Form items interact with each other in terms of width, depending on the front-end
widget size.
This example illustrates how form items are dependent on each other inside the
grid.
GRID
{
[a ]
[b ]
}
END
This .per implies that form items a and b
start at the same position and have the same size, whatever a and
b are.
This rule leads to very different results, especially when a large widget is assigned into a
small number of cells.
Example:
LAYOUT
GRID
{
[a|b ][f ]
[c|d] [e ]
}
END
END
ATTRIBUTES
CHECKBOX a = FORMONLY.a, TEXT="A Checkbox";
EDIT b = FORMONLY.b;
EDIT c = FORMONLY.c;
CHECKBOX d = FORMONLY.d, TEXT="Another Checkbox";
EDIT e = FORMONLY.e;
EDIT f = FORMONLY.f;
END
The grid is computed with regard to the character cells in the form definition:
Figure: Grid layout
Figure: Grid layout with checkboxes
Then the minimum size of each widget and the layout is computed.
Cells (0,1) and (1,3) contain a checkbox; these checkboxes will enlarge columns 1 and 3.
Figure: Enlarged columns
Because the EDIT field "c" is defined to have the same width as
checkbox "a", it will be much larger as expected. Figure: Resulting form 1
To avoid this visual result, you must assign a realistic number of grid cells for each form item.
Consider however to use enough form cells to hold the values that can be displayed and entered in
the fields:
GRID
{
[a |b ][f ]
[c|d ][e ]
}
END
Even if the grid area is wider in the source form file, the real graphical result will be
smaller. Figure: Resulting form 2
Furthermore, you can add a STRETCH=X attribute to the field "f", and make the last
grid column stretch to the size of the parent container. Note that the underlying field
"e" will stretch as well, because it belongs to the same grid column as
"f":
EDIT f = formonly.f, STRETCH=X;
Figure: Resulting form 3
If the minimum width must be different from the number of grid cells used by the form item tag of
items using the STRETCH=X attribute, add the STRETCHMIN=nn
attribute, to force the minimum width:
