pp108 : Positions

Positions

This topic describes the positions of controls in an XForm.


When added to an XForm or a parent control, controls are automatically positioned according to the layout of the parent control. You can use the Position feature to specify alternate positions for individual controls and arrange them independent of the layout of the parent control. The position that you specify for a control overwrites its layout. The default position of a control is the same as the layout of the parent control.

Process Platform XForms provides the following control positions.

Vertical Position


You can use the vertical position to arrange a control similar to controls in a vertical layout. Controls with vertical positions occupy the maximum available width of the parent control.
The vertical position has the following characteristics.

  • Controls with default widths automatically resize on adjusting the window at run time.
  • Placeholders indicate the locations at which to add a control.
  • It is possible to resize the width of controls during design time. However, controls with custom width do not respond to resizing of the window at run time.
  • Resizing of control height is possible only for Textarea, List, Table, Button, Groupbox, Group, and Frame controls.

Horizontal Position


You can use the horizontal position to sequentially arrange controls in a row, similar to controls in a horizontal layout. Only two horizontally positioned controls can be arranged in a row, each control occupying a part of the available width.
The horizontal position has the following characteristics.

  • Controls with default widths automatically resize on adjusting the window at run time.
  • Placeholders indicate the locations at which to add a control.
  • It is possible to resize the width of controls during design time. However, controls with custom width do not respond to resizing of the window at run time.
  • Resizing of control height is possible only for Textarea, List, Table, Button, Groupbox, Group, and Frame controls.

Free Position


You can use the free position to position controls randomly in an XForm.
The free position has the following characteristics.

  • The positioning attributes of the cascading style sheets (CSS) are used to position controls. This permits overlap of controls. The control on top or the one that was clicked last will be visible in case of overlapping of controls in a free layout.
  • Control resizing is supported for all controls. However, for except Input, Password, Output, Select, and Check controls only the width can be modified.
  • The anchoring feature is available for controls.
  • Controls must be anchored to enable them to respond to resizing of the window at run time.

Related tasks

Specifying Layouts
Positioning Controls

Related reference

Layouts