dbFront.com - Recent questions and answers in Customization

Answered: Grandchildren: Viewing Parent, Child and Grandchild tables together

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 14:29:49 +0000

This request is related:

https://dbfront.com/qa/1477/separate-record-view-instead-of-showing-table

Answered: I added fields to the table but can't find them in dbFront

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 19:02:58 +0000

Fields that are added to a table or view should normally be available for selection immediately after a screen refresh.

If the fields are still missing then there are a few possible things to check.

My Layout View

The My Layout View, limits the available fields to only those that were added by an administrator.

To exit "My Layout" click the button button labelled "Exit My Layout". On current versions of dbFront, the button will be Red.

Unsupported Field Names or Types

If a field is still not available then open the [Help] / [Log Viewer] and look for any errors or warnings.

One possibility is that the field names are invalid in some way, or they are of a data type that is not supported by dbFront.

Correct Database

Is it possible that you made the changes in a different database then the one you are viewing? I have to ask, have done that myself.

Still not Found?

If you still can't see the newly added fields then please contact us via one of our Support Options.

Answered: How to use a Custom Google Font

Fri, 03 Feb 2023 00:00:15 +0000

Using a custom Google font basically involves setting up a custom CSS file and loading and applying the font.

It is similar to this article: How can I change the base font style using CSS?

a) Setup a Custom CSS file.

Either your entire dbFront install or for a specific database.
For more instructions see: Using Custom CSS in dbFront

b) Find your preferred Google font at fonts.google.com

For the purpose of this example we chose Unbounded

c) Scroll down and select the preferred font size and weight

Click Select + to add it to the "Selected Family" area on the
right.

d) Using the instructions on the side in fonts.google.com

Copy the @import instructions
Copy the CSS rules

e) Add the following content to your new custom CSS file.

Ensure that you add both the @import and the correct font-family

/* customSite.css */
@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Unbounded:wght@200&display=swap');

/* Set the Custom Font in all of the specific dbFront areas */
body, .ui-widget, table.dataTable td {
  font-family: 'Unbounded', cursive;
}

f) Save the CSS file and reload your browser by clicking Cntrl-F5

Answered: Is there a way to change the actual menu icons at the top?

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 22:30:01 +0000

The "Home" menu items icon is a tiny version of the database icon.

You can set the Database Icon in the first tab of the database preferences.

The logo file should point to an existing image file (png, jpg or gif) stored in the 'C:\InetPub\dbFront\images\' folder. It is possible to specify an alternate path.
The logo file is used as the Home Screen icon, the User Menu icon, the top Home Menu icon, and as the default icon for Report Templates.
A good size is 300 x 300 pixels but you can experiment to see what works best in your environment.

The other menu icons are all hardcoded at this point.

Answered: How can I change the order of the home page menu tabs at the top?

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 22:22:45 +0000

It may be possible to shift the order of the home menu via CSS but it would not be easy.

You can explore the options in this article: StackOverFlow - Reorder using CSS

At one level I can understand why you might want to change the order but the "Home" menu is relative to the currently selected database, so intuitively, it should follow the "Database" menu.

Therefore I often choose a name for the Home menu such as "Expense Home", or "Finance Home".

If the user only has access to a single Database then they would not see the "Database" menu item.

Answered: Change the order of the database list

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 17:15:37 +0000

Thanks for this question. It has not been asked before.

Which view are you looking at, the User view or the Advanced (Administrator) view?

User View

Within the User view the databases are sorted by the database caption and they are grouped within named tabs.

Advanced (Administrator) View

Within the Advanced view the databases are currently sorted by the database name instead of the caption.

I plan to change that in a future release so that in all cases the Databases are sorted by the caption.

Answered: Can a multi-select list field be set to required?

Wed, 12 Jan 2022 18:54:49 +0000

A multi-select field is not a real database field. Internally a multi-select field is implemented using one associate table and two database relationships. For more details see: Multi-Select Lookups

This means that there is no simple "Required" flag.

Require at least X Selections

There is two different ways to require a selection from a Multi-Select.

1) Use a Table Trigger to validate

One option is to use a table trigger and throw an error if there is not enough child selections.

2) Using a Stored Procedure to validate

A Store-Procedure is used to validate and save the record. The Procedure can perform any necessary validation and either raise an error (causing a roll-back) or it can fail to advance the status and set or return an error message.

This scenario is typical when the form is setup to be a Wizard. For more details see: Data Entry Wizard

Answered: Is it possible to move or remove the logout button?

