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"I happen to feel
that the degree of a person's intelligence is directly reflected
by the number of conflicting attitudes she can bring to bear on
the same topic." Lisa Alther, Kinflicks, 1975 |
Read
first then play the video:
FRM-VIDEO -(Hands-On
15) How to move objects and manage the layout appearances
Move Objects, Layout
Appearances
Introduction
Window is an empty frame to
hold your object and it is the outermost boundary for a form. Block is
a logical container that holds form objects such as data items and
control buttons. There are two types of block: Data Block and Control
Block. A Data Block is a link to your database information and holds
database data. A Control Block holds information that has nothing to
do with database. A item could be a database column or none database
item. A canvas is a place to hold the objects. The four types of
canvases are: Content, Stacked, Tab, and Toolbar. All can coexist
within a single window. A content canvas is the basic
background for all windows. A stacked canvas lays on top of the
others. A tab canvas is the same as stacked canvases with handy
"tabs" at the top. It can simply move from one canvas to another.
A toolbar canvas contains push buttons giving users quick
access such as horizontal canvas or vertical canvas.
Property Palette
Oracle tools are somehow
follow object oriented methodology. Although they are not pure object
oriented but there are not far from it either. Each item in the Oracle
tools can be identified as an object. To manipulate an object, you use
Property Palette. As you can see from now on, you can do much without
property palette. A Property Palette contains object
properties. The contents of the Property Palette are referred
to as the "Property sheet" for the object. You use the Property
Palette to modify object properties. To open the Property Palette of
an object, go to the object and right click on the mouse button then
select Property Palette. The Property Palette provides complete
control over your objects. It contains the property list of an object.
Remember that the properties of an object can be changed to
control the behavior of the object. The Item properties such as
Tooltip, Hint, and Display Hint automatically, will be used to
provide item-level assistance for the client and can be changed only
from property palette. A text item appearance can be modified by
manipulating properties such as Justification, or Format Mask
properties. For controlling the data within a text item or display
item, you can use properties such as Calculation Mode, and Lowest and
Highest value
Hands-On
All your client functional
requirements have been met. Now, your user focuses on the appearance
of the application. They would like you to move and add some objects.
They want their logo be displayed on each of their application tab
canvas.
See Figure 17.
Your tasks are:
Perform some cosmetic
layout changes.
Add a logo to their
application.
Copy the logo to each tab
canvas.
Run and test all user
functional requirements.
F You will learn how
to: move objects around, create, copy, and paste logo, use tab canvas,
use "object navigator," use "Data Blocks," use "Layout
Editor," use "Property Palette," use "Run Form," and "Execute
Query."
Figure 17
Open a Module
In the "Object Navigator"
window, highlight Forms. Go to the Main menu and choose "File,"
select "Open" to open an existing form (customer_orders_V14)
in the "iself" folder.
Save a Module
Click on the "CUSTOMER_ORDERS_V14"
form. The color changes to blue. Then change the name and then save
the Form name as version 15 (customer_orders_v15). This way the
original form is untouched.
Change appearance of a form
To change an appearance of
your application, it is a good idea to view it in the full screen.
This way, you will have space to move around.
Resize an object
To change a size of an
object, either you can select the object and drag its handlers or you
can open its property palette and change its width and/or height.
Move an object or objects
To move an object, you
should select the object and when you see the handlers, position your
cursor inside of the handlers and drag it to anywhere you wish to be.
You can also press on the up, down, right and left arrow keys to move
the selected object.
To select multiple objects,
hold on the control key (Ctrl) and select one object at a time. You
will see for each object you select there are 8 handlers. Or, you can
move your cursor outside of objects, click and drag it until all the
objects be inside of the box. Then release the mouse. All the objects
in the box will be selected and will contain handlers.
Select an item or items
To select multiple items
that are next to each other, select the first one and then hold the
shift key and select the last one, all the objects in between will be
selected including the first and last.
Deselect an item or items
To deselect an object or
objects, just click anywhere on the canvas that it is outside of the
selected area.
Graphic Boiler Plate
Objects
In the Layout Editor, you
can use the Graphic Boiler Plate objects on the toolbar. They are on
the shape of square, circle, etc. You can select them, then drop and
resize them in your canvas.
TEXT and Color
Notice that in the Layout
Editor on the vertical toolbar, there are two boxes that have "T"
in them. One is bigger that the other. The smaller T (text) is
for entry text. The big one T is for changing the text,
background, and boarder colors. There are Fill Color, Line Color, and
Text Color. If you select an object and then choose a color by
clicking on the Fill Color icon, the object color will change. If you
select a text and then choose a color by clicking on the Text Color
icon, the text color will change. And it is the same for the Line
Color icon. Try them. It is fun!
With all above
functionalities and your creativities, you have lots of options to
make the appearances of your application easy to understand.
See figure 17 and create
the same picture on all your canvas tabs. You can create once and then
copy and paste them.
Compile and run the Form
Once you finish. Compile
and run the application Form.
Execute Query
Click on "Execute query."
Navigate the Form
Navigate through the
application Form.
After testing the
application, close the window and save the changes.
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"Hard work
spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves,
some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all." Sam
Ewing |
Questions:
Q: How do you use a window
in the Form Module?
Q: Describe a Data Block in
the Form Module.
Q: Describe a Control Block
in the Form Module.
Q: What are the differences
between a control block and a data block?
Q: How do you move an
object or objects around in the Layout Editor?
Q: How do you copy and
paste an object or objects in the Layout Editor and in the Object
Navigator?
Q: How do you select a
object or objects in the Layout Editor and in the Object Navigator?
Q: All your client
functional requirements have been met. Now, your user focuses on the
appearance of the application. They would like you to move and add
some objects. They want their logo be displayed on each of their
application tab canvas.
See Figure 17.
Your tasks are:
" Perform some
cosmetic layout changes.
" Add a logo to
their application.
" Copy the logo
to each tab canvas.
" Run and test
all user functional requirements.
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