The Agile Business Suite Developer is used to design and construct user interfaces, for you to interact with deployed applications. It allows you to add simple graphical objects, such as lines and images, and graphical objects, such as edit boxes and radio buttons, which are bound to attributes as their data source.
When a graphical object is bound to an attribute, it can read and display the data in the attribute and modify the contents, if applicable.
Note: In Teach Screens, graphical objects cannot have associated attributes.
You can use the following two modes to design the forms:
Graphical Mode to design GUI screens for application ispecs and methods. These screens can display the greatest range of visual objects, such as check boxes, list boxes, images, and so on.
Fixed Mode (Green Screen Painter) to design character screens for different runtime platforms. These screens use fixed type fonts and cannot display complex graphics.
You can toggle between the two modes in AB Suite applications by selecting the required mode from the list above the form. You can design the screens by using the toolboxes available for each mode.
Note: In AB Suite Client Framework applications, you cannot toggle between the Graphical and Fixed modes. When a Presentation Interface is added to the ispec, event, insertable, copyispec, copyevent, or class, the PresentationType property of these elements is set to Graphical and is read-only.
User Interfaces for Client Framework applications are designed using the standard tools for the chosen technology (for example, WPF Designer for WPF Client applications). An User Experience mode model does not allow the System Modeler Painter to be used for designing the user interface for Client Framework applications. Refer to Designing User Interfaces for Client Framework Applications for more information.
Any named element can have a form if its PresentationType property is set to a value other than None, with the exception of a model or folder.
The first step in creating an interface for AB Suite applications is to add a form to the element. You can then add graphical objects to the form so that a user can interact with the underlying elements of the application.
Differences between Graphical and Fixed Screens
The Fixed mode screens (green screens) are similar to the Graphical screens; however different types of items are handled differently in the Fixed mode and Graphics mode. The main differences are summarized in the following table:
| Property | Graphics Screen | Fixed Screen |
|---|---|---|
| Fonts | Supports multiple fonts and point sizes. | Supports fixed type fonts only (the fonts used are not proportional to the width of the characters). Any font change applies to all items in a form and is not specific to an item in the form. |
| Controls | Supports the use of all graphical controls in the System Modeler (SM) Graphical Painter Toolbox. | Supports use of only the following controls in the SM Fixed Painter Toolbox: Pointer, Labels, TextField, and PasswordField. |
| Overlapping of fields | Supports overlap of characters or fields without restriction. | Prevents overlapping of characters or fields. The character or field that is positioned on top of another character or field is truncated. In addition, if the available space where a field is placed is less than the defined length of the attribute then the field is truncated. |
| Grids | Displays the default grid size. | Displays a different grid size. The size of the grid depends on the fixed font type and size. |
| Foreground and background colors | Supports custom colors. | Limits the use of colors to the following: Black, White, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Cyan, and Magenta. |
Notes:
To ensure the screen is displayed correctly at Runtime, presentations must be composed correctly in System Modeler Painter.
Ensure to keep Painter open when the screen elements are modified.
Model properties that can influence the presentation are defined under "Presentation" and "Type" sections in the Properties window.