A detail screen field defines a field control for display on the parent screen. The field displays data to the user and, when displaying a transaction or a fetch, can capture data from the user. A field can be defined to have one of several edit types that will affect both the appearance and behavior of the field on the screen, especially when capturing data.
There are several different edit types that may be selected for a field definition. This edit type will significantly impact the field’s behavior on the Agentry Client. Despite this, however, there are several attributes that are common among most fields regardless of edit type. For many field edit types these common attributes are the only attributes. For others there are additional attributes specific to the edit type selected for the field definition.
In many use cases a field definition will target a property within the definition it displays. The value of that property will be displayed to the user and, for transaction and fetch screens, the user may be able to edit that value. In these situations, the value of the field will be assigned to the property when the user advances the wizard past that screen. This may be the case when the user clicks a next button or finish button.
The field may also target other definitions within the application. If the target of a field is not a property definition, the value of the field will not be copied to that definition. It will only use it as a data source for the value to display. These targets can be selected using the target browser and can include other fields on the current screen or other screens within the same screen set.
With the release of the Agentry Mobile Platform version 5.1, when the target is another screen field that is one of the edit types for displaying complex tables, it is possible to select a complex table record field from the currently selected record in that target screen field. In previous releases it was necessary to define an update rule for the field that would retrieve the complex table record and field to display in the screen field. The additional target browser behavior negates the need to define such a rule. Existing applications using an update rule for this purpose will still behave correctly, and can be modified to use the new behavior or left as is with the same result.
The target for a screen field can also include a field on screens in other screen sets, provided those screen sets currently exist on the Agentry Client, but are hidden from view due to the focus being on the current screen.
A field on a wizard screen displaying a property value will enforce the data limits of that property. This means minimum and maximum values or string lengths defined for the target property will be enforced by the field definition. For strings, no more than the maximum number of characters may be entered. For numeric values, the target property’s attributes related to precision and maximum values will be enforced. For minimum values the user will receive an error message when trying to advance the wizard of either the minimum number of characters or the minimum numeric value has not been entered.
The labels for a field may be defined as static text or as a hyperlink. Hyperlink labels may only be defined for a field displayed on a detail screen that displays an object instance. When a label is defined as a hyperlink, an action is defined to be executed when the user clicks that label.
Fields may have their displayed value set through an update rule. These fields can still target a property, normally for transactions and fetches, in which case the value of the field as set by the update rule will be the value assigned to the property when the user advances the wizard. When displaying an object, there is normally no reason to target a property with a field definition whose value is set via an update rule.
Fields may also be hidden and/or disabled via rule evaluation. A hidden field will not be displayed on the detail screen. An optional behavior related to a hidden field is disabling that field when it is hidden. A field may also be disabled via a separate rule independent or in lieu of a hidden rule. A disabled field on a wizard screen will not enforce any required values as defined by the target property.
Fields are positioned and sized on the detail screen using the columns and rows into which the detail screen is broken up. The position of a field is set based on the upper left corner of the field and is specified using the row and column position. The width of the field is specified in columns, and the height is specified in rows, counting from the position in the field which its placed.