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Form Basics


A Form Entity is a container for any number of Web Pages. A web application is built-up of multiple Forms.

A Form can be created by right-clicking on a Folder or Project in the Entity Tree and selecting New > Form from the context menu.

File > New > File

This opens the Create New Form dialog where the new Form can be named. New Forms have a single Page which can be renamed from the default in the same dialog. The Studio prevents two Forms in the same Workspace having the same name regardless of where the Form is created.

Double-clicking on a Form in the Entity Tree opens its Form Editor. Pages can be added and removed from the Form in the Pages View.

Every Form has a unique URL based on its name. The URL of a Form follows the pattern: <domain name>/<webapp name>/<form name>.eb, for example, www.myDomain.com/ebase/logon.eb. Notice that there is no Project or path information in the URL, which is why the Studio prevents duplicate Form names in the Workspace.

Forms are assigned a URL but the Pages in them are not. When you navigate to a Form the first Page of that Form is loaded. The first Page of a Form is specified in the Form’s Properties dialog, opened by clicking on the Form Properties  button in the Form Editor.

Data added to a Form is shared by all its Pages. If one Page modifies this data, all Pages in that Form instantly reflect those changes. Forms, therefore, usually contain Pages that are related to each other.

For example, a series of Pages making up a checkout basket may be added to a single Form. Information provided by a user in the delivery and payment pages can easily be presented in the confirmation page as they share access to the same data.

Form data is stored on the server against each user as part of that user’s state and lasts for that user’s session. Having access to this state allow Pages to be dynamically personalised for each user, improving their experience.

Before the first Page is loaded and displayed to a user, the owning Form generates a Before Form Event. It can be used to prepare the Pages of the Form, for example by loading required data from databases, or performing security checks on the user. Multiple scripts can be added to the event, and they are executed in the order configured. 

Every text added to a Page can be viewed, edited and translated in the owning Form’s Text Manager . In here you can also create texts that can be used on all Pages of a Form.