Relational Features

Visual CE® has multi-table / multi-form capabilities. For example, say you have a table of ORDERS and ITEMS. Each ORDER record has multiple, corresponding ITEM records, and records in both tables have a column called ORDER_ID which relates the ORDER records to the ITEM records.

A Visual CE application can make use of this relational characteristic in the following ways:

• On the ITEM form you can have a button that, when pressed, launches the ORDER form and positions at that item's order.
• On the ITEM form, you can have a lookup control that displays information from the corresponding ORDER record (like date of the order, customer, etc.)
• On the ORDER form, you can have a grid that displays the items associated with that order. If the user double clicks on a particular item, Visual CE will launch the ITEM form and display that item.
• In the ITEM form, you can have a dropdown of possible items and this dropdown can be populated with data from another table, such as an INVENTORY table.
• The Visual CE synchronizer can synchronize both tables to the desktop.
• Visual CE can generate new, unique ORDER_ID's when creating new ORDER records. In addition, Visual CE can automatically set an ITEM record's ORDER_ID when a new ITEM record is created.
• Visual CE can delete all the corresponding ITEM records for an ORDER when the ORDER record is deleted.

In addition to the foreign key capabilities described above, Visual CE allows you to specify a uniqueness constraint on a table.

Also, a form can be larger than the physical screen on the device. You can put buttons on the form so the user can move from one "region" to another. From the perspective of your user, it will appear that the application has multiple "pages".

You can do all the above by just creating controls and setting their properties. No coding is needed.