About the Form View
Introduction
The Form View allows complex forms to be designed and then used to view data. Compared to the Grid View it can be used to display relational data and provides much more control over how the data is laid out.
Design, Browse and Query modes
The Form View operates in 3 modes, Design mode where the layout of the form can be edited, Browse mode where actual data can be viewed in the form and Query mode where you can specify and run simple queries. You switch between the three modes using the Design/Query/Browse Toggle buttons located in the left hand side of the Form View toolbar. The other functions available from this toolbar are dependent on which mode you are in. See the separate documentation on Browse Mode, Design Mode and Query Mode.
Design mode is shown, if there are no widget on the form. Usually browse mode is shown, unless initial data retrieval is switched off. In this case query mode is shown instead.
Form View Widgets
Widgets are the key to how data is displayed in the Form View. Each Widget is positioned on the form and can use its space to display its data. Widgets are added/removed, repositioned, resized and configured in Design mode. In Browse mode the Widgets display the current data. In Query mode the widgets allow you to enter criteria for a query.
Widgets on a form are 'bound' to a particular field or fields. This tells the Widget what data it has to display. There are a number of Widgets that are available, with each Widget type being able to display data from a particular type of Field(s). We expect the number of Widget types to expand greatly in the future, and expect this to a be a key area of extension by third parties. Some Widgets display data from a single field whilst others can display data from multiple fields. Some Widgets are very simple (e.g. TextFieldWidget) whilst others are more complex (e.g MolPaneWidget and TextAreaWidget). See the documentation on each particular Widget for more details.
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