You
use controls to display fields on the form. The Designer provides controls
for text boxes, list boxes, check boxes, option buttons, and so on. For example,
you can associate a field that contains a string with a text-box control.
Some controls can be used only with specific field types. For example, the
list-view control and the parent/child control can be used only with a reference-list
field.
You can use some controls to perform special tasks. Push
buttons and list boxes can be associated with record scripts. For example,
in the TestStudio schema, a push button is associated with the Build_Properties
record script, which allows users to view the properties of the build they
selected.
The Designer also provides an ActiveX control that you use
to incorporate any registered ActiveX control into a form. For example, you
might use an ActiveX control to interact with an external database. Before
using this control, you must be familiar with ActiveX functionality and how
to register your controls. Note that you can use ActiveX controls only with
the Rational® ClearQuest® for Windows® client.
The following form controls are supported:
- Form control
- Description
- ActiveX
- Incorporates any registered ActiveX control into a form. You write the
initialization record script and the action record script.
- Attachment
- Displays a list of attached files and includes a set of controls that
allow users to add, remove, or view attached files.
- Check Box
- A two-value control you can use for Boolean values or any field that has
only two values. To specify the two values, right-click the control on the
form and click Properties.
- Combo Box
- Combines an editable text field with a list box.
- Drop-down List Box
- Displays a list of possible values for a particular field.
- Drop-down Combo Box
- Combines an editable text field with a drop-down list box.
- Duplicate Box
- Displays the ID of the record of which this record is a duplicate.
- Duplicate Dependent
- Displays the IDs of any records that are duplicates of this record.
- Group Box
- Visually groups together one or more other controls.
- History
- Displays information about the actions applied to a record.
- List Box
- Displays a list of possible values for a particular field. List boxes
include an additional control for selecting one or more items from a choice
list.
- List View
- Allows you to display the records associated with a field of the REFERENCE_LIST
type. Displays the associated reference list in a multicolumn format.
- Option Button
- Option button controls are used in groups to represent a set of mutually
exclusive choices. Restricts the selection to one option in a group.
- Parent/child
- Allows you to set up a form to link associated records. Used with REFERENCE_LIST
field type. The parent/child control consists of both a list view control
and three push buttons. The list view control and push buttons are associated
by using a unique list view ID. If you change the ID of the list view, you
must also update the push buttons.
- Picture
- Allows you to include a static image on your form.
- Push Button
- Initiates specific tasks related to the record. You can associate push
buttons with record hooks or with list views.
- Static Text
- Displays an uneditable text string.
- Text Box
- Displays a field value as an editable text string.
For detailed descriptions of the properties for each control
type, see Form controls.
Adding controls to a form
Before you can add a field
to a form, you must add the field in the Record Fields grid. For more information,
see To add a new field to the Record
Fields grid.
You can add controls to a form by
using the control Palette, the Field List, or the Form Controls menu.
- The Control Palette provides a visual cue as to the type
of control you are adding.
- Selecting a field in the Field List and dragging it to the
form adds the appropriate control to the form.
- The Form Controls menu allows you to create the same controls
as the Control palette; in addition, it contains a command to create ActiveX
controls.
You can add a field to a form more than once, but all
instances of the field must have the same value.
Adding a control with the Field List
The
advantage of using the Field List to add a control to a form is that when
you select a field from the list and drag it to the form, the appropriate
control for that field type is added to the field. You do not have to edit
the control properties to associate the field with the control.
The
following table lists the default control that the Designer creates for each
field type.
- Field type
- Default control
- Attachment List
- Attachment
- Constant List Choice List
- Drop-down list box
- Date-Time
- Text box
- Integer
- Text box
- Multiline String
- Text box
- Reference List
- Parent/child
- Reference List Constant
- List view
- Reference Choice List=Default
- Drop-down list box
- Short String Constant List
- Drop-down list box
- Short String
- Text Box
Editing control properties
If
you use the control Palette to add a new control to a form, you must edit
the control properties to associate that control with an existing field.
After adding a control to a form, you can edit the properties
of the control, including selecting the field to associate with the control
and specifying display attributes for the control. You can also assign record
hooks to some controls to allow users perform specific tasks by using that
control.
If you want dependent fields to be enabled in Rational ClearQuest Web, you
must specify the field on which the dependency is based. To do this, use the Web
Dependent Fields section of the control properties page.
For descriptions of the properties for each control type, see Form controls.
Deleting a control from a form
If you no longer need
a control, you can delete it from the form.
Deleting a
control removes it and its label from the form but does not remove the associated
field from the schema. To remove the field from the schema, you must delete
the field from the Fields grid. For more information, see Deleting
a field.
Changing
the size and location of controls
To change the size
and location a control, you can select the control and drag it to a new location
on the form, or you can specify the exact location coordinates for a control
on the control properties page. To move a control using the arrow keys on
the keyboard, select the control and press the period (.) key until you see
the "move" icon:
You
can now use the arrow keys to position the control on the form.
The Form
Layout menu provides the same tools as the Form toolbar, plus
some additional tools. The following table lists each tool and its function.
The align and same-size tools use the first control that you
select as the basis for modifying the other controls.
- Layout tool
- Description
- Align left
- Aligns the left edge of each control with the left edge of the control
that was selected first.
- Align right
- Aligns the right edge of each control with the right edge of the control
that was selected first.
- Align top
- Aligns the top edge of each control with the top edge of the control that
was selected first.
- Align bottom
- Aligns the bottom edge of each control with the bottom edge of the control
that was selected first.
- Align vertical centers
- Aligns the vertical center of each control with the vertical center of
the control that was selected first.
- Align horizontal centers
- Aligns the horizontal center of each control with the horizontal center
of the control that was selected first.
- Space evenly across
- Arranges the selected controls horizontally to allocate an equal amount
of space between all controls. The leftmost and rightmost controls are not
moved.
- Space evenly down
- Arranges the selected controls vertically to allocate an equal amount
of space between all controls. The topmost and bottommost controls are not
moved.
- Center vertically in dialog
- Aligns the vertical center of each control with the vertical center of
the tab.
- Center horizontally in dialog
- Aligns the horizontal center of each control with the horizontal center
of the tab.
- Make same width
- Makes each control the same width as the control that was selected first.
- Make same height
- Makes each control the same height as the control that was selected first.
- Make same width and height
- Makes each control the same width and height as the control that was selected
first.
- Size to content
- Adjusts the size of each selected control so that its entire contents
can be viewed. This is useful for minimizing the size of a Static Text control
while still maintaining the readability of the string.
Changing the tab order of controls
The tab order of controls determines which control receives
focus when a user presses the Tab key. Each time the user presses Tab, the
focus moves to the next control in the tab order.
By default,
the tab order of controls is the order in which you added the controls to
the form. You can change the tab order so that it reflects the order in which
you expect users to use the controls.