DESIGN statement

The DESIGN statement changes form design.

Syntax

The syntax consists of nested blocks of design statements. The outer block, beginning with the keyword DESIGN, defines a form whose design will change:

DESIGN formName [caption] [CUSTOM] {
    designStatement1
    ...
    designStatementN
}

Each designStatement describes one design statement. Design statements are of the following types:

NEW name [insertPos] [{...}];
MOVE selector [insertPos] [{...}];  
selector [{...}];   
REMOVE selector;
propertyName = value;

The first three statements – create (NEW), move (MOVE), and modify – may in turn contain nested blocks of design statements. The design statements remove (REMOVE) and change property value (=) are simple single statements. Each design statement must end with a semicolon if it does not contain a nested statement block.

Each selector can be one of the following types:

componentName
PROPERTY(formPropertyName)
FILTERGROUP(filterGroupName)
PARENT(selector)
GROUP([propertyGroupSelector][,groupObjectTreeSelector])
noGroupObjectTreeContainerType
groupObjectTreeContainerType(groupObjectTreeSelector)

In turn, groupObjectTreeSelector can be one of two types:

groupObjectSelector
TREE treeSelector

Description

Using the DESIGN statement the developer can manage the design of the interactive form view by creating, moving, and deleting containers and components, as well as changing their certain properties. By default, a default design is created for each form, along with appropriate containers. If necessary, you can recreate the design without the default containers and previously configured settings. This is done using the keyword CUSTOM.

Each block of design statements enclosed in braces alows to modify a particular component and its descendants. Let's call this component the current component or the current container if we know that the component should be a container in our case. In the external block following the DESIGN keyword, the main container is the current component. There are the following design statements:

• The create statement (NEW) allows to create a new container, making it a descendant of the current one. The newly-created container will be the current component in the design statements block contained in this statement.
• The move statement (MOVE) allows to make an existing component a direct descendant of the current container. This component is first removed from the previous parent container. The component being moved becomes the current component in the design statements block contained in this statement.
• The modify statement allows to modify the specified component which must be a descendant (not necessarily a child) of the current container. The specified element will be the current component in the design statements block contained in this statement.
• The remove statement (REMOVE) allows to remove a specified component from the component hierarchy. The component to be removed has to be a descendant of the current container.
• The change property value statement (=) allows to change the value of the specified property of the current component.

The component hierarchy described in this statement can have an arbitrary number of nesting levels and describe any number of components and their properties at each level.

To access design components, you can use their names or address property components on the form (PROPERTY), the parent component (PARENT), property group components (GROUP), and other base components/default design components.

Parameters

Common parameters

• formName

  The name of the form being changed. Composite ID.

• caption

  The new form caption in the interactive view mode. String literal. The form caption doesn't change in the navigator.

• name

  The name of the container being created. Simple ID.

• insertPos

  Component insertion or moving position. Specified with one of the following options:

  • BEFORE selector

  • AFTER selector

    Specifies that the component should be added or moved before (BEFORE) or after (AFTER) the specified components. The specified component must be a child of the current container.

  • FIRST

    A keyword specifying that the component should be added or moved to the first position in the list of the current container's children.

• propertyName

  The name of the component property. The list of existing properties is provided in the tables below.

• value

  The value assigned to the corresponding container property. Acceptable value types are provided in the tables below.

