User editable Forms

KCML 5.02 introduced the Create() event and the Duplicate() method which allowed a program to create a dynamic form by cloning controls already present on the template form. See Dynamic Forms for more information about this technique. Constructing a form this way may be too restrictive for some applications as the layout of the dynamic form is determined entirely by program logic. Generally this makes sense as program logic must be present to handle events. However sometimes what is required is the ability to add text or simple data aware KCML Edit controls to customize forms.

To allow end-users to modify forms directly and have the layout persist, KCML5.03 adds a new Import() method which can be called inside the Create() event to pass a partial form definition to the kclient in a string variable allowing it to modify the form by adding new controls from the definition. This definition is similar to the ascii representation of a form normally hidden inside the DEFFORM statement.

The program will generally load the supplementary definition string from the database inside the forms Create() event and call Import() passing it the string.

To generate a definition string the EditForm() method is provided which takes the SYM() of the string as its argument. This must be called also from within the Create() event for the form which may require a flag to be set to determine the mode in which it is to operate. The EditForm() method invokes the forms editor interpreting the string as a supplementary form definition. The properties of the base form itself, and any controls it might have, cannot be altered in the editor. Only controls defined in the string can be changed though new controls can also be added. In the following forms designer screen shot, taken from the dynamic forms example, a static text control has been added and the original controls, which cannot be edited, are marked with a red cross.

The new definition is returned with the string redimensioned appropriately.

See the page on dynamic forms for an example program illustrating user editable forms.