All properties are divided into five groups: General, Appearance, Default Value, Script and Memo, corresponding to five tabs in DataForm Field Designer.

General

• Field Attributes
  
  • Field Name is an identification of field in DataForm. Each field in one DataForm has an unique ID. If the field is not an extra field, its id is the same as the field in database to which it maps.
  • Field Title gives field a friendly name. Default field title is field id. If Field Title is empty, the control will occupy its cell and then it won't be displayed. If you want to display a empty Field Title, enter a space in the Field Title.
  • Control Type is the web control that presents field in DataForm. DataForm provides nine input controls.
    • ComboBox, DropDownList, RadioButtonList or ListBox. If you choose any of list controls, an additional table will show up below to let you populate them. There are two methods to populate list control, either Collection or DataSource. If you choose Collection, list control is populated by adding each item to the list. If DataSource is chosen, DataTextField, DataValueField and SQL command have to be filled out. SQL command can reference other datasource by use our {!} syntax .
    • LiteralControl. The best part of it is that you can mix data with any HTML code in DefaultValue textbox and they show up on the page exactly.
    • CheckBox. If you'd like to use checkbox to be checked when DataForm is first loaded, put "1" in DefaultValue Property. Empty or "0" leaves checkbox unchecked.
    • File. There are several additional properties for File control. For instance, specify the location where file will be uploaded to - database, disk or both. Or by specifying the file extension, restrict the types of files. Or specify the maximum file size to forbid large file uploaded to server.
    • RichContnetBox is WORD alike component. You can format fonts, insert tables or images, etc.
    • 3rd party controls can be added to DataForm through Controls Manager.
  • Field Order is used to set the display sequence of field in DataForm.
  • Tool Tips sets the text displayed when the mouse pointer hovers over the Web server control.
• Layout
  
  • Visible indicates whether the field will be shown in DataForm. If visible is not checked, the control type is hidden textbox no matter what its control type is set to.
  • Column Span specifies how many columns input control will occupy.
  • Row Span specifies how many rows input control will occupy.
  • Width sets the width of the current web control. By default,
    • if Column Span is 1, then Width is 100px;
    • if Column Span is 3, then Width is 300px;
    • if Column Span is 5, then Width is 500px.
    • If Width is empty, Width property is set to .net's default value.
  • Height sets the height of the current web control.
• Validation
  
  • Data Types of fields in database are translated to ten common used data types. These data types are String, Numeric, Date, DateTime, Currency, Integer, Email, Credit Card, File and IP. DataForm.NET uses these data types to validate user input of each field, except for File data type. More data types may be added to the list in the future.
    Note: File data type is used to identify current field is used to upload file to database. Those types of fields that are able to store large data in database are image in SQL Server or BLOB in Oracle. However, if you use Oracle database, User Types(such as Array Types, Object Types, Table Types and XML Schema) are not supported yet and will not show up in the DataForm.NET Designer.
  • Max Length sets the maximum number of characters allowed in the text box. The length depends on the data length in the database. If length is -1, there are not limits on the textbox. But you can change it to fit your requirements.
    
    • The Maxlength is set to 10 if the field' datatype is date(for instance, yyyy/mm/dd).
    • When Data Type is File, Max Length means the maximum file size in K that can be uploaded. For instance, if Max Length is 100, which means only file smaller than 100k can be uploaded.
  • Is Required means that this field must not be empty. Default is checked if the field is a key field.
  • ReadOnly indicates whether the contents of the field can be changed, no matter what control type it is.
• Auto Postback
  
  • AutoPostBack indicates whether an automatic postback to the server will occur whenever the user modifies the content in the control and then tabs out of the control.
  • Associated Fields is enabled when AutoPostBack is checked. Select fields in the ListBox with which will be associated. These selected fields' value will be changed when current field control postbacks to server. Their value will be updated according to their Default Value.
• Database
  
  • Primary Key indicates whether the current field is a primary key. If datasource is a table, the primary key information will be obtained automatically. However, if datasource is a view, there is not primary key in the view. So if you'd like to show the more data by DataForm, you need to specify which field is primary key so that DataForm can know which column(s) it will use as primary key(s) to locate a row.
  • Can Insert indicates whether the field will be added to database when row is inserting. Some fields are not able to insert to database because the value of field is created on the database side, for instance, Identity Field(SQL Server) or created by trigger.
  • Can Update indicates whether the field will be updated when row is updating.
  • Add to Concurrency Check indicates whether the field will compare with its original value when row is updating. Please see "Use Optimistic Concurrency"

Appearance

Each field has a pair of title and input control. Each field's appearance can be customized by class in css file or style property of individual cell. You can define two class, DataFormTitle and DataFormField, in your css file. eDataForm control imports its default css file(DataFormNet.css) which locates at Styles folder under EasyDotNet\3_0 folder. If you specify your own css class here, you should link css file to the page manually.

