You enter the attributes of a form on the Form Description screen.
Within this screen, all but three of the fields are boolean, or yes/no, fields. Boolean fields will accept the following input and convert upper-case input to lower-case:
Value - Acceptable Entries
yes - y or yes
no - n or no
The fields of the Form Description screen are described in the following paragraphs, and reference should be made to the preceding table should questions arise regarding input within any of the boolean fields.
Form Name
Each form stored in the formfile must have a name which is unique within that formfile.
Data File
This field identifies the name of the RMSfile associated with the form.
Beginning Form
This field identifies which is the first form of a formfile to be displayed. When a formfile contains more than one form, one of the forms must be designated as the first, or beginning, form. If the form being described is the beginning form, enter yes. If nothing is entered in the field, then a value of no is assumed, although it will not appear in the field until the screen is redisplayed at a later time.
Unique Records
This field specifies whether or not records in the RMSfile may contain the same value in the primary key field(s). An entry of no means that the records need not be unique. Conversely, an entry of yes means that the records must be unique. If no entry is made in this field, a value of no is assumed.
Repeating Form
An entry of yes in this field means that the form is not be repainted each time a record is stored (unless the Append Form field is set to yes); only the fields are cleared. In addition, the next form is not be displayed until the NEXTFORM key <F7> is pressed. An entry of no means that the next form is displayed as soon as the information on the current form has been stored. If nothing is entered in this field, the value defaults to no.
Append Form
If you set the Append Form field to yes, form displays this form below the previous form instead of displaying it at the top of the screen. If this field is set to no, this form replaces the previous form on the screen. If no entry is made in this field, its value is set to no.
Freeze Form
This field indicates whether the form should remain on the screen when additional forms are appended. An entry of no in this field causes the form to be scrolled if additional forms are appended and there is not enough room on the screen for them to be displayed. If this field is set to yes, then the forms appended to this form will scroll off the screen as they reach the bottom of the frozen form. The field is set to no if no entry is made in it.
Additional Form For One Record
Normally, one form accesses one record. When more than one form is required to display or enter one record, an entry of yes in this field allows further information to be entered belonging to the same record. This field should be set to no for the first form used to create a record. If additional forms are needed to enter further information to the same record, this field should be set to yes for those forms. No is the default value for this field.
Required Form
If your formfile contains a sequence of forms (say header, detail, and trailer) and you want to make sure that when the operator adds or updates a record on one form, the operator must add or update the subsequent forms, set the Required Form to yes. For example, to insure that the trailer form containing the sales tax calculation is always updated when the operator adds or updates a detail record, set the Required Form field in the trailer form to yes. If the Required Form field is set to yes and you have updated or added in an earlier form in this sequence, then you must update or add this form before you are allowed to use the EXIT function. The field will default to no if nothing is entered in it.
Next Form Name
Enter the name of the next form that should appear following the display of the current form. The last form in a series of forms generally has the name of the beginning form of the series in this field. In a formfile consisting of only a single form, the entry in this field should be the same as the name displayed in the Form Name field.
After you store the information entered on the Form Description screen, toolkit displays a blank development screen. You can move the cursor about freely on this screen using the ARROW keys, SPACE BAR, RETURN, BACK SPACE, or TAB keys. Background text can be typed as needed, and fields may be added simply by positioning the cursor in the location that you want the field to begin and pressing the ADD key <F6>, thereby causing the Field Description screen to be displayed. Complete and store this screen for each field to be added to the form. After you store the Field Description screen, toolkit redisplays the development screen, including the newly added field. The fields are displayed in various modes, depending upon the nature of the field being displayed, as well as the type of screen being used to display them.