InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by jan_rifkinson on 2008/12/06 09:10

I'm slow figuring out the purpose of forms vs grids.

To me a form is for data inputing to guarantee some control over the data entry format. I don't know how to use forms in the IQ context nor what the relationship is between forms & grids, i.e. how to use one to the other. TIA

Comments

Forms in IQ are a user-defined list of fields where the user can

Choose which field to include in the form
Choose where this field will appear
Choose default values to be applied to the item, when the form is applied

Forms are like other apps forms, except that visually, they are shown in a list (not in a 2-D window). Details here: 4. Forms

Having access to the form buried in the properties box is non-intuitive, and pretty cramped. For forms to be a useful concept, there needs to be a way for the form to pop in an MDI window of its own (like the grids have).

Forms are already useful to me... But I agree that there are lots of things in the properties pane -- and that's why I always use the keyboard to navigate in it, which is near instant (F4 to focus on the properties pane, TAB to switch columns, "type and search" to find specific fields).

Eventually, the whole properties UI will be modified : sections will be autonomous and dockable. Pierre might have other ideas, but that was discussed a while ago. I know I suggested it, and there are probably at least one issue in mantis mentioning this :

0254

I agree, hopefully that can be a later improvement. For me, the concept of a "form" is something that "pops up" or is an empty screen that you fill out. I would expect to be able to click on a button that says "New xxx" (xxx being one of the forms) and fill out the form, with the info then becoming part of the appropriate grid/s.

The way they are right now seems conter-intuitive based on what their purpose is.

There are plans to have "forms" (a bit like the "add item" window) pop up with specific shortcut keys, etc. The Add item window was actually supposed to be one of many possibilities...

I don't remember if that was added to Mantis, or if Pierre just has that somewhere on his list... ;)

I too find that Forms as they are at the moment are a bit disappointing.

Mantis issue 0683 suggests Form to Grid functionality. I haven't found anything that suggests (explicitly) that Forms should be modal pop-ups.

Can I make these suggestions? I apologise if they already exist elsewhere! If they don't, I would welcome feedback or improvements before adding them to Mantis.

Extend the Add item dialogue to include a drop-down list of forms, with "sticky" behaviour so that the last-chosen form is remembered for subsequent applications of the same dialogue (as is already the case for the Other fields box)
Extend forms such that they are pop-ups, have modal behaviour (that is, the user can do nothing else until she has completed the form), and perhaps also constitute a success-unit or SQL transaction which is only committed once the whole form is completed and "sent" - an all or nothing approach - all fields mentioned in the form changed or none
Permit (or optionally require) a form to be applied when the user makes changes in a grid

Mark Gregory, Rennes, France - GMT +1/+2; EST +6

Some of my present uses for forms, which I find quite handy.

Showing item in multiple grids

Some of my grids contain many grids. It's handy to see, say 16 grids vertically, rather than in the grid.

I think data entry is easier in the form for something with this many fields.

It's also handy to see which fields in a grid are system fields.

It's handy to double click the ~PurchasePrice field from the Inventory form, and quickly get a listing and a count in a scratch grid of items having the PurchasePrice field filled in.

I presently have 198 fields in my main database. The "available fields" are rather a pain to use with this many. So I set up various forms of subsets of these. For example I have a System_Fields form set up, a Created_Fields set up, and I'm experimenting with using an 'A', 'B'. and 'C' form, etc.

Right-clicking a field in the form, and "field properties" gives a quick way to go the properties for that specific field.

I'd suggest experimenting a little bit with some of these things. That's what helped me figure it out, by using it...Maybe I'll get to that manual page someday and enhance it with examples...