Working with Form Tabs

Madhuri Dange

March 10, 2022 12:39

Aptify forms typically contain tabs that logically organize information and allow more data to be displayed on each form. Aptify is a highly configurable system, so the tabs are seen within Aptify manuals and the data displayed on those tabs may differ from what is displayed in your system.

There are two types of tabs that display records from other Services: Sub-Types and Related Service Records. Both of these tab types display one-to-many relationships. For example, a Person's Orders tab can list multiple Orders, since one person can make many orders.

While both types show information that has a one-to-many relationship to the current record, there is one major difference between these two types of listings:

Information for a sub-type can only be accessed from the current Service.
Related Service records belong to a separate Service and can be accessed from that Service as well.

In addition to Sub-Types and related service listings, a third common tab type is a Picture Viewer that can display one or more pictures associated with a particular record.

This topic contains the following sub-topics:

Using the Sub-Type Tab Listing
Searching the Sub-Type Tab Listing
About Related Service Listing Tabs
About the Picture Viewer Tab

Using the Sub-Type Tab Listing

A Sub-Type listing displays information that can only be accessed through the current service. For example, a product in the Products service may have multiple prices. These prices are not available in a separate service; they are records in a sub-type of the Products service.

Likewise, a group in the Groups service may have many members. The members have records in the Users service but not all Users may be members of the Group. Sub-type records identify only those Users who are members of the specified group.

See the following sections for additional information on using the Sub-Type tab listing:

Sub-Type Tab Listing Toolbar
Sub-Type Tab Listing Input Properties

Sub-Type Tab Listing Toolbar

Sub-type listings include a toolbar that allows users to create, delete, organize, and find sub-type records in the sub-type listing. The toolbar includes the following buttons:

Button Image	Toolbar Button	Function
	New	Opens new sub-type record.
	Open	Opens selected sub-type record.
	Delete	Deletes the selected sub-type record.
	Move to Top	Moves the selected sub-type record to the top of the sub-type -listing.
	Move Up	Moves the selected sub-type record up one position in the sub-type listing.
	Move Down	Moves the selected sub-type record down one position in the sub-type listing.
	Move to Bottom	Moves the selected sub-type record to the bottom of the sub-type listing.

Sub-Type Tab Listing Input Properties

The following sub-type control supports the following input properties that determine if the sorting, find, and move functionality is available for a particular sub-type grid:

AllowSort: The AllowSort input property can be used by an administrator or developer to configure the sorting behavior within a sub-type grid on a case-by-case basis. When the property is set to 1 for a particular sub-type grid, a user can sort the sub-type records by clicking on the header of the column that will control the sort. When set to 0 (the default setting), sorting is not allowed within the grid.

An administrator or developer can use the AllowSort input property to configure the sorting behavior within a sub-type grid. However, this only applies to the record that is currently opened. When the record is closed and re-opened or another record is opened in the same service, the order in which the sub-type records appear defaults to the value defined by the administrator or developer in the sub-type entity's Order By field. See Defining the Sort Order for Sub-Type Listings for more details.
AllowMove: The AllowMove input property can be used by an administrator or developer can use to configure the record move behavior within a sub-type grid on a case-by-case basis. When the property is set to 1 for a particular sub-type grid (this is the default setting), a user can use the toolbar buttons or the right-click menu to move a selected record to the Top of the grid, Up one row, Down one row, or to the Bottom of the grid. Note that the Move commands are disabled when a user selects more than one record in the grid. When set to 0, a user cannot move a record to a new position within the grid (the Move buttons do not appear in the toolbar and the Move options do not appear in the right-click menu).
AllowFind: The AllowFind input property can be used by an administrator or developer to specify if the Find option should be available in a sub-type grid's toolbar. When the property is set to 1 for a particular sub-type grid (this is the default setting), the Find button is available in the sub-type toolbar. When set to 0, the Find button does not appear in the toolbar.

See Modifying Field Layout with the Visual Designer for information on setting these properties using the Visual Designer.

