General Tab of the Form and Control Property Editor

The information and options that appear on the General tab depend on what you selected in the form or control editor:

General Options for Forms

Control	Description
Name	The name of the form. The table that the form is based on is displayed to the right of the name. If the table is external to the current application, its application is also displayed.
End-user help text	Click Edit to open an HTML editor and add optional comments or notes about the purpose of the form. The text you enter is displayed to users. For details, refer to Providing Custom End-user Help.
Options (Transition form)	Select the Validate required fields before form submit check box to perform client-side validation on all fields. (The SBM Application Engine always performs server-side validation of required fields regardless of this setting.) The validation takes place when the user clicks the OK button on the form. Selecting this check box can improve performance because it eliminates the need for the server to return the form when validation fails, because the client-side validation will catch invalid data before submitting the form to the server. The validation takes place on fields that the workflow requires (those fields marked as Required in the field Property Editor) and on fields that the SBM JavaScript Library conditionally requires. (JavaScript that performs this validation is present on every custom transition and state form.) If this check box is not selected, client-side validation takes place on only those fields that the JavaScript Library conditionally requires. Note: Workflow fields can be overridden as required or not required at the workflow level in SBM Composer and for projects in SBM Application Administrator.
Size guide	Select the Show check box to display a shaded boundary around the portion of the form that will be visible to users in a single screen. When the option is selected, use the Width and Height controls to set the desired size. Instead of typing a specific number in the Width and Height controls, you can type `a` to automatically set the width of the column or the height of the row to fit the contents of the column or row. The Size guide option does not affect the behavior of the form. It is simply an aid in designing forms that minimize the need for scrolling. Tip: If you know the likely size of your users' screens, set the Size guide dimensions a little smaller. If you design your form to fit within the Size guide parameters, it is more likely that your users will be able to see and use all the controls on the form without having to scroll.

General Options for Field Controls

Control	Description
Linked to field 'field-name' in table 'table-name'.	Click this link (in the upper right corner of the Property Editor, next to the drop-down list of form components) to view the field's definition in the 'table-name' table. Click on the Quick Access toolbar to return to the field's properties in the form editor.
Name	SBM Composer automatically assigns unique names to field controls.
Description	An description about the control.
Display text	For a field label, the display name of the field. For a field control, the value depends on the context, as visible in the form preview.
Custom display text	Select this check box to change the Display text for a field. This is useful if you want the label on the form to differ from the database field name. For example, you might want to use the same label on more than one field. You could have a form with an employee section and a manager section. Each section needs a First Name, Last Name, and Employee Number field, one set for the employee and one set for the employee's manager. These are distinct fields in the table, but using the same label for each pair of fields simplifies the form. Note: If you do not use this option, the only way to have duplicate labels for fields is to have multiple fields with the same name in the table. This is problematic because the fields will be indistinguishable in areas such as the form, rule, report, and application variable editors.
Input mask	(Text fields with the Fixed length style on a transition form) Important: If an input mask is used, the Include jQuery plugin check box must be selected on the JavaScripts tab of the form Property Editor. Enter or select a mask to make it easier for users to enter data in the correct format. For example, if you select the Date input mask, when users click in the text box, two forward slashes appear. After two digits are entered for the month (or day), the cursor moves to the right of the first forward slash so two more digits can be entered for the day (or month). The cursor then moves to the right of the second forward slash so the four-digit year can be entered. The other preformatted input masks are Phone number, Phone number with optional extension, and Social Security number. If you select Custom input mask, type a mask using the following syntax: a represents an alphabetic character (A-Z, a-z) 9 represents a numeric character (0-9) * represents an alphanumeric character (A-Z, a-z, 0-9) ? indicates that anything that follows is optional. Use ? to designate an optional part of the mask, such as a phone extension: (999) 999-9999? x99999. Leave blank or select (No input mask) to allow all input.
Options	("Multi" field types) Select the Show as dual list boxes in design/preview mode check box to see two list boxes (with arrows for adding or removing values) in the form editor and form preview, to match what the user will see.

General Options for Detail Controls

Detail controls include supplementary information, such as change history, notes, and time tracking. The options available to you depend on the Detail control.

Control	Description
Name	The control name must be unique within the form. Note: SBM Composer automatically assigns unique names to detail controls.
Description	An area for optional comment about the control.
Display text	The label to display on the form. To modify the default text, select Custom.
Container type	Depending on the detail control, you may be able to change its container type.
Show collapsed on startup	Use to specify whether detail controls that use the expander type should be collapsed initially when the form opens. (This option is not available on print forms.)
Options for specific Detail controls	Hide if no attachments have been added: (Attachments Detail control) Clear this check box if you want the Attachments section to appear on a custom form, even if there are no attachments. Hide if no notes have been added: (Notes Detail control) Clear this check box if you want the Notes section to appear on a custom form, even if there are no notes.

General Options for Container Controls

Available Container controls:

Expander: Displays contents in a collapsible/expandable area.
Section: Displays contents in a flat area that is optimized for printing. This option is only available on print forms.
Group box: Displays contents in a box that includes the specified title text.
Panel: Displays contents in a box that does not include the specified title text.
Tab: Displays content in a box that includes a tabbed header.

