Item Placement Tool: Configuration

The windows are configured using the IPT: Configuration which is located in Administration > Add-Ons > B1 Usability Package > Module Configuration > Item Placement Tool > Item Placement Tool : Configuration

Please keep in mind that large changes require a lot of configuration, and also the configuration is quite technical, so estimate some time for configuration when implementing.

Field

Description

Code

Each configuration will need a unique code in order to function. When you switch to add-mode, the system will automatically suggest a code (IPT-1, IPT-2, and so on).

Form type (Mandatory)

The form type for the window you want to configure Item Placement Tool for. The form type is found by opening the form you need form type for. Activate the system information (View > System information), and the information is displayed in the bottom left corner of the client, when you hold the mouse over an item.

Description

This is a simple description of the form type. On the most common form types, this description appears automatically.

Use description as form title

If checked, IPT renames the form title to the value of the description field.

NB: THIS OPTION DOES NOT WORK ON SALES AND PURCHASE DOCUMENTS AS THESE WINDOWS DYNAMICALLY UPDATE THEIR TITLE UNLESS YOU CONTROL THEM WITH THE UF MACRO “SETFORMTITLE” COMMAND

Sample video

Development Mode

During the configuration you can active the development mode. Development mode changes two things:

1. Status bar will display Pane level (described later) when clicking on a folder (General, Payment Terms and so on.).

2. When you click on an item you get the items Left, Top, Width and Height positions displayed in the status bar.

For more information: See this video

Form Width & Height

Set a value to change the forms width. Leave blank if you do not want to change forms width and height.

SPECIAL NOTE: IF YOU USE FUNCTION BUTTONS AND ITEM PLACEMENT TOOL ON THE SAME FORM TYPE, PLEASE CLEAR THE WIDTH AND HEIGHT OF THE ITEM PLACEMENT TOOL CONFIGURATION TO ALLOW THE SIZING FOR THE BUTTONS.

Include Universal Function

Gives you the option to activate a Universal Function along with the changes made with the IPT. This option is included to make it easy to work with the function type Content Creator, but any universal function can be activated, but please note that some function types can have some rather negative effects that might lock the client.

For more information: See this video and this B1UP Tip (Intro)

Block UDF side

Gives you the option to prevent people in opening the UDF sidebar for the given formtype

Users

Here you have the option via the edit text and the radio buttons to make your configurations user-specific (making it possible to have one user have one unique configuration while another user have a different configuration)

The above screenshot result in that only the two users with user codes “user1” and “user2” will see this configuration, while the screenshot below makes the configuration active to all other users except

NB: IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY THAT A USER DOES NOT OVERLAP OR IS INCLUDED IN TWO OR MORE CONFIGURATIONS. IF THAT IS THE CASE, THE SYSTEM WILL WORK WITH THE FIRST CONFIGURATION IT FINDS AND IGNORE THE ADDITIONAL CONFIGURATIONS.

For more information: See this video

Active

Here you have the option to temporarily deactivate a configuration instead of removing it entirely.

Add System/UDF line buttons

Adds additional lines to the system lines and the UDF lines.

Remove System/UDF line button

Remove the selected System/UDF line(s). Select a line by pressing the grey block. Use CTRL or SHIFT to select multiple lines.

Render Mode

This option determines how the B1UP should apply the configuration to the window affected.

Mode	Description
XML	This is the recommended render mode as it is significantly faster than the code. Drawback of it is that should there be any misconfigurations, it will not give very specific errors.
Code	This mode is the legacy mode of adding items. It is slower than XML Mode but is great during debugging of a configuration. You should only really change to Code mode if you experience problems in XML Mode.

For more information: See this video

Tabs

Via this button you can add two types of tabs to any system form there already have Tabs. The two types of tabs you can add are SQL report tabs and Custom tabs.

[See a video of the feature]

When you press the button you are presented with the following window.