• Title Class Name sets the title style by CSS class. Default value is DataFormTitle.
• Title Style sets the title style by single line of CSS.
• Field Class Name sets the input control style by CSS class. Default value is DataFormField.
• Field Style sets the input control style by single line of CSS.

Default Value

• DataSource is a source where fields' default value comes from. There are four datasources(top 4) and 6 useful options(last 6). Use {***!***} syntax to get value from one of data sources. The first part, before !, means a data source, the second part, after !, means item in that data source. Check "Show help window" to help you complete the syntax.
  • Session value provides access to session-state values. For instance, if you store a value of userid in session, then that session value can be get by {session!userid}
  • Value from DataForm provides access to field's value in DataForm. For instance, there is a field named "pub_id" in DataForm, then that field's value can be get by {dataform!pub_id}
  • Value from Request provides access to the current page request, including the request headers, cookies, client certificate, query string, and so on. For instance, a value named "pub_id" is passed to current page by querystring, then that value can be get by {request!userid}.
  • Value from CustomDatasource gives you an additional way to pass values to DataForm. You can define a custom datasource that contains values that are not within above three datasources. CustomDatasource is a NameValueCollection object and value can be get by {custom!pub_id}, where pub_id is the name of item in CustomDatasource.
  • Now returns shortdate format of today with hour, minute and second.
  • Today returns shortdate format of today. The format according to the Regional Options of server. Syntax is {today}. For instance, a field's Control Type is label and its Default Value is "Today is {today}.", the field displays "Today is 02/04/2004" (without double quotation marks).
  • Current Month returns the number of month. Syntax is {month}.
  • Current Year returns the number of year. Syntax is {year}.
  • Constant return a constant. Syntax is {abc} or just "abc"(without double quotation marks), abc is the constant value.
  • SQL Command returns a single value from database by a SQL command. If Default Value is a SQL Command, Datasource must be "SQL Command " at last. The SQL command can combine with SQL syntax and above DataForm syntax. For instance, a SQL command can be like select pub_name from publishers where pub_id={dataform!pub_id}". See pub_name, city, state or country field of title DataForm.
  • Sequence numbers(Oracle) is only used for Oracle Database. If this field acquires Sequence numbers, enter the name of sequence. Each time a new record is inserted into database, the sequence is increased. If you user MS SQL Server, set the field as IDENTITY column in database.
• Default Value is the field's value when DataForm is created first time or re-generated if this field is associated to another field and that field postbacks to server.

Script

This group let you define client-side script (Javascript or VB script ). The script will be executed when client side events are fired on field. Multiple events can be attached to one field.
"Language", "Function" and "Register Method" are not properties of field but help you build script.

• An Event is a notification that occurs in response to an action, such as a change in state, or as a result of the user clicking the mouse or pressing a key while viewing the document. An event handler is code, typically a function or routine written in a scripting language, that receives control when the corresponding event occurs. The ComboBox next to event textbox lists some frequently used events, more events can be entered into it.
• Language specifies what script language you'd like to use.
• There are two Register Methods. ClientScriptBlock method emits script just after the opening tag of the Page object's <form runat= server> element. Similar to the ClientScriptBlock method, StartupScript method emits the script just before the closing tag of the Page object's <form runat= server> element.

By clicking "Build Script" link, the skeleton of the script would be generated according to the above settings. You may add your scripts to the body of function.
Please note:

• There is a marked line that indicates how to register function on the page and is followed by a script block. For instance, "//ClientScriptBlock#onblur#au_idONBLUR(this)", which is divided into three parts by "#", "ClientScriptBlock" means the method registering the script, "onblur" means on which event the following function will be invoked and "au_idONBLUR(this)" is the inline usage of the function, like <input name="EDataForm1:au_id" type="text" id="EDataForm1_au_id" onblur="au_idONBLUR(this)" />. The third part can be changed to any function name or combine multi functions, like "//ClientScriptBlock#onblur#au_idONBLUR(this);function1();function2()", where au_idONBLUR(this) is one of functions in the following script block and function1, function2 may be located in other script sources. When onblur is raised on au_id field, these three functions will be invoked.
  Please DONOT remove this line.
• If the script block is not used, you can remove it. Multi-events can be attached to one field by clicking "Build Script" link each time when the event is changed.
• Memo

Memo gives you a place where you can write down whatever you want and will be shown as field's tooltip on DataForm Designer.