AX1259
IMPORTANT: Form themes have been deprecated in the default Axiom2018 skin. Themes only apply if your form uses a legacy skin (any skin other than the Axiom2018 skin). If a theme is specified at the form level (or at the component level) in a form that uses the Axiom2018 skin, that theme will be ignored.
When using legacy skins, the theme sets the overall formatting for the components in the form. It defines default formatting settings for components and also determines which styles are available for individual components.
The theme formatting is designed to fit particular use cases for forms. For example, the Report theme is intended for forms that display reporting data, whereas the Worksheet theme is intended for forms where users can edit data or make other user inputs.
When you first create a form, it does not have an assigned theme. If the theme is blank, the form uses default formatting settings, and default styles are available. The default settings may be sufficient for some forms. However, if the form falls into one of the theme categories then it is recommended to apply that theme to gain access to additional formats and styles, and to promote formatting consistency among certain form types.
Certain form designs will benefit more from themes than others. Some components have heavy interaction with themes and their dependent styles, while others do not. Forms using thematic Formatted Grid components should always have an assigned theme. Forms with heavy use of labels may also benefit. Other components, such as charts, do not currently have significant interaction with themes and styles, though this may continue to evolve in the future.
To set the theme for an Axiom form:
- From the top of the Form Assistant task pane or the Form Designer dialog, click Edit form properties.
-
In the Form Properties dialog, select the desired theme from the Theme drop-down list.
For example, some of the available themes include:
Theme Description Home Page
Intended for use when designing form-enabled home pages. Formatting and styles are optimized toward this use case.
List
Intended for use when displaying lists of items in grids.
Report
Intended for forms that display reporting data. Formatting and styles are optimized toward displaying grids of data.
Grouped Report
Extends the Report theme to provide additional styles to display data using several levels of groupings.
Worksheet
Intended for forms that collect data inputs. Formatting and styles are optimized toward displaying labels and input controls.
Dense Worksheet
Same as the Worksheet theme, but with less space between grid elements to accommodate forms that need to display a lot of information in a grid. Sparse Worksheet Same as the Worksheet theme, but with more space between grid elements to accommodate forms that display smaller amounts of information in a grid. Wizard
Intended for forms that use the Wizard Panel component. Formatting and styles are optimized for the wizard environment.
Wizard Summary Report
Intended for forms that use the Wizard Panel component. Can be used to display a more compact summary of data than when using the regular Wizard theme.
Themes are evolving; you may see additional and/or altered themes.
TIP: You can also change the theme by editing the Theme field at the top of the Form Control Sheet. In this case you must type in the desired theme name.
NOTE: This list of themes represents the standard themes delivered with the Axiom Software platform. Packaged products installed for use with the Axiom Software platform may provide different themes, and/or these products may use modified platform themes. Additionally, it is possible to customize themes for your installation, although currently this process is not officially supported.
Themes and styles
The selected theme determines the styles available for use in the form, and the formatting of those styles. Fundamental styles are available for use in all or multiple themes, but the formatting used by the style may be different. For example, if you use the default style row in a Formatted Grid component, the row height for the style is different when using the Report theme versus the Worksheet theme.
Some themes have styles that are not available in other themes. For example, the Grouped Report theme provides additional styles that are not available in the Report theme. If you use one of these styles in the form and then switch the theme from Grouped Report to Report, that style will not be recognized by the new theme. In this case, an invalid style name is treated as no assigned style, which means the default formatting for the theme will be used.
Using component-level themes
By default, all components in the form use the theme set at the form level. However, in some cases, you may want certain components to use a different theme than the form-level theme. For example, the form-level theme may be set to Worksheet, but you want a certain Formatted Grid component in the form to use the List theme.
You can set the theme at the component level by using the Component Theme property in the advanced component settings. To access this setting, click the Show Advanced Settings link underneath the Style property. Using the Component Theme property, you can assign any theme to the component. The Style property for the component will then reflect the styles for the component-level theme instead of the form-level theme.
Ideally, you should set the theme at the form level and then only use the Component Theme for components where you need to override that theme.
