Data Field Categories

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.