Component properties

Property name	Description	Value type	Default value	Examples
span	todo	Integer literal	1	2
defaultComponent	Specifying that this component should get the focus when the form is initialized. Can only be set for one component on the entire form	Extended Boolean literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
activated	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
fill	Similar to the flex property, the only difference being that if a zero value is set, the align property is set to START, otherwise align is set to STRETCH	NUMERIC type literal	0	1.5
size	The base component size in pixels (a value of -1 means that the size is undefined)	A pair of integer literals (width, height)	(-1, -1)	(100, 20)
height	The base component height in pixels.	Integer literal	-1	50
width	The base component width in pixels.	Integer literal	-1	20
flex	Extension coefficient. Value of a property similar to the CSS flex-grow property. Defines how much the component should grow in size relative to other components.	NUMERIC type literal	0	0.25
shrink	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
alignShrink	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
align alignment	Component alignment inside the container. Acceptable values: START (at the beginning), CENTER (in the center), END (at the end), STRETCH (stretched).	Alignment type	START	STRETCH
alignCaption	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
overflowHorz	todo	String literal	auto	clip visible auto
overflowVert	todo	String literal	auto	clip visible auto
marginTop	Top margin	Integer literal	0	3
marginRight	Right margin	Integer literal	0	1
marginBottom	Bottom margin	Integer literal	0	4
marginLeft	Left margin	Integer literal	0	1
margin	Margin. Sets the same value to the following properties: marginTop, marginRight, marginBottom, marginLeft	Integer literal	0	5
captionFont	The font to be used for displaying caption of the component	String literal	depends on the component	'Tahoma bold 16' 'Times 12'
font	The font to be used for displaying the component text — for example, property value, action caption, table text	String literal	depends on the component	'Tahoma bold 16' 'Times 12'
class	todo	String literal	NULL	todo
fontSize	The size of the font to be used for displaying the component text	Numeric literal	depends on the component	10
fontStyle	The style of the font to be used for the component text May contain the words 'bold' and/or 'italic', or an empty string	String literal	''	'bold' 'bold italic'
background	The color to be used for the component background	Literal of class COLOR	#FFFFFF	#FFFFCC RGB(255, 0, 0)
foreground	The color to be used for the component text	Color	NULL	#FFFFCC RGB(255, 0, 0)
showIf	Specifies a condition under which the container will be displayed.	Expression	NULL	isLeapYear(date) hasComplexity(a, b)

Container properties

Property name	Description	Value type	Default value	Examples
caption	Container header	String literal	NULL	'Caption'
image	todo	String literal	NULL	todo
collapsible	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
border	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
collapsed	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
horizontal	Container is horizontal	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
tabbed	Container is tabbed	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
childrenAlignment	Alignment of child components inside a container. Acceptable values: START, CENTER, END	Alignment type	START	CENTER
alignCaptions	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
grid	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
wrap	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
resizeOverflow	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
custom	todo	String literal	NULL	todo
lines	Number of lines (rows or columns) in container	Integer literal	1	3
lineSize	todo	Integer literal	NULL	todo
captionLineSize	todo	Integer literal	NULL	todo

