Auto-Populating List Box and Combo Box Controls

Description

When you place a list box or combo box control on a Form, Alpha Anywhere offers several different ways to automatically populate the control. The controls can be automatically populated with various internal Alpha Anywhere lists or dynamic lists of data.

Internal Alpha Anywhere Lists

The following is a sampling of the lists that Alpha Anywhere can automatically generate.

  • Fields in a table

  • Layouts (like Forms, Reports, etc.) in the current database

  • Saved Operations (like Export, Copy, Append) in the current database

  • Tables or Sets in the current database

  • Scripts in the current database

  • Images in the current database

Dynamic Lists of Data

You can generate a dynamic list of data using an expression that returns a CR-LF delimited list of values. There are two ways to do this:

  • Modify the choices properties of a list box, combo box, or tree control

  • Use a record-list list box or combo box based a table or set

For example, the filter expression that controls the records that are shown in a Record List-List Box control on a form can be based on a variable or other field on the form. as the value in that variable changes (specified in the Watch Expression ), the records shown in the Record List are updated. The following screen show the user interface for applying a filter to a Record List-List box whose contents is based on a variable called vState.

images/Dynamic_Data_Filtering_1.gif

Here is the form showing the Record List, with data showing customers in MA:

images/Dynamic_Data_Filtering_2.gif

Here is the form showing the Record List, with data showing customers in CA:

images/Dynamic_Data_Filtering_3.gif

See Also