At the top you need to provide the UID of the first tab on the window you wish to place the tab (it need to always be the first tab to ensure correct placement of content on the tab. The Tabs left position is controlled by the pixel value you give in the lines below).

Example if the tab you are about to make is on BP Master Data the Uid need to be “3” as that is the Uid of the General Tab on BP Master Data

We provide the Uid for the most common windows. Next you need to provide info on the tabs you wish to have. You can add multiple tabs (one per line) if you wish.

SQL Report Tabs:

Column	Description
Active	Here you can choose if SQL Report Tab should be active and shown on the system form.
SQL Report UF	Here you choose the SQL Report of which data should be shown on the tab (For SQL Report functionality see elsewhere in this manual). The SQL itself will be shown as the content of the tab instead of a normal window. Almost all feature of SQL report work on the tab version but with the following exceptions • You can only choose SQL Report that are of type Grid and do not use the [%0] syntax • The width/height of the SQL Report is not used • Form State is ignored • The use of dynamic syntax in the form title field is not supported • Refresh button option + auto-refresh is ignored (you can instead right-click to refresh) • Select Data Target System is ignored • Form type suffix is ignored • There is no row selection
Description	Here the title of the SQL Report us show for your reference. It is this title that will be used as the caption of the Tab
Tab left pixel position	Here you control the position of the tab (left/right). I you give a value of 0 it mean the tab will be the left-most tab. Increase the value in pixel to choose where it should be positioned next to the other tabs
Panelevel	Here you control the pane level of the tab. The system will automatically choose pane 700, 701 and you should have no real reason to change this, but you can choose any number between 11 and 999. The reason this is configurable is if we collide with a pane level used by another add-on. If such switch it here to avoid the collision. You should never give multiple tabs on the same window the same pane level. Tip: Learn more about panelevels here
Show number of records on tab	Here you can choose to show the number of records in the SQL report tab in the tab title
Left (Optional) / Top (Optional) / Width (Optional) / Height (Optional)	By default, we will try to place the content of the tab to the right position and fill the entire tab area, but if you place tab on non-common windows or country specific windows the placement might be wrong or if you wish to do advanced placement with other GUI elements next to the tab you can use the width/height/left and top to override the automated placement.
Load Data During Form Load	If you disable this feature the SQL report Tab will only execute the SQL if you have a data load event (example browse between Business Partners). This is good for performance if you SQL is expensive performance-wise because in cases where you use Golden Arrows to a a screen with a SQL Report, we normally run the SQL twice. WARNING A downside to this is that if turned off and you open the screen from the Main Menu, you will see an "empty tab"

Video: Learn more about SQL Report Tabs

Custom Tabs

Column	Description
Active	Here you can choose if the tab should be shown on the system form
Caption	Here you write the title of the tab there is shown on the system form
Tab left pixel position	Here you control the position of the tab (left/right). I you give a value of 0 it mean the tab will be the left-most tab. Increase the value in pixel to choose where it should be positioned next to the other tabs
Panelevel	Here you control the pane level of the tab. The system will automatically choose pane 800, 801 and you should have no real reason to change this, but you can choose any number between 11 and 999. The reason this is configurable is if we collide with a pane level used by another add-on. If such switch it here to avoid the collision. You should never give multiple tabs on the same window the same pane level. NB: IF YOU HAVE CREATED A TAB USING THE TAB WIZARD AND YOU NEED TO CHANGE THE PANE LEVEL YOU NEED TO FIND ALL THE ITEM ON THE TAB IN THE IPT CONFIGURATION AND CHANGE THEIRS FROMPANE AND TOPANE VALUES AS WELL.
ItemUid	The id of the custom tab. This can be used when placing items on the tab

Import

This allows you to import configurations (Either one at the time or as a batch). See more info in under “Configuring the Add-on > Shared functionality > Import“

Export

This allows you to export configurations to XML (Either one at the time or as a batch). See more info in under “Configuring the Add-on > Shared functionality > Export“

The system item lines

The system item lines are used for changing SAP Business One’s system items. Add and Remove lines are handled by the buttons described above.

