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UTS / T27 eXpress Enterprise/Reference

eXpress Dialog Form Designer

Design custom dialog forms for UTS and T27 eXpress Enterprise — controls, properties, event actions, and the script debugger.

Last updated March 4, 2010

What dialog forms are

Dialog forms are custom Windows dialogs you build inside UTS or T27 eXpress Enterprise to gather input from end users, present host-derived information, or wrap a complex workflow in a friendlier UI. The Designer lets you drop controls onto a form, set their properties, and attach event-action scripts that run when the user interacts with them.

  • Dialog Forms scope — forms can be tied to a single screen or shared across the configuration.
  • Forms are stored alongside the screen configuration and distribute with it.

Designer surface

The Designer presents the form, a tool bar, and a property editor. You add controls from the toolbar, drag to position, and use alignment helpers to line them up. Automatic Properties Assignment fills in sensible defaults; Automatic Alignment to Client Area keeps controls inside the form as it resizes.

Menus

  • File — open, save, import, export forms.
  • Edit — cut/copy/paste/delete controls; undo/redo.
  • Options — designer behaviour (snap to grid, default fonts, etc.).
  • View — toggle the toolbar, property editor, and event-action editor.
  • Help — Contents, This Window, About.

Script Debugger

The Script Debugger steps through the event-action script attached to a control or form. Use it to set breakpoints, inspect state with the Evaluate Section, and trace which event actions fire as the user clicks through the form.

Property Editor

The Property Editor lists every property on the selected control — size, position, fonts, colours, behaviour switches, and the event-action handlers. Properties applicable to the form itself are exposed when no control is selected.

Event Action Editor

The Event Action Editor is a small IDE for writing the scripts that respond to control events. It includes File, Edit, Search, Bookmarks, Options, Tools, and Help menus, plus configurable Editor Properties (font, tab size, syntax-highlight colours).

Form properties

  • SetEventActions — wires per-event handlers in one place.
  • FormShow / FormActivate / FormClose Event Actions — lifecycle hooks.
  • Form Properties — appearance, scope, and behaviour of the form as a whole.

Built-in controls

  • Text Label, Edit Box, Memo — present and capture text.
  • Command Button, Speed Button — trigger actions.
  • Check Box, Option Button, Button Group — boolean and exclusive choices.
  • List Box, Drop-down List Box, Multi-column List Box — selection from a set.
  • Bevel, Group Box, Panel, Splitter — layout containers and separators.
  • Image, Media Player — embedded media.
  • Date/Time Label — formatted timestamps.
  • Browser, URL Link — embed web content or jump to a URL.

Designing reliable forms

  • Set tab order explicitly — automatic order rarely matches the user's reading flow.
  • Use the Script Debugger early; an unhandled event-action error can leave the form in a half-initialised state.
  • Keep host interactions in well-named subroutines so they can be reused across forms.
  • Distribute forms together with the screen configuration that defines the routes they reference.