Properties of actions and properties on the form

Property name	Description	Value type	Default value	Examples
autoSize	Automatic component size option. Applies to text components only	Extended Boolean literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
boxed	Drawing a frame (box) around a component	Extended Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
panelCaptionVertical	Indicates that the captions of property or action components should be drawn above the value on the panel	Extended Boolean literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
panelCaptionLast	Indicates that the value should be drawn on the panel prior to thee property caption	Extended Boolean literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
panelCaptionAlignment	Component caption alignment. Acceptable values: START (at the beginning), CENTER (in the center), END (at the end), STRETCH (stretched).	Alignment type	START	STRETCH
changeOnSingleClick	Specifying that change event should be triggered after the property component is clicked once	Extended Boolean literal	depends on the property	TRUE FALSE
focusable	Specifying that the property (action) component or a table column can get focus	Extended Boolean literal	changeKey = NULL	TRUE FALSE
hide	Specifying that the property (action) component should be always hidden	Extended Boolean literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
regexp	The regular expression that the property value must match during input	String literal	NULL	'^((8|\\+7)[\\- ]?)?(\\(?\\d\{3\}\\)?[\\- ]?)?[\\d\\- ]\{7,10\}$'
regexpMessage	The message to be shown to the user if they enter a value that does not match the regular expression	String literal	default message	'Incorrect phone number format'
pattern	Property value formatting template. The syntax of template definition is similar to the DecimalFormat or SimpleDateFormat syntax, depending on the value type	String literal	NULL	#,##0.00
maxValue	The maximum numerical value that the property component can have	Integer literal	NULL	1000000 5000000000L
echoSymbols	Specifying that a set of * characters will be displayed instead of the property value. Used for passwords, for example	Extended Boolean literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
noSort	No sorting	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
valueSize	Width and height of the property value cell in pixels	A pair of Integer literals (width, height)	(-1, -1)	(100, 20)
valueHeight	Height of the property value cell in pixels	Integer literal	depends on the property	100
valueWidth	Width of the property value cell in pixels	Integer literal	depends on the property	100
captionHeight	Height of the property caption in pixels	Integer literal	-1	100
captionWidth	Width of the property caption in pixels	Integer literal	-1	100
charHeight	Height of the property value cell in characters (rows).	Integer literal	depends on the property	2
charWidth	Width of the property value cell in characters	Integer literal	depends on the property	10
valueFlex	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
changeKey	The key that will trigger the property change event. The definition principle is similar to specifying a parameter in Keystroke.getKeystroke(String)	String literal	NULL	'ctrl F6' 'BACK_SPACE' 'alt shift X'
changeKeyPriority	todo	Integer literal	NULL	'1000'
changeMouse	todo	String literal	NULL	'DBLCLK'
changeMousePriority	todo	Integer literal	NULL	'1000'
showChangeKey	Specifying that the property caption will include that name of the key shortcut that will trigger the change event	Extended Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
focusable	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
panelColumnVertical	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
valueClass	todo	String literal	NULL	todo
captionClass	todo	String literal	NULL	todo
caption	Caption of a property or action	String literal	caption of a property or action	'Caption'
tag	todo	String literal	NULL	todo
imagePath image	The path to the file with the image to be displayed as an action icon. The path is specified relative to the images folder	String literal	NULL	'image.png'
comment	Comment of a property or action	String literal	NULL	'Comment'
commentClass	Class of comment of property or action	String literal	NULL	'comment-class'
panelCommentVertical	Indicates that the comment of property or action should be drawn above or below the value on the panel	Extended Boolean literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
panelCommentFirst	Indicates that the comment should be drawn on the panel before property value	Extended Boolean literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
panelCommentAlignment	Comment component alignment inside the container. Acceptable values: START (at the beginning), CENTER (in the center), END (at the end), STRETCH (stretched).	Alignment type	START	STRETCH
placeholder	Placeholder of a property or action	String literal	placeholder of a property or action	'Placeholder'
tooltip	The tip to be shown when the cursor hovers over the caption of a property or action	String literal	Default tooltip	'Tip'
valueTooltip	The tip to be shown when the cursor hovers over the value of a property	String literal	Default tooltip	'Tip'
valueAlignment	Component value alignment. Acceptable values: START (at the beginning), CENTER (in the center), END (at the end), STRETCH (stretched). deprecated since version 6, use valueAlignmentHorz	Alignment type	START	STRETCH
valueAlignmentHorz	Component value alignment horizontal. Acceptable values: START (at the beginning), CENTER (in the center), END (at the end), STRETCH (stretched).	Alignment type	START	STRETCH
valueAlignmentVert	Component value alignment vertical. Acceptable values: START (at the beginning), CENTER (in the center), END (at the end), STRETCH (stretched).	Alignment type	START	STRETCH
valueOverflowHorz	todo	String literal	auto	auto clip visible
valueOverflowVert	todo	String literal	auto	auto clip visible
valueShrinkHorz	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
valueShrinkVert	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
clearText	Specifying that the current text should be reset when input starts	Extended Boolean literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
notSelectAll	Specifying that the text is not selected at the start of editing	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
askConfirm	Specifies that an attempt to change the property (execute an action) will show a confirmation request	Extended Boolean literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
askConfirmMessage	Text of the confirmation request shown when an attempt to change the property (execute the action) is made	String literal	default message	'Are you sure you want to modify this property?'
toolbar	todo	Extended Boolean literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
notNull	Specifies that in case of a NULL property value, the component of this property should be highlighted	Extended Boolean literal	depends on the property	TRUE FALSE
select	todo	String literal	NULL	todo

Toolbar properties

Property name	Description	Value type	Default value	Examples
visible	Specifying the visibility of the component	Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
showViews	Show the view buttons	Extended Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
showGroup	Show the view buttons deprecated since version 6, use showViews	Extended Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
showFilters	Show the filters setting button	Extended Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
showSettings	Show the table setting button	Extended Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
showCountQuantity	Show the row quantity calculation button	Extended Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
showCalculateSum	Show the column sum calculation button	Extended Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
showPrintGroupXls	Show the XLS export button	Extended Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
showManualUpdate	Show the manual update button	Extended Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE

