Running forms

You run forms to display and change information in the database. You can run a form at any time after InfoMaker has generated a basic form.

StepsTo run a form you are not currently working on:

  1. Click the Preview button in the PowerBar, select the form in the Run/Preview dialog box, then click OK.

StepsTo run a form you are currently working on:

  1. Click the Run button in the PainterBar.

What happens

You are now running the form. Command buttons and picture buttons you have placed in the form are now active. For information about adding controls to a form, see Chapter 20, “Enhancing Forms.”

Exactly what you can do when you run the form depends on the form style. It is the form style that determines the menu items that display in the menu bar and the buttons that display in the PainterBar when you run a form.

Typically when you run a form, InfoMaker retrieves the data from the database and displays it to you; then you can scroll through existing data and add, modify, and delete rows in the database.

You (and your users) can add or modify data in a form in multiple input languages. If you use multiple input languages, you can display a Language bar on your desktop to change the current input language. In a form, the input language in effect the first time a column gets focus becomes the default input language for that column. If you subsequently change the input language when that column has focus, the new input language becomes the default for that column. This behavior does not apply to columns that have the RightToLeft property set.

NoteWhen you change data using a form If you change data and you do not click the Update button before closing the form, InfoMaker prompts you to save data in the database before closing the form.

For complete information about what you can do when running forms that use InfoMaker’s built-in form styles, see “Actions in forms”.

If you need information about running forms using a style developed by a PowerBuilder user at your site, see the developer.