Openous Controls
Openous Controls
To create forms in Openous, a variety of controls is made available to the user.
The controls are split in the following categories: Action Controls, Data Controls, Container Controls, SharePoint Controls, Unused Fields Controls, Related Entities Controls
Action Controls
Action Controls in Openous are UI Elements that hold no data. They are used mainly for user actions within the form (for example, buttons).
Create your own drop down menus, create tree like menus giving your form a unique application-look-like interface.
The RibbonButton Control is very similar to the Button Control. Not only are you able to specify a text but also display an image for your button.
The Button Control is widely used to get the user to interact with the form.
Usually, one might want to have the button disabled to start with, or even hidden. To do so, the Enabled Property and the Visible Property, found under the Behavior Properties, are used.
The button's content can either be text, image or custom html. To specify what should be displayed, simply fill in the Text Property
The Hyperlink Button Control is very similar to the Button Control, but a much simpler version of it. Instead of the default button UI, it displays a link. The user can specify what will happen when the user clicks on the link.
Containers
Container Controls in Openous are placeholders for hosting other controls, such as Table or Tab.
Simple containers are the simplest type of containers. They represent a simple html div element, where any number of controls can be added
The Tab Control allows you to separate content, by creating a horizontal menu at the top of the container. The controls listed in each tab will only be viewable by the user when that specific tab header is pressed. Using tabs is a good approach for long complex forms, where an initial categorization needs to be made, for a more user-friendly approach.
The Table Container Control allows the user to create a table like view. One can add or remove rows and columns as per their needs. Additional customization per row and column is available, as one can specify both each row’s height as well as a column’s width
The Section Control by default displays a title and a body. Each one of them has its own properties that you can customize based on your needs. What makes sections so important is the fact that you can allow for them to collapse, either by default or by option, making it easier for the user to navigate through long forms.
To change the title of the section, you simply need to click on the title element, and change its “Text” property to the desired value.
The body of the section, acts as a placeholder where you can add any control you wish to display.
The root (top-level) container of every control in Openous. It is the first element created by default when you select to customize a SharePoint form for a list or document library. The Form Control exposes all necessary methods for programmatically applying your rules and business logic to your Openous implementation.
The Menu Panel control creates a vertical list of options on the left side of the container. Here however, you are able directly through the “Edit Menu” property button, to specify not only a header for your menu items, but also an image.
Data Controls
Data Controls are UI Elements that store and display data (for example textbox, combobox).
The progress bar is used to give the users a visual indicator of the form's completeness. Supports animation and full styling customization.
Using the Radio Buttons Control, one can offer the user a variety of options but only allow the user to select one value, rather than multiple.
The Label Control is used not only as a label placeholder, but this is the control you would be using to also write descriptions and other informative text within your form.
The listbox is one of the most important controls of Openous. It provides a grid-like functionality, both for listing records in tabular fashion, as well as allowing editing of the repeating items using sub-forms.
The Textbox Control is amongst the most common controls used in forms. It is used to get input from the user in either a controlled way (eg. request a numeric value) or non controlled way (eg. free text).
Allows the user to select between two values (true/false
Allow the user to format their own text, through a customizable editor, and display only the options that fit the occasion. Enable or disable the display of font, display, image, link, list, format, table, file and html tools, depending on the form.
Ideal to get percentage input from users, the slider has minimum/maximum and small/large step predefined values.
Using the Image Control, you can easily place an image anywhere within the form
Similarly to the Checkbox Control, the CheckBoxes Control gets a list of options as input and for each displays a checkbox. The control's output is a list of all the selected values.
The Combobox Control displays a drop down list of the values you have specified in the value provider, and allows the user to either select one or multiple values.
Using the Chart Control, you are able to display charts using data from the form.
Using the Checkbox Control, you can get a true/false value for your question. You can also group CheckBoxes Controls to allow only for one answer from a series of questions. For example when asking for a rating from 1 to 5, you can display 5 checkboxes, and group them, to allow user to only select one answer.
The Hidden Control is ideal to use for flag or temp variables/values. Visible in the designer, hidden during runtime, it's every developer's favorite control! (similar to Input type="hidden" in html)
Using the Image Checkbox Control, you can apply your own images for the two scenarios of a checked and an unchecked box.
SharePoint Controls
The SharePoint Controls are complex elements exposing SharePoint-specific functionality.
A button that provides “Validate form and Save and Close” functionality.
A button that provides “Create New List Item” functionality.
Control the form's data prior to submission. Allow for checks and validation to take place prior to the form's submission.
A button that provides “Save Current List Item” functionality.
A button that provides “Save Current List Item and Reload page” functionality.
A control that can be used for editing the value of SharePoint “Hyperlink or Picture” columns.
A control for uploading files into the form and attaching them to the list item.
A control that lists all of the existing (already uploaded) attachments of the current item.
You can ask the user to upload attachments from anywhere within your form, as well as ask and view additional information per each file uploaded.
A control that lists the changes that concern a specific column of the current list item.
A button that provides “Delete” functionality for the current list item. After the deletion, the form is closed.
A button that provides “Cancel/Close page” functionality.
Unused Fields
Unused Fields are controls bound to SharePoint columns that are not used within your form. If you add a new SharePoint column to your list, then a new entry will be available under this group, with the proposed UI element for this control (for example, if