Control	Description
Name	The control name must be unique within the form. Note: SBM Composer automatically assigns unique names to detail controls.
Bound privilege section	Optionally, choose to bind one or more privilege sections to the control. This enables you to use the privilege section label as the control label. To change the label, select the Custom check box, and then modify the display text.
Description	An area for optional comment about the control.
Display text	The label to display on the form. Not available for panel controls.
Container type	Lists the available types for your control. You can change the type for most controls, except for tab controls.
Labels	Choose to place labels to the left of controls or on top of controls for the selected container. By default, the label setting for the form is used, but you can override the form setting for each container. You also can customize the location of specific control labels in the container. For example, you can place some labels in a container at the top of the control and others at the left. If you change the Label setting for the container, however, your custom locations are removed for all controls in the container.
Layout	Choose Responsive for a container layout that adjusts to the size of the screen (available only for modern forms), or choose Standard for a non-responsive layout. By default, the container inherits the form's layout.
Show collapsed on startup	(Expander controls) Use to specify whether the control should be collapsed initially when the form opens. (This option is not available on print forms.)
Show lines between rows	Display thin lines between rows within this container. This can make a wide form easier for your users to read.
Auto-populated section	Turns on or off auto-section behavior of the container. If checked, a placeholder row is displayed, and fields will be automatically populated at runtime by privilege section.

General Options for Other Controls

Control	Description
Name	The control (or label) name must be unique within the form.
Description	An area for optional comment about the control.
Value(s)	(Combo Box, List Box) The values to be available for your users to choose from on a form. Type one value on each line.
Default text	(Edit Box) The text you want to display to your users when they first display the form. You could use this field to provide a default value or a prompt for the data you want them to enter. If you select the Multi-line edit box option, the default text (and anything your users type in its place) will wrap. If you select the Password option, the default text (and anything your users type in its place) will appear as a string of black dots.
Options	(Edit Box) Select Edit box to create a single-line text entry field, and then select Password if you want characters in the field to be replaced by black dots. Select Multi-line edit box to create a multiple-line text area, and use the Width and Height controls (in the Size area on the Design tab of the Ribbon) to control the dimensions of the text area. (Combo Box, List Box) Select Combo box to create a drop-down list, in which only the first item listed for Value(s) above is initially displayed. The other values are displayed when users click the arrow at the right side of the combo box. Select List box to create a scrolling list. Select Allow multiple selection to use the `GetFieldValues`, `SetFieldValues`, `GetMultiListValues`, and `SetMultiListValues` JavaScript API functions with the list. (See the SBM JavaScript Library Guide for information about these functions.) Use the Height (in rows) control to specify how many of the items in the Value(s) control above will be displayed at a time. Note: Values from these options are only available when the form is run and are not available for use in scripts.
Display text	(Button) The text to be displayed on the button. (HyperLink) The "clickable" text for the link. (Image) Text that will be displayed as a "tool tip" when the user holds the mouse pointer over the image or in place of the image if it cannot be loaded for some reason. This text may be recognized by text-to-speech software (also known as screen readers). (Text) The text to be displayed. The text you type here can include HTML tags (`<b>` and `</b>`, for example). They will be included in the HTML code for the page that is rendered at runtime. (Edit/Combo/List Box label) The text to be displayed next to the associated Edit box, Combo box, or List box control. SBM Composer creates a default label when you place one of these controls on your form, and then change that label text to reflect the purpose of the control.
Tooltip text	(Button, Hyperlink, Image) Enter the text you want to display to your users when they hover over the button, hyperlink, or image.
Image	(Image) The image to display. Select an image already added to this application, or select (New image...) to add a new image to the application and use it for this control.
Display image as button	(Image) Applies button styling to an image.

General Options for Headers, Footers, and Sidebars

Control	Description
Labels	Choose to place labels to the left of controls or on top of controls for the selected header, footer, or sidebar. By default, the label setting for the form is used, but you can override the form setting. You also can customize the location of specific control labels in the header, footer, or sidebar. For example, you can place some labels at the top of the control and others at the left. If you change the Label setting for the header, footer, or sidebar, however, your custom locations are removed for all controls in the header, footer, or sidebar.
Layout	Choose Responsive for a layout that adjusts to the size of the screen (available only for modern forms), or choose Standard for a non-responsive layout. By default, the header, footer, or sidebar inherits the form's layout.

Control

Description

Labels

Choose to place labels to the left of controls or on top of controls for the selected header, footer, or sidebar. By default, the label setting for the form is used, but you can override the form setting.

You also can customize the location of specific control labels in the header, footer, or sidebar. For example, you can place some labels at the top of the control and others at the left. If you change the Label setting for the header, footer, or sidebar, however, your custom locations are removed for all controls in the header, footer, or sidebar.

Layout

Choose Responsive for a layout that adjusts to the size of the screen (available only for modern forms), or choose Standard for a non-responsive layout. By default, the header, footer, or sidebar inherits the form's layout.