Creating a Codeless Complex Multipart View/Edit Screen on an External Database using RunBlock

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A previous article discussed creating a simple view screen for data in an external database. "Creating a Codeless Simple View/Edit Screen on an External Database using RunBlock". This articles provides information assumed in this article.

That article provides the general instructions on how to create a view/edit screen using RunBlock. But screens can be created that are much more complex and these can allow editing of the data as shown in the image below.

This complex screen was created using the following steps

  1. Create the Individual Screens that access different fields from the same table.
  2. Add some client side code to one of the blocks to build the TopContent display.
  3. Create block of Type 'EntryGroup' based on the screens created in step 1. This will allow the correct formatting of the screen.
  4. Create a block of Block Type 'Container' that includes the blocks created in step 3.
  5. Add a hyperlink to the list column of Type 'RunBlock' that will call the block created in step 4.
  6. Test the screen and add the coaching caption.

Step 1 and 2

These essentially require the same action as discussed in the article mentioned at the top of the page.

In the example used for this article 4 new screen blocks were created.

e.g.

  • ContactsAddressBox
  • ContactsCompanyBox
  • ContactsPersonBox
  • ContactsPhoneEmailBox

Step 3

Screen blocks need to be created for each of these new screens. This allows titles to be added to part of the screen

Step 4

The Container block then needs to be created.

Limitations

The following are limitations that are particular to using a container block with RunBlock.

  • Positioning of multiple blocks within a container block called by RunBlock is difficult. Where multiple blocks are grouped within a container they should either be all on the same line (like a list and its filter box) or all on newlines as in the image above.
  • You should not include another container block inside the container block called by RunBlock. This is because of the way that Sage CRM generates query statements for each container block to retrieve data. These may conflict cause errors.

Step 5 and 6.

These essentially require the same action as simple blocks discussed in the article referenced at the beginning of the article.