Data Aquarium Framework forces you to break down the data fields displayed in form views into categories. At least one category must be present in any form view.  A form view is displaying a single record at a time, when  users are viewing, editing, or creating a new record. Here is an example of the customer form view in application generated from Northwind database. A single category Customers includes all data fields.

Let's create a few categories to better present the fields and make it easier to work with customer records.

Open ~/Controllers/Customers.xml file, locate view editForm1 and change the data field categories as follows.

<view id="editForm1" type="Form" commandId="command1" label="Review Customers">
  <headerText>Please review customers information below. Click Edit to change this record, 
    click Delete to delete the record, or click Cancel/Close to return back.</headerText>
  <categories>
    <category headerText="Customer Code and Name">
      <description>Customer number is a five-character long field. Please use upper case 
      letters only and try to create an abbreviation from the full customer company name.</description>
      <dataFields>
        <dataField fieldName="CustomerID" columns="5" />
        <dataField fieldName="CompanyName" columns="40" />
      </dataFields>
    </category>
    <category headerText="Contact Information">
      <description><![CDATA[Contact information including contact name, title, customer 
        phone number and fax must be entered. Please use our 
        <a href="http://company/policies" target="_blank">policies and procedures</a> 
        when verifying phone and fax number. It is <b>your responsibility</b> 
        to follow the company procedures in all interactions with customers.]]> </description>
      <dataFields>
        <dataField fieldName="ContactName" columns="30" />
        <dataField fieldName="ContactTitle" columns="30" />
        <dataField fieldName="Phone" columns="24" />
        <dataField fieldName="Fax" columns="24" />
      </dataFields>
    </category>
    <category headerText="Delivery Address">
      <description>Customer address, city, region, postal code, and country must be recorded 
        in this section. Please make sure to verify the customer address with atlas of 
        commercial deliveries.</description>
      <dataFields>
        <dataField fieldName="Address" />
        <dataField fieldName="City" columns="15" />
        <dataField fieldName="Region" columns="15" />
        <dataField fieldName="PostalCode" columns="10" />
        <dataField fieldName="Country" columns="15" />
      </dataFields>
    </category>
  </categories>
</view>

Select and edit the same record in customer grid view. Your form will look like the one below.

Data field categories provide a convenient tool to organize data fields in a form view and provide rich HTML instructions to application users.