Column

Description

Active

Use the checkbox to enable or disable the line. Often used while debugging

ItemUid

The unique identifiers of the system item that you to work with. The item UID can be found in the debug information when pointing the mouse at the item.

Description

The description of the item UID specified. This description is only used as Config information on system items.

Override description

This gives you the option to override the description shown in status bar of items. On button this also gives the option to change the buttons caption and even put in a ‘&’ in the name to activate an ALT + Key shortcut.

Placement type

• Pixel Placement – Items are placed using Left / Top pixels

• Relative Placement (above, below, left, right) – Items are placed in relation to an item

If Pixel Placement is selected Left/Top should be filled.

If Relative Placement is selected (above, below, left, right) “Placement item” and “Placement spacing” should be filled.

Placement item

The item that should be used as the relative item when doing relative placement. This field is required if relative placement is selected.

Placement spacing

This field defines the space between the placement item and them item if relative placement is selected.

Left

Indicate the left value in pixels from the left border and left. You can enter one of three things:

1. Enter a specific value (Example: 40)

2. Leave empty (Items left-value will keep the current value)

3. Enter a dynamic value that increase/decrease current left value. Example:

a. Enter +10 to add 10 pixels to the current left value (Further to the left)

b. Enter -10 to subtract 10 pixels from the current left value (Further to the right)

Top

Indicate the top value in pixels from the window’s title bar and down. You can enter one of three things:

1. Enter a specific value (Example: 30)

2. Leave empty (Items top-value will keep the current value)

3. Enter dynamic values that increase/decrease current top value. Example:

a. Enter +10 to add 10 pixels to the current top value (Further down)

b. Enter -10 to subtract 10 pixels from the current top value (Further up)

Width

Here you can enter the new width of the item in pixels. You can also leave it blank keep original width.

Height

Here you can enter the new height of the item in pixels. You can also leave it blank keep original height.

Hide

Check this checkbox in order to hide the item defined in item Uid

From Pane / To Pane

Pane level is the information about which folder (tab-page) the item are on. All items of a folder will have the same Pane level. Items that are shown all the time have Pane level 0.

To get which Pane level an item is on, please activate the development option and press the folder that the item is on, and Pane level will be displayed in the status bar.

If you like to keep the current Pane level enter -1 (Ignore value).

TIP: YOU ARE ABLE TO HIDE ITEMS YOU DON’T WANT TO DISPLAY USING THE PANE LEVEL. JUST SET THE PANE LEVEL TO A PANE LEVEL VALUE THAT DOESN’T EXIST, LIKE FOR EXAMPLE 999.

Tip: Learn more about panelevels here

Link To

Link To -column allows you to link the field to another item on the window, and thereby inherit that items placement properties.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PLEASE SEE: GUIDE – THE LIMITATIONS IN SCREEN LAYOUT USING ITEM PLACEMENT TOOL

Online tip: How to use Link To system

Right Justified

Use this option to set if data in an edit text field are right-justified or not.

- Not right justified

- Right Justified:

NB: ONLY USED IN EDIT TEXT ITEM TYPES AND TEXT AREA ITEM TYPES

Suppress Zeroes

Use this option to get edit text fields to show nothing if the value is zero

NB: ONLY USED IN EDIT TEXT ITEM TYPES AND TEXT AREA ITEM TYPES

Text Style

Use this option to set the text-style of the item (Bold, Italic, Underline, and so on)

Fore Color

Use this option to set the text-color of the item (RGB value in long representation)

TIP: RIGHT-CLICK THE COLUMN TO PICK THE COLOR

Back Color

Use this option to set the background-color of the item (RGB value in long representation)

TIP: RIGHT-CLICK THE COLUMN TO PICK THE COLOR

NB: NOT ALL GUI ELEMENTS CAN APPLY COLOR. THE FOLLOWING LIST SHOW WHAT CAN BE COLORED AND WHAT CANNOT

GUI Item type	Fore color	Back color
Button	No	No
Checkbox	(Yes) [Only Code render mode due to SDK bug]	No
Combo box	Yes	Yes
Edit Text	Yes	Yes
Folder (Tab)	No	No
Label	Yes	Yes
Linked Button (Golden arrow)	No	No
Picture	No	No
Rectangle	No	No
Text area	No	No

Font size

Here you can set the font-size of the item. If nothing is entered, the default will be used.

