Understanding Application Development Guidelines

This chapter discusses:

• Interactive application fundamentals.

• Batch application development guidelines.

Interactive Application Fundamentals

This section discusses:

• Interactive application guidelines overview.

• Guidelines to use when developing interactive application forms.

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne developers should follow the standards contained in this document when creating JD Edwards EnterpriseOne applications. These guidelines are intended primarily for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne developers and quality assurance analysts to ensure that applications comply with the standards.

Interactive Application Guidelines Overview

These guidelines provide standards for issues such as:

• Column title formats

• Report headers

• Currency

• Tab sequence

• Font defaults

The interactive application guidelines provide design standards for the appearance and function of the controls that developers use in interactive applications. A control is an object on a form that enables the user to interact with an application.

While many of these standards apply to all form types, separate guidelines contain specific standards for each particular form type. Where appropriate, the guidelines also include industry-specific instructions, such as one set of instructions for manufacturing and distribution applications, and another set of instructions for financial applications.

Guidelines for Interactive Application Forms

When you are developing any interactive application form, you should ensure that:

• Static text fields and grid column titles have enough space allocated to allow for translations.

  In general, an increase of 30 percent in the size of a static text field provides adequate room for translated text. Therefore, the text for many static text fields must not occupy more than 70 percent of the field. These are general guidelines only; to provide ample space for an increase in the number of characters during translation any static text field on a form should be stretched to the maximum.

  Refer to this table for guidelines about how much you must increase a static text field based on the number of characters of English text:

  Number of English Characters	Additional Space Required
  1 character	400 percent or 4 characters
  2—10 characters	101—200 percent
  11—20 characters	81—100 percent
  21—30 characters	61—80 percent
  31—70 characters	31—40 percent
  More than 70 characters	30 percent

• Help information is available for all input-capable fields. You can use data dictionary glossaries to define the help information.

• A Visual Assist is available for search and UDC fields

• Tab sequences have these characteristics:

  • Within an application, form tabs are ordered in a logical sequence.

    Ensure that the physical order of the tabs is the same as the tab sequence so that the cursor does not skip fields when the user presses the Tab key.

  • Within a form, the tab sequence applies to each group box.

    When a group box contains two or more columns, the tab sequence should move down the left-most column of controls and then down the column to the right.

  • The grid is a tab stop.

  • In Add mode, the tab sequence begins with the key fields.

  • In Change mode, the tab sequence begins with the first unprotected field.

    Note. If related controls appear side-by-side in different columns, then either create a tab sequence that moves across the row or rearrange the order of the fields.

Form Guidelines

When developing forms in interactive applications, ensure that you:

• Do not preload a next number.

• Use any of these actions to prevent a user from accessing a form or row exit:

  • Disable the exit.

  • Set an error.

• You use the four-digit data item Fiscal Year (FYR) for a fiscal year filter.

• You use an alpha field to display the fiscal year on a form so that you can distinguish between blank and zero.

  When you enter a two-digit mathematical numeric fiscal year on a form, it appears as a single digit for years zero through nine, and users might not be able to differentiate between a blank and a zero. Use the display field FYOW for the fiscal year and include this logic:

  IF not blank convert FYOW to FY 

• You use an asterisk (*) as the default value for Subledger and blank as the default value for Subledger Type, when you use Subledger and Subledger Types as filter fields.

• You use a text variable rather than a hard-coded text string to load a field or variable. Text variables can be translated, but hard-coded text cannot.

• You verify:

  • That grid totals sum only data that is the same date type.

    For example, do not sum different currencies or values with different decimal points.

  • That totals for a form level are generally within the group box that surrounds the grid.

Financials Forms for Interactive Applications

Use these guidelines when developing any form type within a financials application:

• On all forms on which an address book number appears, use Long Address Number, data item ALKY, rather than Address Book Number, data item AN8, because ALKY allows 20 characters for input.

  If necessary, use ALKY to call AN8 for information. Address number controls that are input-capable must accept an alternate number as input. The symbols in the Address Book Constants determine the default address book number. Use the business function B0100016, Scrub Address Number, to accomplish this.

• If you enter an asset number in an unknown format, such as ASCII, the system returns the number as the primary asset number, which is determined by the symbols in the Fixed Asset Constants.

  Use the business function X1202-F1201, Validate Asset Number, to accomplish this.

Workforce Management Forms

When developing all form types within workforce management applications.

Ensure that:

• You rename Address Book Number (AN8) to Employee Number or Employee No.

• You do not use associated descriptions for job type and job step.

  Retrieve the description for job type/step from the Job Information table (F08001).

Manufacturing and Distribution Forms

Use these guidelines when developing all form types within a manufacturing or distribution application.

Ensure that:

• You place the Branch/Plant identifier in the upper-right corner.

• You use Branch/Plant identifier as the static text for MCU or MMCU, as appropriate.

• If you enter an item number in an unknown format, such as UITM, ensure that the number returns in the same format in which you entered it.

