Positioning an object in a stack


When you select an object to move forward or backward in a stack, the relevant toolbar icons become active. For example, if your form includes four overlapping panels and you select the top panel to be moved (the green panel in the following figure), the Send Backward and Send to Back toolbar icons become active. The Bring to Front and Bring Forward buttons are not active, because the selected panel is already at the top of the stack and cannot be moved forward.


Moving the top panel backward
panel-overlap1.gif

If you select Send Backward, the panel is moved one position back in the stack, as shown in the following figure.

Moving a panel backward
panel-overlap2.gif

When smaller objects are hidden behind larger objects, you can use the Outline view to identify their position. For example, the smaller trim text field might be behind a larger panel field and therefore might not be visible. Selecting the trim text field in Outline view enables you to determine its position in the object stack, and you can then move it as needed.

To change the position of an object in a stack using Outline view

  1. Select the object in the stack whose position you want to change.
    If the object that you want to reposition is hidden behind a larger object, select it in Outline view.
  2. In the toolbar (or from the Layout menu), select the button for moving the object forward or backward.
    You can set the Entry Mode property of a field to Required at design time or runtime.
    At design time, select a data or attachment field and in the Properties window, select Database > Entry Mode > Required. For more information about field entry modes, see Entry Mode.
    At runtime, you can change a field's entry mode from Optional or Required by using the Change Field action. Simply, change the Process Entry Mode to Not Required or Required. If you reset the entry mode to Optional (Not Required), the field label becomes plain, the asterisk is removed, and the field is no longer validated when a request is created. For information, see Defining-Change-Field-active-link-actions.
    When you set the Entry Mode property to Required for a field, the following changes occurs:
    • The field label becomes bold.
    • By default, an asterisk is added to the end of the label. To add a different character to the label or to add the character to the beginning of the label.
    • The browser validates the field when a request is created.
      If the field is empty and does not have a default value, in browsers, the field is highlighted (for example, outlined in red), an error message is displayed, and the request is not sent to the server.

      Although you can use a Change Field action to change a design-time Required field to Optional at runtime, you should not do this. The "optional" field would still be validated by the server. If it contained no value, the server would generate an error message.

To configure a character identifier for required fields

  1. In a browser, open the AR System Administration Console, and click System > General > Server Information.
    The AR System Administration: Server Information form appears.
  2. Click the Configuration tab.
  3. In the Required Field Identifier area, set the following options:
    • Prefix on Label—Select this option to add the character to the beginning of the field label.
    • Suffix on Label—(Default) Select this option to add the character to the end of the field label.
    • Identifier—Enter an ASCII character to add as an identifier to the field label. The default is an asterisk.
  4. Click OK.
    The changes take effect immediately. You do not need to restart the server.
    This identifier will be added to all required field labels in all forms on the AR System server.

 

Tip: For faster searching, add an asterisk to the end of your partial query. Example: cert*