This document is split into the following sections.

1. Configuring Fields in HTML Forms
2. Programming Business Contact Sheet
3. Programmer's guide for extreme development

1. Configuring Fields in HTML Forms

You can use the fields configuration page to configure your entry forms. This form can be found under settings > 'Configure Your Database' > Fields option. You would need administrative account to access this option.

Before using this tool, we recommend you to be little familiar with HTML Tags and their attributes. However you can still try various of the options using one by one and figure out results.

Sr. will show you no. of rows.

Field Name column will show you a dropdown of all the fields from the table you have selected. Note that in order to configure fields you do not have to follow the sequential order of the fields of the table.

Field Type lets you configure the following field types, each one is explained below;

Property column lets you configure HTML properties of Field Type. For example, Text field size can be configured to 40 by including Size=40 in the property field.

Text given here will appear inside the tag of the fields such as;

<INPUT type=text name=task Size=40 >
or
<TEXTAREA Name=Address Rows=5 Cols=40>,

This would be the result of value 'Rows=5 Cols=40' in property field when the field type is text area.

Source field lets you define the data source in case of CheckBoxes, Radio, Select Boxes, SQL etc. This is explained in sections below.

Message allows you to define any message to be displayed at the time of entering the data of a particular field. such as please enter date in format DD MON YYYY

If the Title is specified, it is displayed instead of the usual field name.

*Reqd defines mandatory fields, and makes sure that those fields are filled before data goes into the database.


Examples;

You can configure a field for following behaviors (given with example);
Text - try Size=40 value to increase the size of text box (alternatively you can also use style tag i.e., style='width:100;')

Textarea - Try Rows=5 Cols=40 in properties field in order to define size of a Textarea Box.

Select - This one is for Dropdowns. To configure enter '1:Yes,0:No' in source field, and 1(or 0, i.e., value which will appear as selected value) in property field.

Check Box - If you want values from the database, enter a SQL query selecting two columns from database ID and its corresponding Text. Alternatively, enter '1:first value,2:second value' in Source Field.

Default values can be checked or unchecked based upon following parameters;

By default, all values will be unchecked.
In Property field,
If hyphen '-' is entered all values will be checked.
Alternatively, enter values you want to be selected in property fields and end them with comma, for example, it should appear like 1, 2, etc. the string should end with comma and a space to make it work.

When the form is submitted, values will be stored in comma separated format in the database. i.e., 1002, 1004, 1005

Radio Buttons - The usage is similar to the Check Box. When displayed in the form, you can select only one value out of all choices.

SQL - You can define a SQL query in Source field, this will fetch data from that particular table in the SQL Server and populate the dropdown. Make sure to select two columns from the table, first column will be mostly ID, and second will be text to be displayed in the dropdown. For example your SQL query should look like;

Select ID, Title From Status Where [Used For] Like 'Client'

You can have default selected by entering the value in Property field.

You also can generate a multiple select box by entering 'Multiple' text in Property field. This will be similar to Check Boxes, and the values will be stored in comma separated format. i.e., 1002, 1004, 1005.

Other Field Types

Hidden - Hidden fields are hidden variables which carries a value without showing it to end user. You can define it by entering a value in Source field. This also is used in order to hide parent table columns which are automatically taken by the system.

Hidden + Lebel - This is similar to the Hidden field. The only difference is that it shows the value while displaying all the fields and also makes a provision for sending the same value to the application when the form is submitted.

Label - At the time of data entry it allows user to enter a value, but at the time of editing record it will just show the value not allowing anyone to modify it.

Password - is a password field.

Not Wanted - The field would not be displayed in the form, neither it will store or retrieve any value. These are mostly used when you manually intend to use them by other means of programming.

Link - Used for linking a table to its parent table.

File Or Image - This is for storing documents or images. you must define File Folder in the properties window of any table before setting any field to this data type. Make sure these folders are into your web directory with write permissions. Refer online for setting permissions on your IIS.

