Properties of linked fields: Link screens
On the Link screens tab, which is present when you have selected a new or existing data dictionary field in a database definition and set the Type of this field to Linked field on the Field properties tab, you may specify a few screens to access the linked database table from a linked field in the current database table. Zoom and edit screens may instead also be specified in the entry field properties on a screen: this allows you to set different linked zoom/edit screens for different "primary" screens. But usually you want to use the same linked screens for every "primary" screen that contains this linked field. So specifying your linked screens per linked field in the data dictionary saves you work in the application setup.
Click here for information on how to edit properties in general. On the current tab you'll find the following settings:
This option is not relevant to Axiell Collections. If it contains a reference to a screen anyway, you can safely remove it, but leaving it as is has no consequences either.
In Collections, when you click the Validate icon next to a linked field, the Find data for the field window opens. The View table tab in that window shows different field columns. That selection of field columns is specified on a so-called link screen. This screen must contain a row of the desired fields from the linked database definition, with their labels above them (although arranging these fields and labels in a column (with the label to the left of the field) works as well, in which case the fields are read from top to bottom but still displayed in Collections as if you arranged them in a row). The labels will constitute the column headers on the View table tab. The width and interspacing of the fields on this screen are ignored by Collections when it displays the View table tab.
If you do no specify a link screen for a linked field, the View table tab will only show a column for the field on which the linked field is linked.
The fields that you place on the link screen must be fields from the linked-to database definition: for this purpose you don't need to define those fields in the primary database definition as well.
Mark this option to display all available terms from the linked database table (often from a specific domain as well) in a drop-down list instead of in the Find data for the field... window (aka the "link screen").
This functionality allows you to offer user-friendly drop-down lists of validated terms or names without any of the advanced options of the Find data for the field… window. Adding new terms for this field or editing existing terms can only be done from within the data source for the linked database table (e.g. the Thesaurus or Persons and institutions) itself. Since long drop-down lists are not very user-friendly either, we recommend to use this functionality only if you’ll know in advance that the term list will be limited to a small number of terms. Long lists are still possible though, but make sure they won't exceed 50 terms in Collections: the list won't display more terms and if the field contains data (maybe after an import) which has been indexed beyond the 50th term, then to the user the field will appear empty!
If a long list doesn’t fit on the screen, a scroll bar will appear with which you can scroll through the list.
Select the name of a (custom) ADAPL procedure with which you can control the list of records displayed in the above specified link screen.
You can use a condition and a SELECT NO(followed by END) in this adapl, to exclude certain retrieved records from the list displayed in the Find data for the field window.
If no filtering is needed, you don't have to specify any link screen adapl.
This functionality is supported in Axiell Collections from version 1.10.1. The adapl also works on the auto-complete drop-down list for a linked field. Note that the functionality may slow down performance when opening the Find data for the field window.
Select the screen in which Collections must display some selected details of a record from the linked database table (not the current one), when the user clicks the currently specified underlined linked field in a displayed record in the primary data source, or when the user clicks the Details button for a selected record in the list in the Find data for the field ... window for the currently specified linked field. The zoom screen will be opened in a separate (virtual) window.
There is no default zoom screen for these situations, so the user cannot 'zoom' in a linked field without any zoom screen specified for it. In this case, a linked field value will not be underlined.
You can also specify a zoom screen for a screen field in the application setup; such a zoom screen has priority over any zoom screen specified here in the database setup.
Note that clicking an underlined value in an internally linked field (like a Related object field or a Parts or Parts of field) opens the linked record fully in the Record details view without using any zoom screen.
The fields that you place on the zoom screen must be fields from the linked-to database definition: for this purpose you don't need to define those fields in the primary database definition as well.
Select the screen in which Axiell Collections allows the user to enter and save a new linked record via this single screen: in Axiell Collections this happens when the user clicks the Create and edit entry button in the Find data for the field window for a linked field. In all other cases, where a zoom screen is opened in display mode first and possibly switched to edit mode subsequently, the zoom screen specified in the option above is used.
This edit screen may be the same screen as the Zoom screen, and in existing Collections applications it often is. An edit screen must of course never be set to read-only, so if you want to set the Zoom screen to read-only, you'll have to use two different screens.
There is no default edit screen: if you do not specify a zoom/edit screen, the Create and edit entry button won't be present or will be inactive in the Find data for the field window. You can use this to your advantage if you'd like users to be able to force terms and names (with the candidate status) in the linked database, while they are not allowed to create new linked records via a zoom/edit screen (and possibly assign a different status).
You can also specify an edit screen for a screen field in the application setup; such an edit screen has priority over any edit screen specified here in the database setup.
The fields that you place on the edit screen must be fields from the linked-to database definition; for this purpose you don't need to define those fields in the primary database definition as well.
Optionally, here you can set a detail screen for the following particular use cases:
| • | In Collections, some of the fields on this (optional) detail screen are used to automatically create a format string for reverse relations displayed in the Related records view in the reverse linked database, if no format string has been specified explicitly for that view. |
| • | This screen is displayed when the user double-clicks a record in the Records featuring keyword... window in Collections. When a user validates the value in an edited linked field via the Find data for the field window, and for the selected term in the list he or she clicks the Records featuring keyword button, then the Records featuring keyword... window opens showing a list of all records in the current data source containing this term in the current linked field (for this list, the brief display screen for the current data source will be used). Double-clicking one of those records will open the detail screen you have set here: if a linked field has no Detail screen, nothing happens when the user double-clicks a record listed in the Records featuring keyword... window. Select a screen which displays data from the current database table. |
You'll have to find or create an appropriate screen yourself, but there's probably already some existing zoom screen (starting with "zm_") that you can use, although some primary detail screen might serve this purpose well too.
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