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 14:23:25 +0000

One solution is to put more space between the user menu (logout button) and the area below. Another user had a similar issue: More Space around Search Box

A second option regarding the save button is that users could choose to save via the keyboard shortcut.

Type Cntrl-S to save the current record,
Type Shift-Cntrl-S or Cntrl-Enter to save the current record and open a new blank form.

In the mean time I will see if there are other options.

Answered: Show a view that is not attached to a table

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 16:56:36 +0000

A short Zoom meeting and we got to a solution.

Rather than displaying a view of records with missing data, the query behind the view was used to populate a work table that was filtered to only show outstanding items.

This gave users the ability to easily find and directly correct the records with the missing data.

Problem solved.

Answered: Missing Field: A table field won't appear in dbFront.

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 17:02:53 +0000

The following are some steps you can take to diagnose the issue of certain fields not appearing.

Step 1. Check the table properties
Open the table properties and ensure the field is not listed in the list of options on the Table or Form tabs. Generally you need to explicitly select a field for it to show up in dbFront.

Step 2. Refresh the structure
If the field is missing then the next step is to click on the Refresh button as you have already done. This should reload the database structure.

Step 3. Review the Logs
If the field still does not appear then you need to review the dbFront logs and search for the missing field name.

Open [Help] / [Log Viewer] and enter the missing field name in the second search box.

The fieldname should be logged along with a clear reason why it has been rejected.

Missing Field Reasons

The following is a partial list of reasons why a field might be excluded by dbFront:

Field name contains a single quote: Single quotes ( ' ) are core SQL delimiters. Allowing apostrophes in field names would make it much harder to scan for dangerous SQL so dbFront simply rejects them. Please rename the field.
Unsupported field types: There are some advanced field types that dbFront does not yet support. If you need dbFront to support these types then please consider funding their support.

Answered: Message: Configuration data as old as [###] is waiting to be backed up.

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 22:39:51 +0000

Knowing how painful it can be to not have backups, dbFront checks its configuration files to verify that they have been backed up.

The Archive bit is a special flag that Windows sets on any new or updated files. Backup software should clear the Archive flag when the file has been backed up.

If dbFront finds configuration files that still have the Archive bit set after 14 days then it leaves a notice under the Server Statistics in the System Monitor letting you know that there are configuration files which have not been backed up.

This can be misleading because some backup software or backup methods don't clear this flag.

If this is a problem then you can create a simple scheduled job to clear the Archive flag. The following shell command will clear all Archive flags in the folders below: [c:\data\dbFront\]

attrib -a /s c:\data\dbFront\*.*

Answered: Where should I add Custom CSS?

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 20:38:30 +0000

dbFront allows you to specify a custom CSS file for the installation or you can specify a custom CSS file for individual Database applications.

You would start with a blank CSS file and add the CSS changes you want to make to your current Site or Database application.

Site CSS File

The Site CSS file is always loaded by dbFront and allows you to affect your entire install of dbFront. To setup a site CSS file you would:

Open the settings [Help] / [Settings] / [Website],
Set "Site Css File" to the value "css/customSite.css",
Create or edit the CSS file c:\inetpub\dbFront\css\customSite.css.

Database specific CSS File

It is possible to use a database specific CSS file. The same CSS file can be used for multiple databases.

Open the Database Preferences,
Set the "Custom CSS File" to something like "css/dbFinanceShared.css",
Create or edit the CSS file c:\inetpub\dbFront\css\dbFinanceShared.css.

Or you can setup individual CSS files for each application.

Open the Database Preferences,
Set the "Custom CSS File" to something like "app/dbFinance/app.css",
Create or edit the CSS file c:\inetpub\dbFront\app\dbFinance\app.css.

Answered: How do I set a default value on a lookup field?

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 15:19:24 +0000

All column default values are set at the database. This includes default lookup fields (foreign keys).

For a lookup field you would need to specify the unique key value used by the relationship to the lookup table. For example, if your "Order Status" table was joined on the values like "Draft", then you would specify "Draft". If the lookup relationship used a numeric key then the default value for "Draft" might be 0.

Some databases allow for calculated column defaults. All databases allow you to use a table trigger to calculate an appropriate default.

Column defaults are preferable because dbFront will load and show the default value to the user when a new record is started.

Note: To see why dbFront is designed to use lookup tables to support dropdowns, see: Custom Dropdown Request

Answered: Automatically default price after product selection

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 16:03:25 +0000

Assuming that the purpose is to simply make the user is aware of the product price then the solution would be to include the price as one of the columns on the lookup field.

If the user needs to be able to override the price then you could have a separate price column on the detail.

When the user saves the record one of two things will happen:

If the user didn't specify an override price then the trigger can copy in the price from the product table.
If the user specified an override price then the specified price would remain.

Answered: Change menu items order or customize menu

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 17:50:26 +0000

The order of the tables within the menus is Alphabetical.

The order of the tables at the top of the screen is determined by the order specified in the "Main Tables" column set in the database preferences.

For more details see: Manage Tables

NOTE: dbFront 1.1.2.0214 fixed an issue where the sorting was done on the table name instead of the table caption.

Answered: Excluding local Administrator or Domain Administrator from dbFront Admin Role

Fri, 08 May 2020 14:08:16 +0000

There is currently no way to demote Administrative users to regular users.

What you can do is set up a group of dbFront Users and exclude administrative users.

This would force those administrative users to use their regular network account to access dbFront.

This would only work in those environments where Administrative users were given both a regular network account and an administrative account. e.g. "Fred.Stuart" and "Fred.Stuart_admin".

NOTE: Giving Administrators two accounts (Admin, NonAdmin) is a highly recommended best practice.

See: Security Group Setup

Data in a View which was connected in a table option do not appear

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 12:56:10 +0000

I made a view to show in a single table which are stored in two tables.
There is one same key field for each tables and the view has only single row for each keys.
There is no problem to see the data of that view in the other Database program, like HeidiSQL.
After add the view in one table preference windows and set table fields and form fields to see the data of the view.
But there is no content in the view fields.
Please help me..

Answered: Missing View: Table view does not appear as an option

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 17:48:59 +0000

There are three possible reasons why a view will not appear as an option:

dbFront does not have security to see the view,
No common field names between the table and view,
Incompatible field types,
dbFront rejected the view.

No Security

When a view is defined you need to ensure that the dbFront connection user has SELECT access to that view. The name of the connecting user can be found by looking in the database connection properties in the dbFront advanced view.

Once the connection user name is known then you need to examine their properties to validate that they have SELECT access to the view you need.

For SQL Server you will need to look in the Securables area of the database user's properties as defined:

within that specific database and,
at the server level.

Common Fieldnames

dbFront scans all available views and only shows those views that have at least one common field name. The search is not case-sensitive. dbFront skips certain classes of fields: passwords, XML fields, object/image fields and anything that is not indexable. It is also not possible to join a view to a view.

Compatible Field Types

When dbFront scans for compatible views it also validates that the field types for the joining fields are compatible.

Rejected Views

There may be other reasons that dbFront will reject a view. As dbFront loads your database structure it will log issues. To look for rejected views open the dbFront Log Viewer from [Help] / [Log Viewer] and search for "View Error" or "Rejecting View".

Answered: Is it possible to left align the data in numeric calls?

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 15:02:00 +0000

Using CSS you can change the numeric alignment. You can set a custom CSS class for the field if you want to be specific or you can just include the following CSS in your custom CSS file.

In your custom CSS file you can include the following...

/* To cover all numeric values */
.field-value input[type='Number'] {
   text-align: left;
}

/* To specify a single field, note the space after the custom class */
.customFieldClass input[type='Number'] {
   text-align: left;
}

For help on creating a custom CSS file see: CSS Field

Answered: How to use CSS Class

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 17:30:58 +0000

I have answered that question here: https://dbfront.com/qa/439/css-class-field-value

Note: I extended the answer a bit to make it more complete.

Answered: Text field not resizing

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 23:01:21 +0000

Using CSS you can change most field layout attributes. In the Layout tab add a custom CSS class name to the field (e.g. 'notesLarge') and then include the following CSS in your custom CSS file.

textarea.notesLarge {
	min-height:100px;
}

For help on creating a custom CSS file see: CSS Field

Answered: Hide field based on another field value

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 21:30:31 +0000

That functionality exists in your current version of dbFront. Look at the visibility tab on that field's preferences for instructions. It will direct you to create a Layout Group.

Answered: Hide Image Properties

Mon, 27 Jan 2020 18:58:54 +0000

Using CSS you can hide those details. You can set a custom CSS class for the field if you want to be specific or you can just include the following CSS in your custom CSS file.