Grid properties

Property name	Description	Value type	Default value	Examples
autosize	todo	Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
boxed	Drawing a frame (box) around a component	Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
tabVertical	Specifying that focus will be moved from top to bottom (not from left to right)	Extended Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
quickSearch	Specifying that the table will support quick element search	Extended Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE
headerHeight	Header height in pixels	Integer literal	NULL	60
hierarchicalWidth	Width of first tree column	Integer literal	NULL	100
resizeOverflow	todo	Logical literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE
lineWidth	todo	Integer literal	NULL	60
lineHeight	todo	Integer literal	NULL	60
enableManualUpdate	Enables the manual update mode by default	Extended Boolean literal	FALSE	TRUE FALSE

Other properties

Property name	Applies to	Description	Value type	Default value	Examples
visible	custom filter, class tree	Specifying the visibility of the component for setting custom filters (class tree)	Extended Boolean literal	TRUE	TRUE FALSE

selector parameters

• componentName

  Name of a design component. Simple ID.

• formPropertyName

  Property/action name on the form.

• filterGroupName

  The name of a filter group. Simple ID.

• propertyGroupSelector

  The name of a property group. Simple ID.

• groupObjectSelector

  The name of an object group on the form. Simple ID.

• treeSelector

  The name of an object tree on the form. Simple ID.

• noGroupObjectTreeContainerType

  Type of form container:

  • BOX – a common form container
  • PANEL – contains components of properties that are displayed in PANEL view and display group of which is undefined.
  • TOOLBARBOX – a common toolbar container with property components that are displayed in the panel, marked for placement on the TOOLBAR, and for which no object group is defined.
  • TOOLBARLEFT - the left part of the toolbar
  • TOOLBARRIGHT - the right part of the toolbar
  • TOOLBAR contains components of properties that are displayed in TOOLBAR view and display group of which is undefined.

• groupObjectTreeContainerType

  The type of an object group / tree container.

  • All types of containers of the noGroupObjectTreeContainerType form (identical semantics)
  • GRID - a table component
  • TOOLBARSYSTEM - a system toolbar (number of records, group change, etc.).
  • FILTERGROUPS - contains filter group components
  • FILTERS - a component that displays custom filters

Examples

DESIGN order { // customizing the design of the form, starting with the default design
               // marking that all changes to the hierarchy will occur for the topmost container
    // creating a new container as the very first one before the system buttons, 
    // in which we put two containers - header and specifications
    NEW orderPane FIRST { 
        fill = 1; // specifying that the container should occupy all the space available to it
        MOVE BOX(o) { // moving everything related to the object o to the new container
            PANEL(o) { // configuring how properties are displayed in the object o panel
                horizontal = FALSE; // making all descendants go from top to bottom
                NEW headerRow1 { // creating a container - the first row
                    horizontal = TRUE;
                    MOVE PROPERTY(date(o)) { // moving the order date property
                        // "override" the property caption in the form design (instead of the standard one)
                        caption = 'Date of the edited order'; 
                        // setting a hint for the order date property
                        tooltip = 'Input here the date the order was made'; 
                        background = #00FFFF; // making the background red
                    }
                    MOVE PROPERTY(time(o)) { // moving the order time property
                        foreground = #FF00FF; // making the color green
                    }
                    MOVE PROPERTY(number(o)) { // moving the order number property
                        // setting that the user should preferably be shown 5 characters
                        charWidth = 5; 
                    }
                    MOVE PROPERTY(series(o)); // moving the order series property
                }
                NEW headerRow2 {
                    horizontal = FALSE; // descendants - from top to bottom
                }
                MOVE PROPERTY(note(o));
            }

            size = (400, 300); //specifying that the container o.box should have a base size of 400x300 pixels
        }
        // creating a container that will store various specifications for the order
        NEW detailPane { 
            // marking that this container should be a tab panel, where its descendats are tabs
            tabbed = TRUE;
            MOVE BOX(d) { // adding a container with order lines as one of the tabs in the top panel
                caption = 'Lines'; // setting the caption of the tab panel
                // making the row number column never have focus
                PROPERTY(index(d)) { focusable = FALSE; } 
                GRID(d) {
                    // making sure that by default the focus when opening the form is set to the row table
                    defaultComponent = TRUE; 
                }
            }
            MOVE BOX(s) { // adding a container with sku totals as one of the detailPane tabs
                caption = 'Selection';
            }
        }
    }
}

// splitting the form definition into two statements (the second statement can be transferred to another module)
DESIGN order {
    // removing the container with print and export to xls buttons from the hierarchy, thereby making them invisible
    REMOVE TOOLBARLEFT; 
}

The output is the following form: