FieldMap elements are valuable for Flynet Viewer applications by separating the location and size of screen data from the applications accessing the screen.
By defining all screen fields in a FieldMap, they can be read and written by name rather than location. This reduces the impact of any changes to the underlying screen, as the change only need be applied to the FieldMap element using the Mapper (easy) rather than to all possible references contained in applications (hard--also difficult to find all references reliably).
You can add FieldMap elements to both ScreenGroup and Screen elements. When a FieldMap is defined as a direct child of a ScreenGroup, it is associated in applications to each child Screen and ScreenGroup of the FieldMap's parent ScreenGroup. Thus, if a ScreenGroup is defined for a set of Screen elements that have data fields all in the same location, any FieldMap definitions should be children of the ScreenGroup to avoid the need for duplicate definition for each of the ScreenGroup's child Screen elements.
Adding the FieldMap Element
| 1. | Select a ScreenGroup or Screen element as the active element in the Treeview |
| 2. | Right-click on the ScreenGroup or Screen icon in the Treeview to display its context (pop-up) menu |
| 3. | Chose the New - FieldMap option |
| 4. | The FieldMap is added and selected as the active element, with the name of Default |
| 5. | You can change the name if desired (you must rename if there is already a Default defined) |
| 6. | You can now add Field elements to the FieldMap (see Screenview Pane - Adding a Detail Element) |
| 7. | As you add Field elements they are automatically be named based on preceeding text on the same row, which you can change immediately if desired |