2. Programming Business Contact Sheet

There are two basic files this application works on, i.e., PowerDB.asp, FormDB.asp. All Global Settings are in GlobalVars.asp. PowerDB.asp is responsible for displaying data and FormDB.asp create forms for data entry and edit. These files are written in ASP and it uses COM Component to do all database functions. Please note that these files are commonly used across presentation of all table in the database, hence one change in this file will reflect in entire of your application. See the section below "Programmers Guide for Advanced Development".
PowerDB and FormsDB uses set of functions to do their respective jobs, you can add your own functions or modify to tailor made this product.
PowerDB.asp
PowerDB.asp is responsible for displaying records and deleting records. All functions & subroutine to manipulate this program are stored in Recordfunctions.asp
How PowerDB Works.
The PowerDB is generally called by two parameters, TheTable and TheView. All records are displayed from the View (TheView) and data is entered, deleted and modified from the table (TheTable) name you pass. For example, to display Client's database, we will call PowerDB with following parameters;
PowerDB.asp?TheTable=Client&TheView=V_Client
Writing Codes in RecordFunctions.asp
All business logic or customized code is by practice stored in RecordFunctions.asp, this file contains following subroutines which effects the display of program at various places.

Hiding unwanted columns for display permanently
You can limit your columns display in record list both programmatically as well through configuring the properties of the table.
Method 1) Open config page, search for the table you want to configure, click on properties in Action links, Enter desired column numbers in Not Show field as comma separated values e.g., 3, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12
Method 2) Programmatically you can code in following fasion;
Sub BeforeRecordList
 If LCase(theTable)="Contact" Then
   NotShow="3, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12"
 End if
End Sub
Displaying Child Records using PowerDB
Child tables contains parent column id as a foreign key, i.e., ParentTableID. To display child records, for example., this client has these many contacts, you would need to call powerdb.asp with one additional parameter i.e., LinkID, this would be the ID of the parent table, and value will be dynamically placed if you include <<0>> in the link, where 0 denotes the column value of the 0th number column in the record, this is typically the ID field value.
You also need to add OtherSearch=ClientID+Like+<<0>> to filter child record.

Making Child Link Work
Steps to place child links in records and customize forms to automatically connect child record with parent.

1. Visit 'Configure Your Database' Section.
2. Search for parent table, click properties and in Links textarea, enter the link for child table you are going to call from the parent table … for example if you want to link all contacts to a client;
   <a href="PowerDB.asp?TheTable=Contacts&TheView=V_Contacts&LinkID=<<0>> &OtherSearch=ClientID+Like+<<0>>" >Contacts</a>
3. Search for child table, click properties, enter parent table as name of the parent table, i.e., 'client', and close the window.
4. click on fields link for the child table, edit form settings, make parent table ID columns i.e., 'ClientID' hidden.
5. Go test if it is working successfully, go back and check your parent table, it should show a child link for 'Contacts' in action column and by clicking on this link you should see Child records along with the summary of the parent table of that record. Also test the forms for adding and editing, it should only add records within the parent table scope.

Additionally, you can pass &ParentTable=<<parenttablename>> to powerdb.asp. This  can be very useful while programming when one table has multiple parents tables. For more information on this refer "Programmers guide for extreme development".
Other Properties

FormDB.asp
FormDB.asp is responsible for displaying HTML Forms for Adding / Editing / Saving records into the database. These are controlled by multiple of functions & subroutines stored in FormFunctions.asp
How FormDB Works.
The FormDB is generally called from PowerDB which opens it in a new window by executing javascript function AddData written in PowerJS.js. AddData internally call FormDB with following parameters
FormDB.asp?Cmd=3&TheTable=Contact&TheView=V_Contact&LinkID=1021 &ParentTable=Client
Configuring FormDB.asp with FormFunctions.asp
All business logic or customized code is by practice stored in FormFunctions.asp, this file contains following subroutines;

please note that for uploading files, formdb_multipart.asp has been used which uses aspsmartupload component to upload files.

3. Programmer's guide for extreme development

Configuration values set by the GUI tool also can be controlled programming way.
The engine
Business Contact Sheet engine works on a COM component (tetractys). This component takes care of displaying record, displaying HTML Forms, saving record and deleting records. You can manipulate your programs by configuring various parameters.
The Tetractys COM Component, consist of the following three objects

RecordList

Recordlist Object takes inputs such as View Name, Maximum Number of Records Per Page, and additional Color Scheme inputs and throws output.

Cfg

The Cfg object is responsible for giving you properties stored for a table. Remember we stored some properties like the links, Parent Table etc. in config -> property for a table. Now these values gets stored in the database (TableCfg) and we retrieve it from the Cfg Object. This we do to pass on values to the RecordList object. In order to manipulate program, these variables are manipulated before they are passed on to the RecordList Object.
You can notice configuration values passed on to the Global Variables in GetCfg subroutine in Library.asp

Forms

Tetractys Form Object takes the Table Name as main input and its purpose is to generate HTML Form for the same table. The form is configured through various configurations stored in the database through config option.

