Screens

A "screen" is Axiell jargon for the screen tab (aka panel or form) which displays part of the data from a single record in the Record details view of a record in Collections: usually multiple screens are used to present all data from a record. You'll also find screens in use as Zoom/edit windows to display a small selection of data from a linked record in another database when clicking an underlined (linked) value, and as a so-called Link screen to determine part of the layout of a list of retrieved terms for a validated field on the View table tab (in Collections only its field columns) in the Find data for the field... window. Each type of screen has its requirements and therefore has its own particular design characteristics. Click here to learn how to design screens, and link them to your application.

Screen names

Screens are separate files and have the extension .fmt (format). When you name a screen, you can give it any unique name you want, but in our model applications we often use certain prefixes to be able to see quickly what the purpose of a screen is, when you are browsing the file names:

• Brief display screen names often start with br_, for instance: br_catal.fmt.
• Link screen names usually start with lnk_, for instance: lnk_copy.fmt.
• Zoom/edit screen names often start with zm_, for example: zm_loan.fmt.
• The rest of the name, or the first part of the name if the screen is used for detailed display, is often determined by the name of the data source from which data is displayed in this screen, like: zm_copy.fmt or docrepro.fmt.

See the Help topic Managing screensfor information about how to create new screen files and where to find existing screens.

Applying screens

To specify which data can be entered or must be displayed on a screen in a running application, the designer of the screen places different (visual) screen elements called screen objects on the screen, in the Screen editor: it concerns objects like entry fields, labels, boxes (frames), menu options (checkboxes), and image place holders.

Most of such objects must then be associated with database fields or adapls for instance, through their properties.

And the screen file itself must of course be linked to the application definition. Per data source or per method in that application definition, you list all screens (actually, references to the screen files) that must be used for the detailed presentation of records, for the brief display, and as search screen. To indicate the difference between screen references and the actual screen files, different icons are being used:

• Screen files have the following icon:
monitor
An application folder may contain screen files that are meant for use in that application only, but the presence of those files doesn't mean that they are actually linked to the application: they are just Collections screen files in a folder, and in newer applications you will only find those screen files in the \screens folder.
• References to screens have any of the following icons:
window_explorer window_dialog
References to screen files are part of an application definition. You specify these references for data sources and/or methods in the tree view in the Application browser, to determine exactly which brief screens and which detail screens should be used to either display the search result list or to display data from one record in the data source.

Before editing a screen...

In principle, you can edit all existing screens in your application, or add new ones. But before you do so, please note the following:

• Back up your existing screens, or better, your entire Axiell folder, so that if anything goes wrong, you can always go back to a working state of your application. Click here for more information about safe backup and logging procedures.
When you've made a backup of your Axiell folder, and you mess up editing an existing screen, you can simply copy the old screen from your backup to the Axiell folder you're working in, using the Windows Explorer or the Application browser in Designer.
• A screen file may be in use for different data sources, so its design must apply to all of those.
• You can use any existing screen as the basis for a new screen. Just open a screen which looks a lot like the new screen you want to make, edit it to your liking, and save it under a new name.
If you change the name of an existing screen, the old screen will of course continue to exist and Axiell Designer will simply create a new screen file with the new name.