Designing a View

The main steps to design a view are:

1. Start defining a view by adding individual attributes from the Attribute resource section and by adding other view elements using the appropriate control buttons.
2. Continue adjusting the view layout directly in the View Designer.
3. Set the specific properties of each attribute during the designing process.
4. Use the 'Apply' button to accept the changes.

When designing a view, remember the following:

• The elements in the view are positioned in a virtual grid comprised of modifiable number of columns and rows.
• A view element can occupy one or both columns and one or several rows.
• Any view design changes or changes in properties are reflected in the View Designer in real time.
• The view design process can fully benefit from the drag & drop functionality: All view elements can be easily positioned, mover and resized in the view this way.
• When you select a positioned element in the view, you can find its formatter, properties, style and format below. However, when you select more than one element, no options are available.
• You can add a new element only to free position in the View Designer. It is not possible to drop the element in between the existing elements, nor it is possible to drop in the position which is already occupied.

The key parameters influencing the view layout are:

• Columns

  The specified number of columns controls both the overall look of the layout and the size of the individual view elements. The size of the view elements changes depending on the number of columns, however, an individual element may be stretched by dragging from left to right over more columns.

  Note that some elements may need a certain amount of space to be used. For example, if you add a reference attribute with a reference view into the view and the 'One Line Reference View' and 'Extended Reference View' format options are grayed, it means there is not enough space for them to be used. Since the reference view needs at least two columns, it is necessary to adjust the column number accordingly or move the view in the view designer so that the other formats can be selected.

• Position changes (drag & drop)

  Using the drag & drop function, you can easily move a view element to the desired location in the view or just re-arrange view elements as you like.

• Row Span, Column Span

  Both the row and column span can be adjusted manually using the drag & drop function.

• Overlay label

  Enables the attribute value to be stretched out over the space normally used by label.

Note: For easier orientation during customizing, it is possible to enable display of placeholder controls (dummy controls generated by the application to fill empty spaces) in the preview. Go to menu Settings / User Settings / Debugging Settings and set Show View Dummy Labels = 'True'.