The application object is not a visual object anywhere but in the IDE, but it is an important one.  

The script for its Open event sets up the database with reference to the pb.ini file and launches the main button panel, shown next.  

There is also a function defined, parseline, which is not a visual object.  It pulls the fields out of asterisk delimited strings so that they may be used in programs.  

The first use of parseline is to parse the Enterprise Number & Name from the enterprise control record, which supplies the title for the main panel.  Since other uses of parseline will be found in other of your application's windows, it's a good idea to place this function as an Object in in the Application Object so that it will be readily available for other scripts.

The scripts for all these objects follow on the next pages.

 

w_main_panel is a Window, each button is a Control Button, or could be a picture button, replaced/augmented with a menu choice, or other object the user uses to launch the desired function.  We're only concerned with the first four buttons for this exercise.

A script at the open event of w_main_panel opens and reads the 'enterprise definition record', enterprise.def and uses it to supply the title for the panel. The script depends on the Function parseline, which is mentioned just above.

Each command button needs a script for its GetFocus event with a single line, this.default = true.  This lets the user move around the button panel with the tab key and press [Enter] to launch the button's function. 

Some of the buttons of the GUI need a 'keyboard shortcut' .  These are indicated on the control with an underlined letter in the control's caption.  The [Alt] shift key + the underlined letter is a 'keyboard shortcut' that can be used instead of clicking the button with the mouse.  The shortcut keys are nominated by placing an ampersand (&) in front of the Text property for the control.  

Make your Main Panel distinctive for your Enterpirse.  And, plan to group the buttons or other controls in an orderly fashion.  There's no reason that buttons should be the only type of control on the Main Panel, by the way, and some of the best projects I've seen have included Menus, DropDown Lists for selection of often-used records & reports, and have otherwise made better use of the limited real-estate on the main panel.

 

After building a Main Panel that works you'll be setting up to make a class of 'table maintenance windows'.  The prototype is built using this schematic:

It uses a 'master/detail' sort of presentation where the user scrolls through entries in the 'master', or 'lookup' window at upper left and highlighted records are displayed in the 'detail', or 'maintenance' window below it.  

dwc_lookup and dwc_maint are DataWindow Controls that are named generically so that they make sense when the window is inherited to make other windows.  The DataSource Property of each DataWindow Control contains the name of a DataWindow that is linked to the particular table being maintained.  

All the first tables use a key named id, so the event script for a Click on w_lookup can handle any of these tables.

Some DataWindows contain fields that are foreign keys to other tables, and these also have DataWindows built to populate their DropDownDataWindows.  Any of these are represented in the above schematic as 'dw_other_lookup', and would be like dw_ledacc_lookup or dw_entity_lookup which would populate DDDW edit-styles in the Ledger Account & Primary Supplier Id columns of a Goods & Services record.

Since all the windows in the 'table maintenance' series have the same functions, they can all be inherited from the first one built.  In this case w_ledacc_maint was built and its scripts debugged, then the other four related windows (including Accounting Date Maintenance) inherited it and had slight changes made to accommodate their tables.  Here is w_ledacc_maint: 

After w_ledacc_maint was debugged, the other windows were inherited from it and changes made to their title, to the Data Object properties of dwc_lookup, and to the dimensions and Data Object properties of dwc_maint to suit the table being maintained.  

Notice that these windows may have Drop Down Data Windows that allow the user to select foreign keys from a drop-down list.  Here is w_gs_maint, with all its scripts and most of its properties inherited from w_ledacc_maint:

Here is the window with the drop down lists filled in:

By convention of this class: cb references a Command Button, dw a DataWindow, dwc a DataWindow Control, st is StaticText.  Objects are named with a lower case prefix indicating the class of object, and with a Capital letter at the start of each word past the prefix.  

 

MessageBox('Label', '1st part of message ' + string (some.number) + '<--> '+ some.string, 'Exclamation!') is a valuable tool for debugging.  It can also retrieve values from the user, edit them, and not proceed until a response has been made to the message, as used in the clicked event for cb_delete in our example.

cb_someName.Enabled = true readies a control button to generate a Clicked! event for the users, or = False 'greys out' the control and makes it ignore their clicks.

cb_update.TriggerEvent(Clicked!) calls the script for the Clicked! event of the ControlButton cb_update.  This is so that a control's events can be initiated from the script of another control.

dwc.SetTransObject(SQLCA) & dwc_lookup.Retrieve() at open of table maintenance Window.  Each DataWindow Control needs its TransObject set to the SQLCA set up in the Application's Open event script.  The Lookup DataWindow Control's Retrieve method us used to populate the DataWindow with reference to the database.

dwc.Enabled works the same as it does for a command button, as above.

dwc_SomeName.SetFocus() moves to GUI's focus to the named dwc & triggers any GetFocus events that may be scripted.

dwc_SomeName.GetItemNumber(row,"recordKey")  (or Get ItemString) to return the key from a multi-row DataWindowControl used to select records.  This is important to 'synchronize' the Detail/Maint DataWindow with the Master/Lookup DataWindow above it, and is found in the RowFocusChanged event script for the Lookup windows.

dwc_SomeName.DeleteRow(0) deletes the row currently in the control.

dwc_SomeName.InsertRow(0) inserts a new row and clears the control to accept our text entries.

dwc_SomeName.Reset clears the control.

dwc_SomeName.Update() returns a 1 if the text in the control passes edits and should be commited, or an error message otherwise.

st.Text = "A prompt for the user"  is used to keep the prompt on the screen refreshed and appropriate for the user.  Intrepid students might like to investigate PowerBuilders's microhelp for this functionality. It's easy to simulate this by putting a short, wide Static Text control along the bottom edge of a window.

Open(object) allows a script to call another object and trigger its Open event's script

Close(object), often Close(parent) shuts down the object, whether it be a Window or other function or process.  Parent is a generic form that refers to the parent object of the object with the script: a Command Button's parent would be the Window on which it is placed. 

 

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