The DataWindow painter provides views related to the DataWindow object you are working on. Interacting with these views is how you work in the DataWindow painter.
The default layout in the DataWindow painter shows the Design view and Preview view. To display the other views, select View>DataWindow Painter Layout and select the views you want.
You can rearrange the views using the handle in the top-left corner. For more information, see “Using views in painters”.
The Design view shows a representation of the DataWindow object and its controls. You use this view to design the layout and appearance of the DataWindow object. Changes you make are immediately shown in the Preview view.
The Preview view shows the DataWindow object with data as it will appear at runtime. If the Print Preview toggle (File>Print Preview) is selected, you see the DataWindow object as it would appear when printed with an optional blue outline that shows where the page margins are located.
The Export/Import Template view for XML shows a default template for exporting and importing data in XML format. You can define custom templates for import and export. The templates are saved with the DataWindow object. For more information, see Chapter 13, “Exporting and Importing XML Data.”
The Export Template view for XHTML shows a default template for exporting data in XHTML format. You can define custom XHTML export templates for customizing XML Web DataWindow generation. The templates are saved with the DataWindow object. For more information, see the Programmer’s Guide.
The Control List view lists all controls in the DataWindow object. Selecting controls in this view selects them in the Design view and the Visual Studio Properties window. You can also sort controls by Control Name, Type, or Tag.
The Data view displays the data that can be used to populate a DataWindow object and allows manipulation of that data.
The Column Specifications view shows a list of the columns in the data source. For the columns, you can add, modify, and delete initial values, validation expressions, and validation messages. You can also specify that you want a column to be included in a prompt for retrieval criteria during data retrieval. To add a column to the DataWindow object, you can drag and drop the column from the Column Specifications view to the Design view. For external or stored procedure data sources, you can add, delete, and edit columns (column name, type, and length).
