4 Manage Data in Form-over-Table Layouts
In addition to Table layouts, an Excel workbook can use a Form-over-Table layout, when a parent-child relationship exists in the business objects used by your web application. In this case, you can manage the parent object's data as part of a form and the child object's data in a table, both of which are available in a single worksheet.
View and Edit Data in a Form-over-Table Layout
Viewing and editing data in a Form-over-Table layout is similar in many ways to viewing and editing data in a Table layout.
For example, you use the Download Data button to download data from the Form-over-Table layout’s business objects. Much like table layouts, you may be prompted to do a search at the beginning of a download. Unlike a table layout, the Form-over-Table displays the first row found from the search, plus all the children of that first parent row.
In some cases, you may be able to update the form fields in in a Form-over-Table. The add-in performs data entry validation before it attempts to upload your updates. Ensure that you fix any data entry failures before the add-in uploads changes. For a form field configured to use a list of values, the behavior is the same as described for the Table layout. That is, a search-and-select window appears when you select the form field. Read-only form fields cannot be edited (see Understanding Read-Only Behavior).
Create a Parent Row in a Form-over-Table Layout
If create is enabled for the form, you can select Create Form Row in the Form Changes menu to place the layout in create mode. When you first click Create Form Row, all the form fields are blank and the child table has no rows, as shown in the following image:
Description of the illustration create-form-row-user.png
You can then enter form field values, even create new child table rows. All changes are marked as a pending create, until you click Upload Changes. The add-in validates the data before it attempts to upload updates, and any data entry failures need to be addressed before the changes can be uploaded.