Localization Forms

Use these guidelines when developing any form types used within localization applications.

Ensure that:

• The form and row exits to localization requirements from the base application are labeled Regional Info.

• The message box displays the text Regional Information not available for User Preferences when the Country System field is blank.

Find/Browse Forms with Currency Controls

Use these guidelines when developing Find/Browse forms that use currency controls.

Ensure that:

• Both domestic and foreign amounts, when both are available, are included in the grid.

• If all records in the grid reflect the same currency, then the currency code, exchange rate, and base currency appear in the header portion of the form.

• If the records potentially have different currency codes, exchange rates, or base currencies, then this information appears in the grid.

• Columns containing more than one currency have no totals.

  Suppress total records, if necessary.

• All currency-related controls and grid columns are hidden (for Dialog is Initialized) when currency processing is turned off.

  To hide the currency-related fields, test the system value for Currency Processing for N.

• Currency Mode (CRRM) does not appear on the Find/Browse form because both foreign and domestic currencies appear.

• If amounts are applicable to the main portion of the grid, then the domestic amount and currency code appear.

  The foreign amounts might exist in the scroll-to grid area.

  Note. If you need to include the Base Currency field (the currency that is defined at the company level) in the QBE row or as a filter field, then consider joining the transaction table to the Company Constants table (F0010). This join provides direct database access to the Base Currency field, which can be used in the QBE.

Interactive Application Forms with Currency Controls

Use these guidelines when developing any form type that uses currency controls.

Ensure that:

• Currency controls appear directly above the grid in this sequence:

  • Currency (CRDC)

  • Exchange (CRR)

  • Rate Base (CRCD)

  • Foreign Option

• Currency fields hold at least 18 digits.

Batch Application Development Guidelines

This section discuses:

• Standards set up automatically by the tool set.

• Report appearance.

• Reports to view.

• Reports to print.

• Reports to file.

• Reports that contain currency.

• Error listings.

You should follow the batch application guidelines when you create a new report or batch application for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne software. These guidelines assist you with various issues such as presentation of totals and grand totals, use of error messages and job status messages, placement of any required content for report headers, and use of cover pages.

Standards Set Up Automatically by the Tool Set

When you create a new report or batch application, the system automatically applies certain standards for you. While you can change many of the settings, to do so violates design standards for batch applications. This table describes the standards automatically set by the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne development toolset:

Report Appearance

Use these guidelines for the appearance of the report.

Ensure that you:

• Include space between columns.

  The default space between columns is five characters.

• Use landscape orientation for the report.

• Set up the report to run on laser printers.

• Set up the report to use a paper size of 8 1/2 x 11 (standard size in the U.S.), unless you are processing a special form.

• Underline and center column headings for the width of the column.

• Overline total amounts with a single line.

• Use a single overline and a double underline for a grand total.

• Align total amounts directly beneath the amount fields to which they apply.

• Do not include page footers or report footers in a standard JD Edwards EnterpriseOne report.

Reports to View

Use these guidelines when developing reports for end-user viewing.

Ensure that you:

• Base the level 1 section of the report on a business view that contains all columns in the table to enable data selection over any column from the table.

• Group a Level 1 section and all of its associated sections together.

• Locate these conditional sections at the bottom:

  • Conditional sections that are not called.

  • Conditional sections that are associated with more than one level 1 section.

• Use a group section for processing that does not produce printable output.

  You define those section properties as invisible and conditional.

• Use constants to place comments in sections that are invisible or that appear in conditional sections that are not called.

  These comments can appear in report viewing. A constant that contains the section name and description is a standard comment in these sections.

• The report variables in an invisible section are listed when you select the Report View tab.

  A section does not appear in the report output when the Visible option is turned off in the Section Properties.

Reports to Print

Use these guidelines when developing reports that generate output to print.

Ensure that:

• The page header is located at the top.

• Demo versions of a report should not be set to print a cover page.

• For an error report that prints only errors, when no errors exist, the report header prints, followed by a confirmation line that states No Errors.

• For reports that do not generate any output, notes, or error messages, a message that indicates whether the batch job completed successfully is sent to the originator.

  Use the send message system function to send this message. You can use a template message to provide as much information as possible about why the job was unsuccessful, as well as to indicate the job to which the message pertains.

Reports to File

When developing reports that generate output to file, ensure that batch programs do not contain a standard page header section.

Reports that Contain Currency Amounts

Use these guidelines when developing reports that contain currency amounts.

Ensure that:

• The columns for currency amount fields are 21 spaces wide, where possible.

• You do not display totals for amounts that represent different currencies.

Error Listings

If you create a processing option that gives users a choice about where errors are listed, use these design guidelines.

Ensure that you:

• Provide the option to list errors either in the Work Center or in the report.

  Errors may not appear in both locations.

• Use this format to list errors in the report:

  085X--This record is not correct.

• Do not repeat errors, and ensure that they appear in a logical order, especially when Parent/Child relationships are involved.

• Do not stop processing for warning-type error messages.

  Error-type messages should stop processing.