Plexus Connect - Form Editor

The form editor is an integrated tool which enables users to create their own views (form views and grid views), thus offering the option to display data in a format that best fits their needs. Plexus Connect supports two view types:

• Grid view, which displays data from a single database table;

• Form view, which highlights a single record from a database table or displays various relational data from database tables on a single form.

Before creating a new view, an Instant JChem schema must be selected in the Projects section of the dashboard. The new view will be affiliated with the selected schema.

The Create new view button is located above the search box at the top of the list of views. When you click on it, the Create form grid option appears. Then you can simply choose the type of your new view – form or grid. The new view belongs to the same IJC schema from which it was chosen and appears in the list of views on the dashboard.

{primary} Please keep in mind that Plexus Connect and Instant JChem form editors not compatible. As a result forms created or edited in Instant JChem are not editable in Plexus Connect.

Grid view

The grid view offers representation of a single database table and the data it contains. By default, all columns of the database table are displayed in the new grid view. By clicking the Edit columns option in the dropdown arrow in any column header, the table editor opens, showing a list of all available columns (fields). A checked checkbox before the column name indicates that the column is displayed in your grid. Columns can be hidden or displayed by checking/unchecking the corresponding checkboxes. To optimize the appearance of your grid, you can reorder its columns by drag and drop, using the icon which can be found at the end of the highlighted row in the table editor. Selected columns can be frozen to the left side of the screen to exclude them from horizontal scrolling. A grid view can be simply renamed. By clicking on its name, a text box becomes active where you can type the new name.

Form view

The form view allows complex forms to be designed and then used to view data. Unlike the grid view, it can be used to display relational data and it provides much more control over how the data is laid out. A new form view can be created using the most common widget types:

Label widget – a simple widget that displays static text and can be used for adding labels or other static information to a form.

Single line field widget – a widget that displays a value from a single field. It can be used for displaying a single line of characters (text or numbers).

Molecule pane (MolPane) widget – this widget is for displaying chemical structures and can be used to render structure fields. All structure entities have a single structure field what will typically be displayed using the MolPane widget.

Table widget – this widget is designed to display tabular data. Even relational data (multiple rows of master data together with convergent child data) can be displayed.

Sheet widget – this widget displays data for multiple fields in a compact form. The data is arranged in two columns: the field name is displayed in the left column and the field value in the right column.

Web browser widget – a flexible widget which can be used typically in conjunction with a URL field.

Mol matrix widget – a widget designed for displaying multiple structures in a matrix-like representation

Widget titles can be easily rewritten using the text box in the Form editor panel. Field names are used as default titles.

In order to access the Form editor , users must have necessary rights for view editing – otherwise the Form editor icon will not be visible on the action bar. The right panel contains all available widgets that can be simply moved to the form by drag-and-drop. Existing widgets can be moved, removed, or resized. In case of a table or sheet widget, the columns can be changed and reordered. There is a cross icon () in the top right corner of each widget, which can be used for removing widgets. Moving and resizing widgets can be done simply by drag and drop. The snap-to-edge functionality is automatically available, thus equal distances between widgets can be easily set.

Form views and widgets included in a form view can be updated anytime. After opening the view to be changed, click the Form editor option on the action bar to open the corresponding panel. A widget title can be changed by simply typing its new name and the fields appearing in the widget can be selected from the dropdown menu. Updates are saved by clicking the Update widget button.

{info} Please Note:

The IJC schema descriptor which is required to open the view selected in PS Connect in IJC is currently accessed (by the IJC desktop) without authentication. This opens up a small security risk, because in theory anybody can download the schema descriptor and access the IJC schema, provided that they know the credentials of an IJC user who is allowed to access the schema in the schema securities descriptor. The risk is all the smaller that the schema descriptors so downloadable are dynamically generated through a service which does require authentication/authorization and is kept only until the download is complete.

{info} Please Note:

The license file distributed from the PS Connect server to be used by IJC desktops (with views opened from within PS Connect) can be accessed/used without authentication. This opens up the risk that persons unauthorized for the licensed use of the software (features) can make full (licensed) use of it (them) – eventually at the expense of authorized licensed users.