How to: Create a Simple List and Details Form

Article
05/18/2015

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

This topic describes how to use the AOT and a template to create a simple list and details form. You use a simple list and details form to view, update, create, and delete the following types of records:

Records that show data from a reference table.
Records that have more than six fields.
Records that have a parent and child relationship between fields that appears on the form.

If the record type you want to appear in the form has fewer than six columns, consider using a simple list form. For information about how to create a simple list form, see How to: Create a Simple List Form. For more information about simple list and simple list and details forms, see Simple List Forms Overview. To create a simple list and details form, follow these steps.

To create the simple list and details form

In the AOT, right-click Forms, click New Form from template, and then click SimpleListDetails. The template creates a new form.
Right-click the form and then click Properties. In the property sheet, click Name, and then type a name that uniquely identifies the form.
Expand the form, expand Designs, and then click Design. In the properties sheet, find the Style property and verify that the value is set to SimpleListDetails.
Click the Caption property and then select the label that represents the name that you want to appear in the title bar of the form.

Note

The form title should be plural. You often can use the same label that is specified by the Label property of the table that you use as the form data source.

To add the data source

Press CTRL+D to open a second AOT window.
Expand Data Dictionary, expand Tables, and then find the table you want to use with the form.
Drag the table onto the Data Sources node of the form that you created in the previous steps.
In the AOT window that shows the form, click the Design node. In the properties sheet, click Datasource and then select the table you will use as the data source for the grid control. Click the TitleDatasource property and verify that the property value is empty.
Expand the Design node. You should see controls for the action pane strip, the page title group, the custom filter group, and the body group. Click the ActionPane control. In the properties sheet, click DataSource and then select the table that you specified in the previous step.

Warning

If the form was not created based on a template, or the form has changed template values, the names and sequence specified in this and the remaining steps might be different.

To add fields to the grid

Expand the Design node, expand the Body group, and then expand the GridContainer group. You should see the Grid control.
Click the grid. In the properties sheet for the grid control, click the DataSource property and then click the table you want to use as the data source for the grid. Select the table that includes the fields you want to appear in the grid.
Verify that the grid does not support the selection of multiple records. First, click the MultiSelect property and verify that the property value is set to No. Click the ShowRowLabels property and verify that the property value is set to No.
Right-click the Data Sources node of the form to add a field to the grid, and then click Open New Window. The form data source appears in a separate window.
In the window that shows the form data sources, expand the node for the table that you specified in the earlier step, and then expand Fields.
Drag the field or field group that you want to appear in the form onto the grid control. You should not add more than four fields to the grid.

To add the splitter between the grid and details

Expand the Design node, expand the Body group, and then click the VSplitter group.
In the property sheet, click the Style property and verify the value is set to SplitterVerticalContainer.

Note

The template adds SysFormSplitter_X verticalSplitter; to the ClassDeclaration method of the form. The template adds verticalSplitter = new SysFormSplitter_X(VSplitter, GridContainer, element, 300); to the init method of the form. These statements let users use the splitter control.

To add fields to the details header group

Expand the Design node, expand the Body group, and then expand the DetailsContainer group. You should see a group control named DetailsHeader.

Note

The details header is an optional section for a simple list and details form. If the details tab shows the fields that appear in the grid and you do not have FastTabs, you do not need the details header group. If the DetailsHeader group is empty, the details header does not appear on the form.
In the window that shows the form data sources, expand the node for the table that you chose as the form data source, and then expand Fields.
Drag each field that you want to appear in the details header group. You should add fields that identify the record. Typically, you use the same fields that appear in the grid.

To add fields to the details tab

Expand the Design node, expand the Body group, expand the DetailsContainer group, and then click DetailsTab. In the property sheet for the tab control, click the Style property, and then select one of the following values.

Property value	Description
FastTabs	Select this value when you will add more fields than can appear on a single tab page.
Tabs	Select this value when all the fields can appear on a single tab page.

Expand DetailsTab and then click the tab page control named TabPage.
In the property sheet, click the Caption property and specify the label you want to appear as the title for the tab.
In the window that shows the form data sources, expand the node for the table that you chose as the form data source, and then expand Fields.
Drag a field group or each field that you want to appear onto the tab page control.
To add more FastTabs, right-click DetailsTab, click New Control, and then click TabPage. A tab page control is added to the tab. To add fields to that FastTab, click the tab page control, and then repeat the previous three steps in this procedure. For more information about how to add a FastTab and how to specify the summary fields, see How to: Add FastTabs to a Form.
Right-click the form and then click Save.

To view the form, right-click the form and then click Open. To close the form, click the Close button in the status bar.

You will see the splitter when you have fields in both the grid and details tab of the form. If either is empty, the splitter does not appear on the form.

If the simple list and details form displays dependent data (the form opens in the context of another record), you might want to add a title group to the form. For information about how to add a title group, see How to: Add a Page Title Group to a Simple List Form.