4th Dimension Learning Basics

Forms With 4D there are four types of forms, Input, Output, both and not specified. Data can be entered and displayed on an Input/both/not specified form, but only displayed on an Output form.

Pages There is an interesting feature of 4D called “Pages.” When creating a Form you can create multiple pages of that form. Each page can be different. You can also create a “0” or zero page. Anything contained on the zero page will be displayed on subsequent pages of the current form.

To be able to work with different pages you must be in the Design mode and have a Form open and ready for editing. If you are not at this point the 4D Design menu bar will not show the “Form” menu. This takes a bit of getting used to.

When a Form is first created there are 1 pages “0 & 1.” You can add or delete pages as you wish except you can’t delete page 0 or 1. Figure 13 - Form Pages Default Forms If you want to skip form creation, 4D will automatically create default Input and Output forms for you. If you have not created any forms, when you close the Structure for Sample Database window you will get the following message.

Figure 14 - Create Default Forms Window If you select “Yes for All” you will get the following default Input and Output forms. Note: In the example of Figure 15 I have made some editing changes on the forms to fit the page here, but basically this is what you get with the default forms.

Figure 15 - Default Input (Detail) Form (In User Mode) with Buttons Identified Figure 16 - Default Output (List) Form (In User Mode) Creating Custom Forms If you clicked “No to All” in the Create Default Forms window (see Figure 13) you will be able to create custom forms. Start by creating an input or “Detail” form. The output or “List” form is created the same way. Make sure you are still in the Design mode, click the Design menu and select the “New Form” menu item.

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Figure 17 - Creating a New Form Note: You may want to do some experimenting here. New Forms allow access to features that once created cannot be edited or changed.

So be aware that if what you create is not what you want, you may have to delete the form and create another new one. There are some things that can be edited on forms later, but not everything.

Also note that the database must have 1 input and 1 output form. You cannot delete a form that has been designated as Input or Output or Both. If you want to delete it, you must make other forms Input and Output.

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You can then delete the first one. When you start with a New Form you are shown the “New Form Wizard.” Note: You can only get to the New Form Wizard by creating a new form. You cannot use the New Form Editor to edit forms already created.

Creating forms will take practice and some experimenting to figure out what options you will want to use with the New Form Wizard. Remember, after the form is created, you cannot go back and use the New Form Wizard to change some of the options.

If some of the basic options need changing you will need to delete the form and create another new one. Caution! Selecting the “Use” button at the lower right of the New Form Wizard window will close the window and not allow any more use of the New Form Wizard for the current form. Do not select the Use until you are all done with the New Form Wizard.

Figure 18 - The Initial “New Form Wizard” Screen For now just use the default “Form Name.” In this case it was a second try so the default name is “Form2.” This can be changed later. Move the data fields you wish on the form by either dragging them from the “Available Fields:” window to the “Selected Fields:” window or using the buttons in the middle.

You can move the data fields up and down in the Selected Fields: window and the final order will be how they will appear initially on the form. When done, at the bottom left, select the “Advanced…” button. Note: The cursor in Figure 18 is pointing to a little lever at the lower right. Clicking that will show or hide what the data fields look like on the form.

It’s turned off now because the window gets too wide to show the screen shot here. Figure 19 - The New Form Wizard Advanced Options Screen From the Advanced Options window you can select various features for the form. The best way to decide what you want is to experiment.

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You can set the background of the form from a list. Since some of these are rather wild. It is suggested you error on the conservative side. When done, click the “OK” button.

You will now be shown the Form so you can make layout editing changes. Note: If no background shows up, you probably didn’t add data fields yet. There must be at least one data field on the form for the background to be seen.

Default or Auto Entry Codes There are 3 codes that can be used in 4D that help with data entry (see Table 1). To use these codes, make sure there has been a data field created with an appropriate name. Select the data field on the Form layout and then enter the Default Code in the Property List window. See Figure 21 for calling the Property List window.

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See Figure 20 for selecting and entering the Default Code. Default Code Code Description #D Enters current Date as set by the computer’s clock #H Enters the current time as set by the computer’s clock #N Enters a sequence number as a long integer value.

Each time a new record is created and save the value is incremented by 1. Table 1 - Default Codes Figure 20 - Setting Default Values Tools Palette To do design work on the Form layout you need to use the “Tools Palette.” To select the Tools Palette you must be in the Design mode and from the Form menu select the “Display” sub menu and the “Tools Palette.” Figure 21 - Selecting the “Tools” Palette The Tools Palette is a bit congested with 36 tools. To help, clicking on a tool icon will display a brief description of what the tool icon represents.

For additional tools, click on the Menu Bar “Object” and you will be able to select Line Width, what to fill an object with(fill pattern), Border options and the foreground and background colors of the object. Figure 22 - Design Tools Splitter There is a new tool with 4D 6.5 called “Splitter.” See the arrows in Figure 22 for the Tool Icon

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