Tip of the Month (October 2002)

Loading Forms Faster

Regardless of how a form is loaded (launching it from the START menu, launching it from a Command Button, or launching it from a Jump Button), some forms take longer to load than others. This is because, in some circumstances, Visual CE^® has to scan all the records in the underlying table of the form. If there are a large number of records in the table, this might take a while.

We scan the records at load time ONLY if one or more of the following conditions are true:

• There is an autonumber control on the form (we scan to find the next number to assign)
• There is a drop down control that has (a) the "User can add" property AND (b) the "Add new values to list" property on AND (c) the "Add new values to list" property on (we scan to figure out what to put into the list or drop-down options)
• The form uses the @sum() function (we scan to calculate the sum)

If you design your form such that you do not use any of these three features, the form will load significantly faster.