Understanding Form Interconnections

You can call a form from a form. This kind of form interconnection falls into three categories:

• Modal interconnections enable the user to view only one form at a time. After the child form begins, the user cannot access the parent form until the child form is closed.

  Additionally, the data connection between the parent and child is usually static. Input data structure items are populated when the child form is launched, and output data structure items are populated when the child form closes. Parent form ER that follows a modal form interconnection call executes after the child form is closed.

  In addition to static data connections, you can create dynamic form interconnections. A dynamic form interconnection enables you to call a form by passing the application and form ID. A dynamic form interconnection is always modal.

• Modeless interconnections enable the user to view multiple forms at the same time. After the child form is started, users can switch back and forth between the parent form and the child form. Additionally, data changes on a parent or child form are immediately reflected in all other open forms in the connection.

• Pop-up interconnections are similar to modal interconnections in that they enable the user to only work in one form at a time. After the child form is launched, the user cannot access the parent form until the child form is closed. However, the child form appears in a pop-up window, so that the parent form is still visible behind it, providing the user some context. (Release 9.2.1)

Modal is the default interconnection type. Modal interconnections are appropriate when you want to lead the user through a particular process in which a number of values must be input in a specific order. In this case, you want the user to completely fill out each form before moving on to the next one. Add and copy functions also lend themselves to modal processing because you want the user to complete the function before going on to others.

Modeless interconnections are valuable when the user needs to view or update a series of data records. Avoid using modeless form interconnections if both the parent and child forms should be presented to the user at the same time. A power form is more appropriate in this case.

The parent form in a modeless interconnect must be a find/browse form. The child form type can be fix/inspect or transaction forms (header and headerless detail). When the user updates a record on the transaction form, the parent find/browse form automatically reflects the change.

When the user closes the parent form, the system closes all its modeless children forms.

Parent form ER that follow a modeless form interconnection call execute immediately instead of waiting for the child form to return.

Release 9.2.1

Pop-up interconnections are useful when you want a modal interconnection, but do not want to lose sight of the parent form. By using a pop-up form and keeping the parent form visible, the user may better understand the context in which he is using the pop-up form.

Just like modal interconnections, pop-up interconnections are available for all form types. However, if you use a pop-up interconnection when calling an external form, it will not be honored at runtime. The external form will always display as a full screen.