Form building

The IBM TRIRIGA Application Platform provides a tool named Form Builder for defining forms to create, view, and edit the contents of records. To get to the Form Builder, navigate to Tools > Builder Tools > Form Builder.

Each form is associated with a business object. The Form Builder organizes forms by the module that contains their associated business object. The left side of the Form Builder is a list of modules with a radio button next to each module. Selecting a radio button selects the corresponding module. The right side of the Form Builder lists the forms associated with the selected module.

The list of forms on the right side of the Form Builder is organized into these columns:

Name: This is the name that is used in workflows to uniquely identify the form. This name is unique within a module.
Label: This is the string that identifies the form in the user interface.
Business Object: The name of the business object the form is associated with.
Status: This is the status of the form. For an explanation, see "Create-Publish-Revise cycle".
Object Label: This is the current object label identifier for the form.

The actions that appear at the top of the Form Builder when it first appears are always displayed at the top of the Form Builder:

Style Sheet Editor

Clicking this action pops up the Style Sheet Editor, which is a tool for editing style attributes that may be common to many forms. The Style Sheet Editor is described in the IBM TRIRIGA Application Platform: User Experience User Guide.

Alternate Forms

You use the Alternate Forms action to specify an alternate form for a record when that record is opened in a query section, graphics section, locator field, availability section, or calendar section. At runtime, if an alternate form has been defined for a module, business object, and form, the record displays in the alternate form.

Clicking the Alternate Form action opens the Alternate Form List Manager, which is different from the List Manager. You use the Alternate Form List Manager to identify alternate forms or to delete them. To identify alternate forms, click the New action. In each row in the Alternate Form List, define the module, business object, form, and alternate form.

After the list is created, you can use it in a query section, graphics section, availability section, calendar section, or locator form field.

Do not use alternate forms for add or create functionality. Only use forms in the Alternate Form List framework to open records after they have been created.

At runtime, if an Alternate Form List is defined for an operation and more than one row in the Alternate Form List satisfies the record, the most specific is used. For example, if there is an alternate form for the record's form and a different alternate form for the record's module, the specific form alternate is used.

Where Used

If you select the radio button for a form and then click this action, a window pops up showing what references or uses the selected form. The fields displayed are: Name, Type (e.g., Query, Workflow, Nav Item), Module, Object, Form, Action, and Additional Information.

If you want to export the information in the Where Used window, click the Export Usage action at the top of the window. You will be offered the choice of saving or opening a csv file.

See "Deleting fields" for a list of references reported by Where Used.

New

Clicking this action pops up a window that allows you to specify the properties of a new form. The new form will be associated with the currently selected module.

Open

If you select the radio button for a form and then click this action, a window pops up to allow you to edit the properties of the selected form.

You also can click the hyperlinked name of the form, which causes the same window to pop up.

Copy

If you select the radio button for a form and then click this action, a copy of the selected form is created.

Delete

If you select the radio button for a form and then click this action, the selected form is deleted.

Data Modeler

Clicking this action opens the Data Modeler tool. The Data Modeler is described in "Data modeling".

Additional actions appear at the top of the Form Builder when you select the radio button to the left of the name of a form. The actions that appear vary based on the status of the form.

If you select the radio button for a form in Created or Revision In Progress status, one additional action appears to the right of the Delete action. The label of this action is Publish. Clicking the Publish action causes the selected form to be published. Publishing is explained in "Create-Publish-Revise cycle".

If you select the radio button for a form in Published status, additional actions appear at the top of the Form Builder:

Report Header

This action is used to create a raw template for a form report. Form reports and this action are described in the IBM TRIRIGA Application Platform: Reporting User Guide.

ADO XML v2

This action is used for the integration between the IBM TRIRIGA Application Platform and SAP Crystal Reports to help configure SAP Crystal Reports to produce a form report. This is explained in the IBM TRIRIGA Application Platform: Connector for SAP BusinessObjects User Guide.

ADO XMLv1

Revise

This action appears to the right of the Delete action.

Clicking this action changes the state of the selected form to Revision in Progress and pops up a window that allows you to edit the properties of the selected form. Revision is explained in "Create-Publish-Revise cycle".