form. The field layout from the generated Tab Template should display.

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