Category

Set the lines category (See configuration Categories)

NB: NOT ALL ITEMS CAN BE MOVED AROUND OR HIDDEN. SOME TABS AND ITEMS ARE CONTROLLED IN A SPECIAL WAY BY SAP BUSINESS ONE (AN EXAMPLE IS SOME OF THE TABS ON THE BP MASTER DATA WINDOW).

The UDF and Custom item lines

The UDF item lines are used for adding your user-defined fields to the window. Add and Remove lines are handled by the buttons described above.

Column

Description

Active

Use the checkbox to enable or disable the line. Often used while debugging

ItemUid

The unique identifiers of the user defined item that you to work with. The item UID can be found in the debug information when pointing the mouse at the item.

NB: A UID SHOULD CONSIST OF LETTERS (ABC), NUMBERS (123) OR/AND UNDERSCORES (_). CHARACTERS LIKE SPACE, DASHES OR SPECIAL CHARACTERS ARE TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE BUT NOT RECOMMENDED AS THESE ARE NOT SUPPORTED BY THE $[$<ITEM>.<COL>.<TYPE>] SYNTAX.

NB: BECAUSE OF THE LIMITATION ON HOW LONG A ITEM UID CAN BE AND THE CHANGE TO LET UDF-UIDS UP TO 18 CHARACTERS FROM VERSION 2005 AND FORWARD, YOU WILL NEED TO PROVIDE YOUR OWN UNIQUE ID IF YOU HAVE A FIELD THAT ARE OVER 8 CHARS (10 IF YOU COUNT THE “U_”), AND PLACE THE FIELD NAME IN THE “FIELD COLUMN”

Description

The description of the item UID specified. This description is used as label if you link one to the item (See label column).

Table

The table of the Item. The table can be seen using the debug information when pointing the mouse over the item.

Field

If you have UDFs with a name of over 8 chars, you will need to use this field to enter the name. Remember the “U_”

Placement type

• Pixel Placement – Items are placed using Left / Top pixels

• Relative Placement (above, below, left, right) – Items are placed in relation to an item

If Pixel Placement is selected Left/Top should be filled.

If Relative Placement is selected (above, below, left, right) “Placement item” and “Placement spacing” should be filled.

Placement item

The item that should be used as the relative item when doing relative placement. This field is required if relative placement is selected.

Placement spacing

This field defines the space between the placement item and them item if relative placement is selected.

Type

Choose which type the item should be:

