• A Conditional Object Example
• About Forms and Browses
• Accented Characters
• Adding Users from the Desktop
• Changing Custom Menus and Toolbars at Runtime
• Circular Tabbing on a Form
• Creating a Maximized Application with a Menu
• Creating Alpha Anywhere Help Text
• Creating Alpha Anywhere Help Text - AlphaSports
• Creating and Assigning a Startup Form
• Creating and Using a Conditional Object
• Creating Custom Menus
• Creating Menu Forms
• Creating the InvoiceItemsPie Form
• Creating Wallpaper for Your Application
• Design a Custom Menu
• Designing an Application for Alpha Five Runtime
• Displaying a Form as a Dialog Box
• Displaying the Main Menu
• Dynamic Internationalization for Desktop Application Forms and Reports
• Editing Objects
• Editing System Menus
• Editing System Toolbars
• Filter Builder
• Find by Form
• Find by Key
• Find Text
• Follow Changes and Enters
• Form Editor Control Library
• Form Events
• Form Headers and Footers
• Form Layout - Mouse Cursor Property
• Genies
• Linking to a External Help File Topic
• Managing Style Properties
• Methods for Opening Forms and Browses
• Modal and Modeless Data Entry
• Navigation
• Object Explorer
• OnKey Events on Forms
• Placing a Conditional Object
• Placing a Control on a Form
• Placing Bitmaps on a Form
• Placing Hotspots
• Placing Hyperlinks, Mail-to Links, and FTP Links on a Form
• Placing Lines and Frames
• Placing Subforms
• Prompting for User Input
• Put a Button on a Form to Open Another Form Showing Selected Records
• Put a Button on a Form to Send a Customized Email
• Query
• Querying and Sorting Child Tables on a Form
• Quick Import for a Form or Browse
• Reading From and Writing To the Data Dictionary
• Relative Addresses
• Running a Script with a Function Key
• Sales People Form
• Selecting and Opening a Form
• Selecting the Appropriate View of Your Data
• Setting Form Properties
• Setting Form Restrictions
• Setting the Tab Order
• Specifying a Window
• Startup Form Design Examples
• Synchronizing Form and Embedded Browse Record Navigation
• The Customer Information Form
• The CustQueryReport Form
• The Edit_Customer_Info Form
• The Inventory Form
• The Invoice Form
• The InvoiceItemsPie Form
• The InvoiceReportMenu Form
• The Items Form
• The Main Menu Form
• The Vendors Form
• The Window Bar
• Understanding Levels in a Form
• Using a Dialogasa Search Form
• Using a Form
• Using the Form Editor
• Using the Navigator
• Using the New Form Genie

Displaying the Main Menu

Description

When you open the Invoice database, Alpha Anywhere automatically displays the main menu. Main Menu is a form based on the Invoice Menu table. You can specify that a particular form in the database is automatically opened when the database is opened with the following procedure.

Procedure: Specify the Startup Form

1. Activate the Control Panel .

2. In the File menu select Database properties.

3. In the resulting Database Properties dialog box, check the When this database is opened, open a startup form check box.

4. Select the startup form you wish to use.

5. Click the OK button.

   

Separating the Code from the Event

The recommended approach to building user interfaces in Alpha Anywhere is to separate the OnPush or OnChange event from the code. Having the code run under a script or function makes it easier to both debug and to maintain an evolving application. Button1 displays this architecture. It's OnPush event calls an Action Script that has a single action: "Run a script". This action runs an Action Script named "invoice_form" that has a single action: "Open Form or Browse Layout". This action opens the Invoice form. There are two benefits to this design:

1. The script that actually opens the Invoice form is separate from the Main Menu form, meaning that it is reusable.

2. Because the invoice_form script is separate from the Main Menu form, the developer can create and debug it without editing the Main Menu form. This makes the developer more productive in the Alpha Anywhere environment.

See Also

• Creating the Navigation Toolbar
• Displaying the Navigation Toolbar
• Ending the AlphaSports Application
• Starting the AlphaSports Application
• The Main Menu Form