Centralize field information (label, widget, default value)

Specifying field properties at the meta-schema level allows you to centralize properties such as the label, widget, and default value used when an application based on the meta-schema is built.

  1. Open the meta-schema file (4db or 4dbx).
  2. Select a column in the table and set its Default value, label, and/or widget properties. For example, if you set the state field's label property to State and its widget property to comboBox, when you build a form that includes this field, it will be built with a label of State and as a comboBox instead of the default Edit widget type.
    This figure shows an example of setting the Label and Widget properties for the supplier.state field at the meta-schema level.

    Figure 1. Setting properties at the meta-schema level

  3. Repeat for all fields to which you want to centralize information.
  4. Save the meta-schema file.