Table Preferences

Main Table Preferences

The main preferences allow you to set the table caption, caption fields, and role.

• Caption: The Display name of the table as seen in the menu and other places.
• Type: Allows you to change how this table is accessed and used.  For more details see the Manage Tables section of the page: Database Preferences.
• Caption Fields: The fields that are used to name the current row.  In the example, we chose the Lastname and Firstname columns.  You can see this in action in the full-page image at the top of the screen.
• Record Locking: The ability to automatically lock the current record so users can edit it without fear of losing data, or having it changed without consent. 
• Caching: Storing data temporarily so it can be served faster when requests come up.

Tool Access

• My Layout: The ability to create a personalized layout of your screen.
• Mass Update: Allows you to select a large number of records and safely apply a single update to them all. 
• Quick Print/Export: Allow Admin or all users to create and run their own Quick Reports.
• Quick Import: Allow Admin or all users to perform a Quick Import.

Layout

The Layout tab is used to specify how you want the form to be arranged.

• Main Layout: [Table Over Tabs, Table Beside Detail]
  • Table Over Tabs - Default View, the Table will take up the full width of the screen.
  • Table Beside Detail - Attempt to place the Table and Form beside each other.
• Css Class: CSS class to assign to the form. That allows further layout customization via CSS.
• Table
  • Min Width: Minimum Table width in pixels, determines if the Form should be pushed below the Table.
  • Default Rows: Default number of rows to display.  It is not unusual to set this to 1. 
• Form
  • Min Width: Minimum Form width in pixels, determines if the Form should be pushed below the Table.
  • Max Columns: Maximum field columns.  (Ignored is some browsers).
• Column
  • Min Width: Minimum amount of space to leave each column in Pixels.
  • Label Position: Default placement of the field's label, [Left, Right, Top, Inline, None].  It can be overridden at the field level.

Table Fields

The Tables Fields tab is where you select and arrange the columns that appear in the table at the top of the screen.

If a column points to a lookup table then the lookup value will be used.   The fields used from the lookup table are determined by adjusting that fields lookup columns in the Field Preferences.

Default Sort: This sets the initial sort order of the table.

Form Fields

The Form Fields tab is similar to the Table Fields tab but it is used to add, remove or rearrange the fields that will be visible in the details pane.

dbFront will use the field list along with what it knows about the screen space available to make a display that is as useful as possible.

Once you save the table preferences then you can open the Field Preferences for the displayed fields to further adjust how the fields appear and interact with the user.

Search Fields

The Search Fields tab is where you specify what fields a user can use for Advanced Searches.

To see how users can use the search fields see: Searching and Filtering

Relationships

The Relationships tab is where you can rename, reorder or hide specific table relationships.

Action Buttons

The tab named Action Buttons is used to add, delete, rename or rearrange the action buttons assigned to this table.

Once you have created a button you will need to save your changes so that you can then see and set up what the button will do.  For more details see the topic: Action Buttons

Custom Help

dbFront supports the ability to set up Table, Field, Button, and even Record level help.  The Table help appears when the Sidebar Help is visible.