Searching the Sub-Type Tab Listing

If a sub-type listing has a large number of records, you can use the Find dialog to search for a particular entry. Follow these steps:

Click the Find icon in the Sub-Type Toolbar to open the dialog.
- See Using the Sub-Type Tab Listing for more information.
- Alternatively, you can press CTRL+SHIFT+F3 to launch the Sub-Type Find dialog. The Find dialog's label identifies the name of the sub-type to which it applies.
Select the Field from the drop-down list to use as the basis of your search.
- For example, select Name to search based on a sub-type record's name.
Select an Operator.
- The available options for a text field are as follows:
1. - Begins With: Finds the first record where the value of the specified Field begins with the specified Value.
  - Exactly Matches: Finds the first record where the value of the specified Field exactly matches the specified Value.
  - Ends With: Finds the first record where the value of the specified Field ends with the specified Value.
  - Contains: Finds the first record where the value of the specified Field contains the specified Value.
- The Sub-Type Find dialog offers the following search operators for a numeric field:
1. - =: The value of a record's specified field must equal the search statement's Value.
  - >: The value of a record's specified field must be greater than the search statement's Value.
  - >=: The value of a record's specified field must be greater than or equal to the search statement's Value.
  - <: The value of a record's specified field must be less than the search statement's Value.
  - <=: The value of a record's specified field must be less than or equal to the search statement's Value.
  - <>: The value of a record's specified field must not equal the search statement's Value.
- The Sub-Type Find dialog offers the following search operators for a Yes/No bit field (note that you do not have to specify a Value for this field type, only the operator):
1. - Is True: Bit is set to 1.
  - Is False: Bit is set to 0.
Specify a search value in the Value field.
- You can either manually enter a value in the field or select a value from the drop-down list. The drop-down list displays the first 100 possible values for the specified field in the service.
- Note that these possible values are only a suggestion: Only the first 100 values appear in the list, even if the field contains more than 100 values. If the field contains less than 100 values, all of the values appear in the list.
Configure the advanced search settings, if desired.
- Click Show Advanced >>.
- To make the search case-sensitive, clear the Ignore Case option.
- By default, the search begins at the sub-type record that was selected at the time you clicked the Find button. You can enter a different starting row for the search as necessary.
Click Find to begin the search.
- The system highlights the first record in the sub-type listing that meets the search criteria you specified.
If you want to search for additional records that match the criteria specified, press the F3 key.
- Each time you press the F3 key, the system highlights the next record that matches the search term. When the system reaches the end of the view, a message is displayed to continue searching from the top of the view. Select Yes to continue the search from the first record in the view. Select No to stop the search process.

If the Find tool has searched all the records in the Sub-Type tab listing and has not found a match for your search term, it returns a message that states, No record was found that matched the criteria.

About Related Service Listing Tabs

In addition, a Related Service listing shows a View of records from another service that you can access from the other service (or the listing can show related records from the same service). For example, you can view a list of an organization's employees from an Organizations record's Employees tab or you can access the same records directly from the Employees service. The 'Employees' is a separate service within Aptify, and Employees are created and saved as their own records.

About the Picture Viewer Tab

Aptify supports a feature that displays pictures within a record. Known as the Picture Viewer, it provides users with a mechanism to view, add, and update pictures that are attached to a record. (The picture's file is stored as an Attachment for that record.)

A user can add any number of pictures to a record, and the viewer supports multiple image file formats, including JPG, GIF, BMP, and PNG. The following are some of the features supported by Aptify's Picture Viewer, which are accessible using its toolbar:

Picture Viewer Toolbar

Ability to add multiple images to the record in one operation.
Ability to update pictures that have already been added to the record.
Ability to delete pictures that have been added to the record.
Ability to move back and forth through pictures.

By default, the Picture Viewer does not appear on any forms, but any user can add it to his or her personalized Companies or Persons form. See the Adding the Picture Viewer to the Companies Form and Adding a Picture to a Persons Record for more information.

In addition, an administrator can add it to any form in the system so it appears for all users for any entity in the system. Administrators can draw the Picture Viewer component on a form in any location using the Aptify Form Template Visual Designer (see Using the Visual Designer to Add New Fields or Controls for details).In addition, note that you can view any pictures you add to a record while logged in to the system using Aptify Web Access, as shown in the figure below.