Chapter 4
A data form accepts information from a user. You can use Vermont Views and the Vermont Views Designer to create a data form, display the form on a screen, give control to the user for entering data, and then transfer the data entered in the form to the desired data variables.
Each type of form item has its own data structure. For example, Vermont Views defines a data field structure, a scrollable region structure, a background text structure, a background line structure, and a background box structure. Each structure holds information about the appearance and the behavior of the item.
Similarly, a data form is controlled by a data structure. The values of the members of the form structure control how the form looks, what items are on the form, and how form processing behaves.
To keep track of what items are associated with the form, the Vermont Views system builds two linked lists of items. One linked list contains the items that the user can enter information into, such as data fields, scrollable regions, and memo fields. The other list contains the background or static items on the form. Pointers to these two lists are placed in the data form structure; thus, the data form structure contains a complete reference to all items and background on the data form.
You do not need to learn the details about these structures to learn how to customize data entry. Vermont Views maintains the information in the structures for you. You just call the provided functions to specify how you want the form or form items to look and behave. If you would like more information about the structure definitions used by Vermont Views, see the "Structures" section of the Function Reference.
How Data Form Processing Works
