Form Design Details

This section gives a detail description of the forms. All the forms are numbered and layout of all forms is given followed by a brief description of the controls used and their navigation. "Form design details" is actually a two phase process. First a rough hand sketch of the form is prepared and after it gets verified then the actual designing of the form is done. A table of all the controls used on the form and their names are given.

For example:

Form#1 frmNewEventEntry

The "frmNewEventEntry" is used to enter the details of an event. The layout of the form is as follows:

formlayout.gif (5744 bytes)

The actual design of the form is

Fig. 1 New event entry form layout

"On form load" the focus is set to the combo box corresponding to the label "Entry category". This combo contains all the categories present in the [T# 2/EDENTRYCAT] table.

If any category is not present in the entry category combo, then user can click at ‘+’ symbol to add a new event category.

After selecting an event category the focus is set to the text box corresponding to the label "Event title".

The user can then select "From date" and "To date" from the two date pickers for the start and end of the event.

After entering event note the focus is set to "Save" button.

After saving all the entry fields are cleared and focus is again set to "Event category" combo box.

The naming conventions for the controls are as follows:

Control Type	Prefix	Example
Collections	col	colStudents
Check box	chk	chkReadOnly
Combo box	cbo	cboTask
Command button	cmd	cmdCancel
Common dialog	dlg	dlgFile
Command object	cmm	cmmName
Connection object	cnn	cnnPerson
Coolbar	cbr	cbrMain
Data control	dat	datTask
Database	db	dbConnect
Directory list box	dir	dirSource
Drive list box	drv	drvTarget
DTPicker	dtp	dtpCurrent
File list box	fil	filSource
Form	frm	frmMain
Frame	fra	fraOptions
Grid	grd	grdItems
Horizontal scroll bar	hsb	hsbScroll
Image	img	imgLogo
Label	lbl	lblRoll
Line	lin	linColor
List box	lst	lstStudents
List view	lvw	lvwSubject
Menu	mnu	mnuMain
Month view	mvw	mvwPeriodStart
Multimedia	mul	mulFilm
MSHFlexGrid	flx	flxStudent
Option button	opt	optYes
Picture box	pic	picMain
Rich text box	rtf	rtfInformation
Recordset	rs	rsPerson
Shape	shp	shpCircle
Spin control	spn	spnAge
Status bar	sta	staForm
Text box	txt	txtName
Timer	tmr	tmrAlaram
Tree view	tvw	tvwDirectory
Vertical scroll bar	vsb	vsbPage

Details of Controls Used

S#	Control Name	Control Type	Description [Format/Mask]
1.	lblHeading	Label	Heading of the form
2.	imgLogo	Image	NIST logo
3.	linSeparator	Line	Separator line
4.	lblEventCat	Label	Label For event category
5.	cboEventCat	Combo	Combo containing all the available event categories. Style of the combo box is set to be "dropdown list".
6.	cmdAddEvCat	Command	Command button linked to [F# 2/frmNewEventCat] form.
7.	lblEntryDate	Label	Label corresponding to "Current Date"
8.	lblCurrentDate	Label	System date
9.	frmEventDetails	Frame	Frame containing details about the event.
10.	lblEventTitle	Label	Label corresponding to event title.
11.	txtEventTitle	Text box	Text box to enter the title of the event.
12.	lblFrom	Label	Label showing "From Date"
13.	dtpFrom	Dtpicker	To choose the "From Date" of the event
14.	lblTo	Label	Label showing "To Date’
15.	dtpTo	Dtpicker	To choose "To Date" of the event.
16.	lblEventNote	Label	Label showing "Event Note"
17.	txtEventNote	Text box	Text box to enter note about the event.
18.	cmdSave	Command	Command button to save the entry.
19	cmdClose	Command	Command button to close the form