Form Controls Overview

The form controls are animations integrated in FrontVue's HMI. The tools to insert them in a mimic are on the Insert menu. A form control is created and the basic configuration applied to it in the same manner as for other drawing elements.

The following form controls are available.

Form Control	Purpose	Appearance
Combo-box	To select one item from a drop-down list. The selected item is displayed in a text box at the top.
List-box	To select one item only from a list. The selected item is indicated by changing the background color.
Check-box list	To choose zero, one or more items from a list. The selected items are indicated by a tick in the corresponding box.
Option-button list	To choose one item only from a list. The selected item is indicated by a filled circle.
Tree view	To choose one item (node) from a tree-structured list.
Text-box	To enter, edit, select, search and display text.

 FrontVue's Form Controls are similar in behavior to those in Microsoft Visual Basic (fm20.dll). The Form Control's Properties, Methods and Events are exposed to FrontVue's VBA environment. In addition, the Form Controls, other than the Text-box, can be linked to variables, thus avoiding the need for programming in most cases.

Important notes about behavior

The behavior of the Form Controls is generally as you would expect. However, if you have never dealt with such a control before there are some important points that you should take into account in the design of your application.

• Both the Check-box list and Option-button list differentiate between the action of selecting an item and changing its state.
  • Clicking on the text of an item selects it (changes the background color) - but does not change its state.
  • Clicking on the item itself (check box or radio button) selects it and toggles its state.
• The items in a check box have three possible states.
  • Selected (box is ticked )
  • Unselected (box is not ticked )
  • Undetermined (box contains a filled square )