The form development process contains multiple steps because forms themselves contain many elements. While the steps described here do not necessarily have to be followed in the order shown, these steps must be completed for the Form to be fully functional.
To develop a form, the following steps should be taken:
Step |
Description |
Create a form |
Adding a new form to the Forms submodule. |
Add and arrange controls and menus |
Adding the required controls and menus to the form and arrange their layout on the form. |
Set the form, controls, and menus properties |
Setting the default properties for these objects. These properties may be modified during the run-time by statements from your code as a response to an event or by test or procedures code. |
Write code to events |
Filling in the form, control and menu event procedures to respond to user actions. |
Add form variables |
Creating form variables used by the form events and procedures or externally by tests and module procedures. |
Write form procedures |
Writing form procedures that can be called by form events or externally by tests and module procedures to perform additional tasks required by the form. |
To use a form, the following steps should be performed:
Step |
Description |
Create a form variable |
Creating a variable in your module or in a procedure and setting its type to the form name as it appears under the form submodule. |
Load the form |
Adding a Load statement to display your form on the screen in your test or procedure. The Load statement uses the form variable created. |
Interact and test the form functionality |
Verifying the form functions properly by interacting with the form menus and controls. Writing code to set and get the form properties, procedures, and variables using the form variable. |