Creating and using RecordList Object
To create RecordList Object.
Set Rec=Server.CreateObject("Tetractys.RecordList")
Usage
Rec.ShowRecord ShowOn, ColLinks, ColType
Where all three parameters are of collection (array) type.
ShowOn Colloection Parameter
ShowOn contains Boolean values of the field index to decide the column has to be shown or not. For example, if there are 10 fields in the table and 5, 7, 8 is not suppose to be show ShowOn will have following values;
Dim ShowOn(25)
For i=0 to 25  'where 25 is the limit of numbers of columns it will process for each view, you can increase this.
ShowOn(i)=1 ' by default all needs to be shown.
Next
ShowOn(5)=0 ' don't show column 5
ShowOn(7)=0 ' don't show column 5
ShowOn(8)=0 ' don't show column 5
In actual we pick up values from table properties in config and process it the following way;
Dim ShowOn(25)
For i=0 to 25
ShowOn(i)=1 ' by default all needs to be shown.
Next
For i=0 to Ubound(NotShow)
ShowOn(NotShow(i))=0
Next

Changing the display of the column by configuring - ColType

ColType is a collection parameter passed on to the method ShowRecord. This variable defines which column needs to be a link, or an email link or an image thumbnail. This is used with ColLinks in order to define source.
E.g., for making column values a link
Dim ColType(10)
Dim ColLinks(10)
ColType(1)=1 ' First Column is a link
ColLinks(1)="<a href=SpaceShuttle.asp?ID=<<0>>"
Here we are making the first column as a link for SpaceShuttle.asp and passing a unique ID of record to the program by including <<0>> inside this link. <<0>> will be replaced by the value of Column value of zero 0 number column, i.e., ID.
Similarly passing value 2 means that this is an email address.
ColType(1)=2 ' First Column is an email link
Value 3 means that this is an image.
ColType(1)=3' First Column is an image

Ouptput Methods

Properties or configurations for output

More Options

Advanced

1. The Form Object

To create Form object;
Set Obj=Server.CreateObject(Tetractys.Forms)
The Form object is divided into four segments.

1. Making HTML Forms
2. Saving Records
3. Deleting Records
4. Viewing a Record

All procedures take following value before executing component.
Obj.con="Connection string to your database."

a. Making HTML Forms.
Usage
Obj.MakeForm TheTableName
Pass the table name to this method and it will generate you a HTML Form for data entry or editing a record. The output is effected by the configurations you have done in the config sections explained earlier and by some of the properties given below.
Properties

More Options

Advanced

b. Saving a record
Usage
obj.SaveForm
Properties

c. Deleting Records
Usage
obj.Delete TheTableName, DeleteIDs
It takes two parameter, one the table name from where the records will be deleted, and the other one DeleteIDs will take multiple IDs of the table which will be deleted.
d. Viewing a Record
Usage
OBJ.ViewRecord TheView,ID
This takes two paramenter one the View Name and the other one the ID no of which record will be shown.

More Options

Additional Functions & Subroutine
DecideHashes
Hashes, are fillers in the SQL Query attach to a dropdown fields in HTML forms. These Hashes are placed in Configure Your Database -> fields form, in source of a dropdown;
For example, you can have a dropdown field with following source
Select * from Projects #1
#1 is kept as a filler number 1. This can be assigned a value at the time of writing program. for example;
If LCase(TheTable)="client"  Then
'#1 is replaced with client id to show only projects of that particular client
obj.HashValue="#1: Where ClientID = 1001"
End if
Finally the program will execute following query;
Select * From Projects Where ClientID = 1001
CountRows
This function counts the number of rows in a table. This takes two parameters;
CountRows(TableName, Filter)
e.g.,
CountRows("Project","Where ClientID=1001")

ShowSummary
Shows a record in summary format. Can be used for showing parent record before child records are shown.
Usage;
ShowSummary ViewName, ID, DontShow, ShowOnly
Example;
ShowSummary "V_Inquiry",LinkID,"-12-13-14-25-",""
Or
ShowSummary "V_Inquiry",LinkID,"","-12-13-14-"
Please Note: A similar function can be accessed from CFG Object also.
GetIDs
Get values for the corresponding IDs.
Usage;
GetIDs(IDs, Tablename)
E.g.,
GetIDs("1002,1004,1005", "Client")
This will return title from client table of 1002, 1004, 1005 IDs.
HasAccess
Returns if current logged on user has access to a particular security number.
Usage;
HasAccess(Security Number)
Return 1, if current logged on user has access, 0 if not.
Example,
If HasAccess(3) Then
' Let him update records
CanUpdate=1
End if