Type	Description
Edit Text (Default)	A normal field NB: USER DEFINED FIELDS THAT HAVE VALID VALUES CANNOT BE SHOWN AS EDIT TEXTS
Text area	Used for larger texts with multiple lines. Should be linked to a user defined field of type Alpha Text NB: USER DEFINED FIELDS THAT HAVE VALID VALUES CANNOT BE SHOWN AS TEXT AREAS
Combo box	Dropdown list with valid values to choose from. Should be linked to a user defined field with valid values TIP: IF YOU WISH TO CREATE YOUR OWN SET OF VALID VALUES IT IS NOT POSSIBLE WITH ITEM PLACEMENT TOOL BUT IT IS POSSIBLE WITH UNIVERSAL FUNCTION – CONTENT CREATOR WARNING: If your Combobox is linked to a User Defined Table, That table needs to be visible in Tools > User-Defined Windows in order to work
Checkbox	An item that can have the state checked (Y) or unchecked (N). Should be linked to a user defined field of Alpha Regular (Length: 1, Default value ‘Y’ or ‘N’)
Picture	An item that is shown as a picture. Should be linked to a picture UDF
Static Text	An item there shows a stand-alone label
Button	An item there shows a Button. NB TO MAKE THE BUTTON WORK USE B1VALIDATION SYSTEM
Rectangle	An item there shows a rectangle. Width and Height is used to decide the size of the rectangle
Golden Arrow	Makes a stand-alone golden arrow. To make the golden arrow work together with a field you need to set the link to columns value to the field there contains the value the arrow uses.
Tab	Makes a standalone tab. Requires that the field group with is filled NB: WE RECOMMEND YOU USE THE CUSTOM TAB SYSTEM TO CREATE TABS
ComboButton	An item there shows a ComboButton. NB TO MAKE THE BUTTON WORK USE B1VALIDATION SYSTEM

Left

Indicate the left value in pixels from the left border and left.

Top

Indicate the top value in pixels from the window’s title bar and down.

Width

Here you can enter the new width of the item in pixels. You can also leave it blank keep original width.

Height

Here you can enter the new height of the item in pixels. You can also leave it blank keep original height.

From Pane / To Pane

Pane level is the information about which folder (tab-page) the item are on. All items of a folder will have the same Pane level. Items that are shown all the time have Pane level 0.

Tip: Learn more about panelevels here

Label

Indicate that the item should have a label tied to it. If checked the description are used as caption for the label.

Label Width

Gives you the option to specify a width of the label if you find it too long or too short.

NB: This field is not used then you do relative placement. Instead the width is calculated from the above linked field

Link To

Linkto allows you to tell the link to link to another item on the window and thereby inherit that items placement properties

NB: WHEN PLACING A STANDALONE GOLDEN ARROW THIS SHOULD BE THE FIELD THERE CONTAIN THE VALUE THERE IS USED WHEN THE ARROW IS PRESSED.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PLEASE SEE: GUIDE – THE LIMITATIONS IN SCREEN LAYOUT USING ITEM PLACEMENT TOOL

Online tip: How to use Link To system

Golden Arrow

Here you can choose if you want a golden arrow next to the UDF. You can choose one of the pre-defined values or choose Custom (and let B1 Validation define what the Golden arrow does)

NB: You can also open Beas windows if you have the Beas add-on installed

Sample video1 | Sample video 2 (Custom action)

Choose from List

Here you can choose if you want a Choose from list on the UDF. The choose from list will only be shown if the field has the right type in the database.

Example: A UDF with a sales order Choose from list will only be shown if the UDF is a numeric field.

If you choose a CFL type that isn’t compatible with the UDF field a warning will be shown.

NB: IF YOU MAKE A CHOOSE FROM LIST IT WILL ALWAYS RETURN THE PRIMARY KEY (EXAMPLE ON A SALES ORDER IT WILL STORE THE DOCENTRY IN YOUR UDF BUT DISPLAY THE DOCNUM)

It’s also possible to have a choose from list that is linked to an UDO if the UDF is linked to a UDO. An UDF with a choose from list set to an UDO will only be shown if the UDF is Linked to an UDO.

Condition

Here you can define a condition for the choose from list chosen.

To define the condition click on the cell in the row you want to define the condition for. This will another window where you can setup your condition.

IPT_CFL_Condition

you can define a condition in the different ways.

if you choose a common condition, you get the option to choose from list of predefined conditions there will work with the chosen choose from list.

