Creating overlays for AR System objects

An example of creating overlays is Dane Developer who develops an application on AR System. Dane was asked to assign two additional permissions to the out-of-the-box AR System form AP:Cities. Dane opens Developer Studio in the Best Practice Customization mode and locates the form AP:Cities in the object list. He opens the form in the form editor. He notices that the name of the form in the form title bar is AP:Cities (Unmodified). Dane selects the Definitions tab and opens the Permissions panel. AP:Cities has struct_admin set as the default permission. To retain the origin permissions and add new permissions to the form, Dane creates an overlay of the form's Permissions. He uses Additive as the Overlay type to match the Developer Studio menu. This overlay type allows him to add the two new group permissions to the form. AP:Cities now has the original permissions from the out-of-the-box form and the two new permissions. The changes to the permissions are saved when Dane saves the form. If the AP:Cities form is upgraded, the overlay form inherits any new permissions (if they do not conflict with the permissions that Dane added) during runtime.

Dane now wants to change the forms list to be unique for his company. Dane opens Developer Studio in the Best Practice Customization mode and locates the Active Link AP:Pending Approvals:Home. He opens the Active Link and expands the Associate Forms panel. Dane changes the Overlay Type from No Overlay to Overwrite. The out-of-the-box AP:Pending Approvals:Home form list has several forms that he does not want to use in his AR System application. He deletes the extra forms and adds ten new forms that his AR System application requires. Dane saves his changes. If the AR System or application's form list is upgraded, the active link does not inherit any forms during runtime. Only those forms that Dane left in the forms list overlay are used.

To create an overlay

This procedure describes how to create overlays for AR System server objects. You can work with overlays only in Best Practice Customization mode of Developer Studio.

1. Open Developer Studio in Best Practice Customization mode.
   For information about changing the development mode, see Changing-the-development-mode.
2. Open the appropriate object list.
3. Perform one of the following procedures:
   1. To overlay object properties
   2. To overlay field properties

To overlay object properties

1. In the object list, locate and select the object that you want to overlay.
2. Select the Definition tab to view the object's properties.
   The object properties are listed in separate panels. For information about the form properties, see Setting-form-properties.
   
   
3. Expand the panel for the granular component that you want to customize.
4. Click the Overlay Type drop-list to choose and apply the overlay type to the selected granular component.
   

If you have not created an overlay for the object, Developer Studio creates the object overlay after your confirmation, and then applies the overlay type to the object property.

Depending on the overlay type that you have applied to the granular component, you can add new properties or overwrite the existing base properties of the object. For information about the overlay types, see Granular-overlays.

To overlay field properties

1. In Developer Studio, open the form for which you want to customize the field properties.  (Ensure that the form is overlaid.)
2. Select the field to view its existing properties in the Properties view.
3. Depending on the object selected, the Properties view allows you to overlay the granular component of the field property such as Permissions.
   For information about field properties, see Field-overlays.
4. For the property that you want to customize, click the Overlay Type drop-list and select the overlay type.
   If you have not created an overlay for the object, Developer Studio creates the required overlay after your confirmation and then applies the overlay type to the field property.

Depending on the overlay type that you have applied to the granular component, you can add new properties or overwrite the existing base properties of the object.

Before overlaying the granular component, if you choose to overlay the object itself (for example, Form > Create Overlay ), Developer Studio creates a transparent overlay. A transparent overlay contains information about the unmodified components of the base object. This information is updated whenever the corresponding base object is updated.

For information about viewing, modifying and deleting an overlay, see Working-with-overlays.