In your custom CSS file you can include the following to hide the details:

/* To cover all fields */
.objectDetails>li {
   display: none;
}

/* To specify a single field, note the space after the custom class */
.customFieldClass .objectDetails>li {
   display: none;
}

For help on creating a custom CSS file see: CSS Field

Answered: CloudFlare and dbFront

Thu, 23 Jan 2020 00:47:47 +0000

For starters, dbFront works very well when running behind Cloudflare. The dbFront demo site (https://demo.dbFront.com) is protected by Cloudflare and it doubles as our final test server so we regularly validate that things are working as they should.

There are two known issues when running behind Cloudflare:

SSL/TLS Encryption mode at Cloudflare is set to "Flexible"
Speed / Optimization / Auto Minify is enabled for CSS files

1. SSL/TLS Encryption mode at Cloudflare is set to "Flexible"

With the encryption mode set to "Flexible", the client uses HTTPS but the webserver sees HTTP.

Specifically, the "Flexible" encryption mode becomes a problem when setting up Single-Sign-on on Azure. Azure requires an HTTPS return Url but dbFront will specify HTTP because its connection is not encrypted. Azure will reject the return Url and block the authentication attempt. The solution is to install an SSL certificate and switch the encryption mode to "Full".

2. Speed / Optimization / Auto Minify is enabled for CSS files

dbFront uses custom comments in the CSS files that are processed at the client side to enable dynamic CSS processing. One area where this is noticeable is with the Sidebar Help that appears at the right-hand side if requested.

If Auto Minify is enabled for CSS, then Cloudflare will strip the comments from the CSS files and break the Sidebar Help. Other areas of dbFront can be affected as well.

Answered: Allow conditional naming of captions on fields

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 13:36:43 +0000

Hello Colin, this is an interesting question.

On Form - Solution

One solution is to hide the form label or make it generic. You can then proceed that field by a custom view field that returns a custom hard coded message using the case statement you already presented in your question.

This would be similar to: Context Specific Help, except much simpler since you only need a view to return your new caption or message.

You would then join that view to this table and then display its value in a field. The field label would be set to "Inline". This serves two purposes. In the first case it hides the label when there is a value, in the second case it allows you to set a default label caption when no row is selected or the value is blank.

To complete the effect you could apply a css class to the custom label field and touch it up so that it looks the way you want it to.

On Table - Can't

It's not possible to adjust the table column name on a record by record basis because the table needs to show multiple rows with one column header. The only option is to pick a very generic column name.

Answered: How to add context specific help to a record

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 03:09:28 +0000

For instructions on adding context-specific help see: Context Specific Help.

Answered: Use action button on new row

Tue, 30 Jul 2019 22:54:30 +0000

The current solution would be to have the user do an initial save of the record to get things started. You could use a hidden or readonly status field to mark this record as "New".

To give your users some guidance you would add context specific help using the following method

Adding Context Specific help to a record.

Once the record is saved then you can manage the individual button visibility based on the needs of the record. In addition, once saved, the record can be updated as needed by the SetValue or RunStored procedure actions.

Answered: Remove 'Your Logo Here' logo

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 19:05:21 +0000

Complete instructions for managing the site Logo are contained in the Q&A article How do I add a Logo in dbFront.

Answered: Why do some Oracle Numeric Fields show a value of 0 when it has a small decimal value.

Mon, 27 May 2019 15:43:46 +0000

The issue is that you have not defined the Scale and Precision of your Oracle Number() type. An Oracle number that does not have an explicitly defined scale and precision has a range that is crazy large.

It is not that dbFront can't display large numbers. But many users who setup Oracle don't appreciate that by not defining a Number(), they are setting themselves up to work with numbers that have a range of 1.0 x 10(-130) up to but not including 1.0 x 10(126).

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e41084/sql_elements001.htm#sthref119

This would mean that I would have to setup a multi-line field to cover the 132 possible digits that a user could enter for each of those numbers when the user is likely only expecting to enter something like 123.45.

To deal with that, all Oracle numbers without a defined scale and precision are treated as Number(16,4).

The dbFront logfile also creates a log entry for all undefined fields explaining what it has done.

The request is that you just define the oracle numeric type and set a reasonable range.

Answered: How to format float fields in grid view?

Fri, 15 Mar 2019 20:31:07 +0000

The following is a link to the official documentation. A bit overdue.

See: https://dbfront.com/formatstrings

Answered: Where is the syntax reference for Format String?