IPT_CFL_Common_Condition

Custom Condition:

IPT_CFL_Custom_Condition

Here you can make you own condition by telling which value different fields should have to be include in the choose from list. you can also if all of the condition should be meet or only one of them

NB: Custom condition can only be used to make equal conditions

NB: A field does only support one value

Xml Condition

it possible to write your own Choose from list condition using XML

IPT_CFL_Xml_Condition

Example: If you wish on Users to exclude the Deleted Users you can use the following XML to exclude:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?><conditions> <condition alias="GROUPS" bracket_close_num="0" bracket_open_num="0" compare_fields="0" compared_field_alias="" cond_end_val="" cond_value="99" operation="6" relationship="0" use_result="0"/></conditions>

Edit: Add

This checkbox allows you to determine how the UDF line item behaves in Add-mode. If checked you can edit the data, if unchecked the data is disabled

Edit: OK

This checkbox allows you to determine how the UDF line item behaves in OK-mode. If checked you can edit the data, if unchecked the data is disabled

Edit: Find

This checkbox allows you to determine how the UDF line item behaves in Find-mode. If checked you can edit the data, if unchecked the data is disabled

Password

This option allows you to see the data of an edit text as a password (Data shown as stars). NB: Other types ignore this option.

Valid Values

Here you can set a collection of valid values a combo box or combo button item type should contain. The syntax is as follows: VALUE,DESCRIPTION;VALUE,DESCRIPTION…

Sample: Y,Yes;N,No;P,Perhaps

The above would give 3 options in a combo box.

Alternative you can type SQL:<SQL-sentence>. In order for it to work with this you need to produce an SQL with two columns. If you do not have at least two you will get an error. If you give it more it will ignore exceeding columns.

Sample: SQL:SELECT Code, Name FROM [@MY_TABLE] WHERE U_ACTIVE = 'Y'

Sample video

Tip: If you wish to make your valid values dynamically based on other fields on the the screen please note that you CAN'T use dynamic syntax in this field. Instead please see this video on how to make them dynamic

Affect Formmode

Use this option if you want an item that does not affect the form mode (e.g. If unchecked and a window is in ok-mode, it will not cause a switch to update mode)

Right Justified

Use this option to set if data in an edit text field are right-justified or not.

- Not right justified

- Right Justified:

NB: ONLY USED IN EDIT TEXT ITEM TYPES AND TEXT AREA ITEM TYPES

Suppress Zeroes

Use this option to get edit text fields to show nothing if the value is zero

NB: ONLY USED IN EDIT TEXT ITEM TYPES AND TEXT AREA ITEM TYPES

Text Style

Use this option to set the text-style of the item (Bold, Italic, Underline, and so on)

Fore Color

Use this option to set the text-color of the item (RGB value in long representation)

TIP: RIGHT-CLICK THE COLUMN TO PICK THE COLOR

Back Color

Use this option to set the background-color of the item (RGB value in long representation)

TIP: RIGHT-CLICK THE COLUMN TO PICK THE COLOR

NB: NOT ALL GUI ELEMENTS CAN APPLY COLOR. THE FOLLOWING LIST SHOW WHAT CAN BE COLORED AND WHAT CANNOT

GUI Item type	Fore color	Back color
Button	No	No
Combo button	No	No
Checkbox	(Yes) [Only Code render mode due to SDK bug]	No
Combo box	Yes	Yes
Edit Text	Yes	Yes
Folder (Tab)	No	No
Label	Yes	Yes
Linked Button (Golden arrow)	No	No
Picture	No	No
Rectangle	No	No
Text area	No	No

Font Size

Here you can set the font-size of the item. If nothing is entered, the default will be used.

Picture Path

If you line is of type Picture and you just want a fixed picture shown (aka not bound to a user-defined field) you can specify the path to the picture here and leave the Table and Field columns empty. This is handy if you as an example would like a small information icon next to a field that if pressed run a report (using B1 Validation System and UF -SQL Report)

Val On/Val Off

With Val Off/Val On, you can override what data-value of a checkbox is considered as the checked and what is for unchecked. If not set the default valOn/off is used (Val On = Y, Val Off = N).

NB: ONLY USED WITH THE CHECKBOX ITEM TYPE (NOT MANDATORY)