Configuring Forms

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to add fields and other entities to a form.

Form Configuration

In this section, we’ll focus on configuring forms. When configuring forms, you can indicate which fields and links are available on a form, as well as the order in which they appear.

You can configure both search and results forms for each type of entity in APM. Search forms are the section of the screen that we use to filter the results. Results forms are the resulting forms that contain the data fields.

For example, the Producer Search form appears like the image below by default. In this case we are searching for a producer with the ID ACME01102.

The Producer Search form of the Producers workspace. A search has been run for a producer with the ID “ACME01102”.

Once the producer has been found and opened, the form looks like this:

The detail form of the Producer Master record is displayed.

The possibilities for customizing forms are extensive, but some of the changes you can make include:

Indicating which fields to include on the search form
Indicating the order in which fields appear on the form
Pre-defining the sort order of records in the search results
Defining the way the form behaves when it’s opened
Setting other form controls, such as the number of rows shown on each page.

You can configure search forms to display differently for individual users, for all members of a security group, or globally for all users.

Sections

To make your forms more readable, you can group fields and links into sections. You can also create new sections, modify section labels and layouts, and indicate whether a section is collapsible.

Why are sections useful? Let’s say we want to display contact information, such as phone and email, for each producer. The first image below shows these fields at the bottom of the form.

A Producer Detail form with no sections.

Moving the fields to a section makes it much easier to visually emphasize the contact fields and set them apart from the rest of the producer detail:

The detail form for the same producer, but with a new section called Contact Information containing the contact name, phone, and cell phone fields.

Hint

For entity fields to appear after configuring a form, you need to run the SynchDB process. To do this, go to Administrator→Tools→Database, select Synchronize Database, and select Run.

Field Styles

Field Styles allow you to manage the attributes of a field, to change how it is displayed on a form. For example, you can alter the default size of a field on the form, or alter the background color of a field to visually alert the customer to a special characteristic of the field.

The images below show two custom fields, Birth Date and Favorite Color, before and after customizing the field styles. The Birth Date has a yellow highlight, and the Favorite Color field is longer.

When you create a field style, you can select whether the field style applies to a specific form, such as Broker or Address, or whether it is global. Field Styles can be found in the Administrator portal under Entity Configuration→Field Styles.

Configure the Producer Detail Form

Business Example:

In this exercise, we will add the two user defined entity fields, BirthDate and FavoriteColor, to the Producer Master Detail form, and format the fields to display correctly.

Since we added two entity fields, they will not appear in the form configuration until we synchronize the database.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

Run SyncDB to synchronize the database.
1. From the Administrator portal, select Tools.
2. Under the Database sub-menu, select Synchronize Database.
3. Select Run.
Rename the Producer Master form to Broker Master.
1. From the Manager portal, open Producers→Agents.
2. Select Search to display the list of agents.
3. Open any agent record.
4. Select the Configure icon, then select Screen Layout.
5. Select BrokerDFI from the list of forms.
6. In the Name field, enter Broker Master.
7. In the Sequence field, enter 1.
Add the BirthDate and FavoriteColor fields to the form.
1. Select Configure.
  The Form Builder is displayed.
2. Find the BirthDate field in the Components list on the left.
3. Drag BirthDate to the bottom of the Agent Information section.
4. Drag FavoriteColor to the right of the BirthDate field.
5. Select Save, then Close.
6. Save and close the form detail dialog box.
  Note
  BirthDate and FavoriteColor fields now appear under the Broker Information.
Change the labels to Birth Date and Favorite Color.
1. Double-click the label next to the BirthDate field.
2. Select Labels.
3. Enter Birth Date in the English column on all three rows.
4. Select Save.
5. Repeat these steps to change the FavoriteColor label to Favorite Color.
6. Close the Configure window and the Form Detail window.
Change the FavoriteColor field to use the dropdown list showing the entity values.
1. Select Administrator→Entity Configuration→Entity Field Search.
2. Search for the field name FavoriteColor .
3. Select Reopen.
4. Change the Value Type to Code.
5. From the Code Type ID list, search for and select Color.
  Note
  We created this code type list in the previous exercise.
6. Select Save, then Activate.
Use a Field Style to change the width of the FavoriteColor field.
1. From the Administrator portal, select Entity Configuration→Field Styles.
2. Select Add (+).
3. Select the Entity Name: Broker.
4. Select the Field Name: FavoriteColor.
5. Leave the Form ID blank.
6. Select a Custom Style: StandardDropDown.
7. Set the Field Width to 200.
8. Select Save.

Summary

Configuring forms involves indicating available fields and links, their order, and customizing search and results forms.
Sections can be used to group fields and links, making forms more readable and visually emphasizing specific fields.
Field Styles allow managing field attributes, such as size and color, and can be applied globally or to specific forms.

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