Fri, 15 Mar 2019 20:29:03 +0000

Great question so just for you I created the following page. A bit overdue.

See: https://dbfront.com/formatstrings

Answered: Set default number of entries in view

Mon, 10 Dec 2018 14:07:47 +0000

dbFront does in fact allow you to set the default number of visible rows in a table.

This is set in the "Default Rows" field on the Table Layout tab.

For more details see: https://dbfront.com/tableprefs#layout

Answered: How can I make the database buttons on the User View wider

Fri, 16 Nov 2018 18:49:17 +0000

In the Database Preferences you can specify the name of a custom CSS file to load. This would be the best place to place all of the CSS updates for that database. You can also point this to a single corporate CSS style for consistency.

For more details see: Database Preferences

In this CSS file you can add the following to change the button widths.

a.dbButton {
    width: 400px;  /* was 200px */
    height: 50px;
    margin: 5px;
    text-align: left; /* Add Left Alignment */ 
}

You can also use the following width if you want the buttons full width:

    width: calc(100% - 10px);

Answered: Returning a completion message from a Stored Procedure while using an Action Button

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 23:14:55 +0000

As indicated, Stored Procedures can now return values.

The updated documentation explaining the result types is now found at Run Procedure

Answered: How can I make the form background always white?

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 16:45:09 +0000

Database Preferences

In this CSS file you can add the following to make the background of all Form Areas white.

.detailFields {
    background-color: white;
    border-radius: 5px;
}

Answered: How do I create a lookup or dropdown field so my users can choose a value from a list?

Thu, 31 May 2018 12:25:46 +0000

For help in creating lookup fields see: Simple Lookups/Dropdowns.

dbFront can also create cascading or multi-select lookups. For details see:

Answered: The DataType mismatch on the Key field [fieldname]

Thu, 10 May 2018 14:24:04 +0000

The reason for the error is because dbFront assumes that it needs to create a join on that field because its name matches an existing table field.

Because you changed the datatype the join will fail.

If you don't want to join on that field then just rename it in the view. I prefer to precede formatted fields by a "v" so that I can easily identify them. You can pick whatever standard works for you.

If you want to join on that field and format it then I would create two columns in that view for the one column.

The original value with the original name and datatype for the join,
The renamed version formatted and typed as you please.

That will separate out the formatted value and allow you to use it where needed.

Answered: Coded update (e.g. ModifiedBy)

Tue, 12 Dec 2017 16:59:31 +0000

You can have dbFront automatically populate the ModifiedBy and ModifiedOn fields by means of the Audit Value property on fields.

Please see the following links for further instructions.

Answered: Date Field customization

Thu, 16 Nov 2017 19:11:11 +0000

The database preferences allow you to set the default date format for the database.
For more details see: https://dbfront.com/dbprefs#main

Answered: Is there any way to hide the Save, Delete, etc.. buttons in dbFront?

Wed, 25 Oct 2017 19:16:16 +0000

The visibility of those buttons is actually determined by the table & row security.

Control Visibility using Row Security

For more details see: Table Security

If the connection has no select access, the table will be hidden.
If the connection has no delete access, the delete button will be removed.
If the connection has no insert access, the "Create New", "Create Copy" buttons will be removed.
If the connection has no update access, the "Save" button will be removed.

Another option is to add an expression in the "Row Security" tab such as "0=1" for the functionality that you want to disable.

For more details on the row security see: Row Security

Control Visibility with CSS

One additional option is to use CSS to hide specific buttons. This is not a secure solution but it can be appropriate if for example you want to remove the 'Create Copy' button while leaving the 'Create New' button visible.

To hide the 'Create Copy' button in all areas of dbFront, you would add the custom CSS to a custom CSS file.

button[action=rowInsertCopy] { display: none; }

If you only want to affect a specific table then you can add a CSS class to the table in the layout tab. If we were to set the tables CSS class to productTable then you would update the custom CSS as follows:

.productTable button[action=rowInsertCopy] { display: none; }

Or you could simply create a CSS class name like hideCopyButton and add it to all tables where you want the copy button hidden. You can add multiple CSS class names to a table or any other element. The custom CSS would look as follows.

.hideCopyButton button[action=rowInsertCopy] { display: none; }

For directions on where to add your custom CSS see: Custom CSS Files

Answered: Customising the default number of entries

Thu, 02 Feb 2017 01:01:49 +0000

As of version 1.0.2.5842, dbFront now allows you to set the default table row height.