Browse
Description
An Alpha Anywhere User Guide to the Desktop.
- Name
- Description
- Ad-Hoc Browse
Alpha Anywhere makes the Ad-Hoc Browse feature standard. Ad-Hoc Browse allows you to quickly open a Browse (or Form) view of a Table or Set, showing only selected fields. This feature allows you to quickly find, edit, or add field values without going through the process of creating a new browse or form. The Ad Hoc Browse selection appears on the right-click menu after you select a Table and Set in the Control Panel.
- Browse Banding
You can specify the background color and style of alternate groups of browse rows. This feature, named Green Banding is illustrated below. Each group can be any number of rows and have any fill style. This browse has alternate bands of light green and white.
- Browse Controls
When you are editing a Browse Layout (both stand-alone browses, and embedded browses), a new toolbox is available. The toolbox allows you to more easily insert buttons and images in browse cells. New genies make it particularly easy to insert buttons for common tasks, such as opening a form to show more detail for the current row, printing a report that is filtered on the current row, or running an operation that is filtered on the current row. Browse Controls toolbox makes it easy to place buttons and images in browse cells.
- Browse Layouts - Find by Key - Scroll Found Record to Top
In V9 and earlier, when using the Find by Key dialog in a Browse, the record that was found was scrolled to the top of the browse. In V10, the record pointer was moved to the found record, but the record remained in its current scroll position.
- Browse - No Records in Query Message
If you have a Browse layout open and you execute some Xbasic that sets the Browse filter to a query that does not find any matching records, then if the Browse allows data entry, focus will move to the new record row. However, if the Browse does not allow data entry, the Browse did not have any facility for presenting a message to the user. Now, the Browse has a new property that allows you to set the 'No records in query' message. The message can either be plain text, or html.
- Browse Properties
Using the Browse Properties dialog box, you can change the font, type size, border, grid lines, and other appearance attributes of a browse.
- Record at Start and at End Functions
As a result of the changes to the Browse, the following new methods are available:
- Changing Browse Columns and Rows
While viewing records in a browse, you can resize rows and columns, re-arrange columns, split the browse to view as many as four different areas in the same window, and show only parent records from a set.
- Changing the Browse Appearance
While viewing records in a browse, you can resize rows and columns, re-arrange columns, split the browse to view as many as four different areas in the same window, and show only parent records from a set.
- Column Properties
You can set properties that affect the appearance and behavior of individual columns in a browse. These properties include the color, font, and format of the data. Additionally you can set color and font equations, which change the appearance of data depending on conditions you set.
- Configuring an Embedded Browse
The SearchBy combo box displays the fields of the Customer table. When the user selects an entry, the Browse1 list below it displays the field's name and non-null values. The picture below shows two examples of Browse1 displaying non-null values from the field in the Customer table that has the same name as the field name specified in the SearchBy combo box.
- Creating and Formatting an Embedded Browse
Procedures for creating an embedded browse and then formatting it.
- Customizing Browses
Browses and forms are layouts you use to enter, edit, and view data. You can customize browses and forms to make data entry easier, to improve readability, and create calculated fields. In this lesson, you learn how to design and use custom browses. You will learn how to create and use forms in the next lesson.
- Detecting When a Field in a Browse Has Changed
Steps involved in detecting when a field in a browse has changed:
- Filtering a Browse with a Combo Box Selection
This topic refers to the AlphaSports sample database provided with Alpha Anywhere.
- Getting the Value of the Active Cell in a Browse
This technique returns the value of the current cell of a browse when the user double clicks. This example displays the cell value in a message box.
- Coloring Alternating Rows in an Browse
Edit the form and click the 'xy' button( Form > Calculated Fields ) to add the following calculated fields to the form or browse. The example shown here is for the Invoice form in AlphaSports.
- Color Columns in a Browse
The color of a browse column is a property that you can set at design time or at run time with Xbasic code. To set a browse column color at design time.
- Open Form or Browse Layout
The Open Form or Browse Layout action opens a form or browse.
- Opening a Filtered Browse on another Form
Button4 on the Detail tab of the Inventory form opens the Review of Sales form to display the sales history for the currently selected product. The procedure to create a similar button is very simple.
- Placing an Embedded Browse
You can place an embedded browse on a form to display multiple records from a child table in a set, or on a form designed for a single table. By clicking on a row of the browse, the record you click becomes the current one. To place an embedded browse on a form:
- Placing Dynamic Content into Browse Columns
You may place dynamic (computed) content into any column of a browse. The column may contain any combination of the following content:
- Responding to a Browse Double-Click
The following script was placed under the double-click event of a browse. It detects the name of the column and displays the current value of the double-clicked cell.
- Select a Control Dialog Box
Steps involved in selecting a control dialog box.
- Select Attachments Dialog Box
Use the Select Attachments dialog box to add attachments to an email message.
- Select Multiple Files Dialog Box
Use the Select Multiple Files dialog box to add attachments to the email message.
- Selectively Hiding Browse Columns
If you want to interactively change the columns that appear in an embedded browse, you can selectively change column widths to zero. To start with, we define two session variables.
- Setting Filter and Order Criteria
You can pre-determine the order and selection of records that appear in a browse by saving filter/order criteria. When the browse is opened, the saved query is automatically run and record order and selection is determined by the saved order expression. The Filter Expression requires that the Lastname field contain the letter "a". The Order Expression orders the records on the Lastname field:
- Setting User Restrictions
When creating a browse, you can set restrictions on what users can do in the browse. For example, you can allow users to enter new records, but disallow them from changing existing ones. By restricting command access, you can prevent unauthorized users from damaging data and inexperienced users from becoming confused by unnecessary choices.
- Unique and Filtered Indexes
To access the Index Builder, right-click on a table or set in the Control Panel, and select Define Indexes from the menu. In the Index Builder, you see the Index Name, Order Expression, Filter Expression, Sort Direction, and whether the index includes Unique key values only, or All key values.
- Using a Browse
A guide to many of the processes involved in working with a browse.
- Using Browse by Expression
The Browse by Expression feature allows you to conditionally replace an embedded browse on a form with another embedded browse, based on the value of an session variable.
- Using Calculated Values on Browses
You can use calculated values to display data in a browse. Unlike a table field, a calculated value is not stored in a table. Instead, its value is updated whenever the field is viewed, printed, or used in another calculation.
- Using the Browse Editor
A browse provides a multi-record, tabular view of data in a table or set. Each row in a browse table corresponds to a record, and each column corresponds to a field. A browse can display fields from a table (or set) or selected fields. The fields can be in any order.
- Using the New Browse Genie
When you create a new browse layout, the New Browse genie lets you select which columns you want to place in the browse layout and apply a stylesheet to the browse. To create a new browse:
- Working with a Browse in Design Mode
A number of short procedures for working with a browse. Topics include changing a browse's dimensions, removing fields from a browse, and adding fields to a browse
Methods
- Scroll Current Row Method
You can now scroll the row with focus to a particular position within the browse window using the new .Scroll_Current_Row() method.