Using Zen Components - InterSystems Documentation

4Zen FormsForms permit the user to enter data. A Zen control is a component that displays application data and allows the user to editthis data. A Zen form is a specialized group component designed to contain control components. Zen forms have the samestyle and layout attributes as any Zen group. Also, because they are groups, forms may contain any other type of Zencomponent.Like all Zen components, a Zen form must be the child of a Zen page object. This means that if you want to provide a formfor a Zen application, you must create a Zen page class that includes a form component inside the container. Twocomponents are available:• — A Zen group that contains a specific list of control components. These controls may or may not take theirvalues from a data controller, but their layout is entirely determined by the definition in XData Contents.• — An extension of that dynamically injects control components into a group (or groups) on theZen page. The list of controls may be determined by the properties of an associated data controller, or by a callbackmethod that generates a list of controls. Layout is automatic, determined by code internal to the .There is a Studio tutorial that uses Zen wizards to create a form-based user interface for a simple application. See thechapter “Building a Simple Application with Studio” in the book Using Caché Studio.For information about data controllers, see the chapter “Model View Controller.”4.1 Forms and ControlsThe Zen library includes a number of controls for use in forms. Many of these controls are wrappers for the standard HTMLcontrols, while others offer additional functionality. The following figure displays a form that contains a number of controls,including text fields and radio buttons. This is the sample form generated by the class ZENDemo.FormDemo in the SAMPLESnamespace.Using Zen Components 87