Creating a database form

Contents

Overview

With the HBasic IDE you may select a database table and display or edit it's contents with a table view. To edit the rows of a database table while executing a HBasic program you may read each data row and put the values in widgets that you have placed on a form. This works but needs much code that always looks the same way.

It is more comfortable to set up a database form and connect lineedit widgets to the columns of a table. You may use the DBFORM widget from the hbasic_dbaccess package to create this connections. With the DB-Form wizard you can create a new form that already has a DBFORM component and one label and one lineedit widget for each column of a given database. When starting this form the label widget displays the name of the column and the lineedit widget displays the value of the column.

For the tab1 table of the hbasic example database with 3 columns named col1, col2 and col3 the generated form looks like the following image.

wizard_db_form


Prerequisites

Before you may start the database form wizard you have to prepare the following steps:
db_in_project


Select database and connect to project

Since a database form will be stored in the project files of your current HBasic project you have to select a database  and connect it to the project first.  You can select a database in the database window. Open the database window with the menu entry view / database window or click on the small database icon in the toolbar.

HBasic will open a new dialog where you can edit the list of known databases or connect to one database. Remember to compile the database plugin for your favourite database backend before trying to use the database connection in HBasic. (See setting up database access with HBasic).

To connect a database to your project add the database description to the list of known databases on top of the database window and click on the button to project to connect the current selected database to your project description.

Start database form wizard


If you have connected your HBasic project to a database you can open the DB form wizard by clicking on the DB-Form wizard icon which appears when you select New in the menubar or click on the new icon in the project tree toolbar or HBasic global toolbar.

new_doc



Select table for your database form

The only additional information the DB Form wizards needs is the name of the table for which you want to set up the row editor form. After clicking on the DB Form wizard icon a new dialog pops up which displays all tables of the database that is connected to your project. If there are no tables listed in this dialog check your database connection and if the database is online.

Select one of the tables from this list and click on the OK button. HBasic will now create a new form in your project and insert all widgets needed to edit the columns of the database table into this form.

Load DB form from another form

When you start your current HBasic project the new database form will now be displayed on startup. You have to show it with a special statement within the start form of your project. Insert for example a new button button1 into your startform (Currently this is automatically the form with the name Form1) and insert the following code to display the database form Form2.


Sub button1_clicked()
   Form2.load()
End Sub
Example: Load and display form Form2

When you start this changed HBasic project the startup form Form1 with the button will be displayed. If you click on the button a second form will pop up which is your database form. You may now scroll through the rows of your database data or change it like your normally do it with the DBFORM component.