Nebraska - eforms. Tips and Tricks

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1 Nebraska - eforms Tips and Tricks 1) Nebraska eforms is an ASP.Net Silverlight 4 web application created for industry users to submit required regulatory forms electronically. You must have.net Framework 4 installed on both the development machine and the web server. To develop new forms the user must be able to modify the Visual Studio 2010 solution. 2) Tip: The preferred order for creating a new form is as follows: a. Create the form layout using the eforms web application. Use the Administration Expander and the Design Forms button. b. Create a one or more tables inside of the eformworkflow database to hold data from the form using SQL Server Management Studio. c. Modify the Visual Studio Solution to incorporate these new tables epermitdal>statespecific>epermitclasses.dbml. d. Modify the code behind file for the above dbml e. Modify the epermitservice>statespecific>epermit_ss>getobject.vb and SaveObject_SS.vb to reflect the additions to the above dbml. f. Rebuild the Solution g. Publish the new epermitservice to the web site.

2 h. Use RbdmsWinAdmin to add rules sets for each additional table added to the above dbml. i. Use the eforms web application to bind the data tables and rules sets created to the form. 3) Trick: XAML Styles for form layout objects are stored in the epermitgui App.xaml file. You can change global values for padding, margin, font etc. by using these styles. 4) Trick: If you want black borders and black lines around your layout objects use a black background on your main layout for the tab then create a grid row and or column with a 1 or 2 pixel height or width. Leave this row or column blank and you will have a black line showing when the form renders. 5) Tip: create each row of the form layout as a separate User Control. Then create the tab layout by using these user controls. This way you can have say 5 columns for row 1 and 7 columns for row 2 and 1 column for row 3 etc. 6) Trick: To have a grid title or header row create a separate user control for grid titles. Set column widths the same as the grid control. You can now control font size and alignment for your grid header row.

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4 7) Trick: Dashboard layout can be customized by modifying epermitgui>dashboard.xaml. Using an editor such as Expression blend will let you visualize results better than Visual Studio. 8) Tip: Preface name all user controls for a form with the same beginning name i.e. Form_5_ for all user controls that go on Form 5. 9) Trick: Lookup functions are stored as xml in the epermitservice>statespecific folder. This file can be modified to reflect database changes without recompiling the epermitservice. The code inside of the <Lookup></Lookup> xml block represents a SQL Server Select Query. 10) Tip: Whenever possible do not use fixed width columns such as 200 pixels. Instead use star width such as 1*, 2* etc. Try not to use less than 1*. If you want column 1 to be twice as wide as column 2 and 3 use 2* for column 1 and 1* for column 2 and 3. This will keep your forms as browser and screen resolution friendly as is possible. 11) Tip: Make your layout items only span one column. If you need more than that you should create a separate user controls and then composite them. 12) Tip: Each form must also be created as a SQL Server.rdlc report item. The supplied code will support any currently available version of SQL Server Report Designer. The reports must be stored on the server in the Reports folder of the web application. Any DataSets created in the generation of these reports must be stored in the folder App_Code of the web application. 13) Trick: When creating reports use views created in the eformsworkflow database to reference lookup tables that come from a different database such as your Rbdms database. Define the view in SQL Server Management Studio and use full url terminology. Example: SELECT Code, Definition AS CmtClass FROM NE_RBDMS.dbo.tblRefCodes WHERE (Fld = 'CLASS_CMT'). The

5 NE_RBDMS.dbo.tblRefCodes is the full url terminology that tells that this table is located in a different database on the same server. Alternatively you may use Scalar-valued Functions. 14) TRICK: Use The Administration Help Document. USE THE ADMINISTRATION HELP DOCUMENT! USE THE ADMINISTRATION HELP DOCUMENT!!!