The planes (in a window or in a report)

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Help / Developing an application or website / Controls, windows and pages / Plane

Overview
Assigning one or more controls to one or more planes
Selecting the plane displayed in the editor
Editing planes in the window editor
Managing planes
Displaying the plane management window
Name the planes
Modify the order of planes
Adding or deleting planes
Changing plane through programming
Changing plane in a window
Changing plane in a report

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The planes (in a window or in a report)

Overview

The planes are used to group the window controls. A plane is a window "layer". Each window can include several planes.

The controls can be positioned on different planes. A single plane can be displayed at a time in the window editor and when running the program.

Each window control can:

belong to no plane: it will always be displayed, regardless of the current plane
belong to a plane. This control will be displayed when the corresponding plane is enabled (which means visible).
belong to several planes. This control will be displayed when one of the planes associated with the control is enabled (which means visible).

Remarks:

The planes are also available in the reports. The planes in the reports are mainly used to replace the substitution blocks: simply position the controls on several planes and enable the desired plane when print.
The planes can be used on the pages and on the container controls. For more details, see The planes in WEBDEV
The window editor proposes an advanced plane management allowing you to name the planes. For more details, see Editing planes in the window editor.

Assigning one or more controls to one or more planes

To assign one or more controls to one or more planes:

Select the controls.
Select:
- "Associate .. with a plane" in the context menu of the control or selection of controls in a window.
- "Associate with a plane" in the context menu of the control or selection of controls in a report.
In the window that appears, choose:
- "No plane" if the control must be associated with no plane,
- one of the available planes.
- several planes (to do so, keep the Ctrl key down while selecting planes).

Remarks:

The number of planes is unlimited. However, the window editor or the report editor may prevent you from selecting the planes greater than 98.
A control can also be assigned to a plane from the control description window:
- in the window editor: "Details" tab, "Plane" option.
- in the report editor: "UI" tab, "Plane" option.
When assigning a control to a plane, the control may not be displayed in the current window or report anymore: the current plane differs from the plane assigned to the control.
The assignments window lists the planes used then the blank planes. The buttons found at the bottom of this window simplify the move between the different types of planes.

Selecting the plane displayed in the editor

To display a specific plane in the editor, you can:

In the window editor: on the "Window" tab, in the "Associate" group, expand "Planes". In the window that is opened, simply choose the plane to display in the "Navigation" section.
In the report editor: on the "Modification" tab, in the "Planes" group, expand "Planes". In the window that is opened, simply choose the plane to display in the "Navigation" section.
Press the PgDn and PgUp keys. These keys are used to display the different planes of current window or report.
Press Ctrl + PgDn and Ctrl + PgUp. These keys are used to display the different planes containing controls (non-empty planes) of the current window or report.
Type the number of the plane to display in the status bar of window or report editor.

Editing planes in the window editor

Managing planes

The management of planes can be performed from the window editor. You can:

See the different planes,
Name the planes,
Modify the order of planes,
Add or delete empty planes.

Displaying the plane management window

To open the plane management window (and see the different window planes):

On the "Window" tab, in the "Associate" group, expand "Planes" and select "Edit planes" (or press Alt + Page Down).
The displayed window presents a thumbnail of all window planes. These thumbnails are classiffied according to their order number.

Remark: All the planes containing controls are displayed. The empty planes found between two planes containing controls are also displayed: they are grayed.

Name the planes

The planes are numbered by default. If a plane is deleted, all following planes are automatically re-numbered. To be independent from the plane number, the window editor allows you to name and reorganize the window planes.

To name the planes:

In the window for plane management, select the thumbnail of plane to rename.
Click the "Pen" icon:
Type the plane name in the area that is displayed:
Validate. The plane is named. The appears above the plane thumbnail.
Validate the window for plane management. The plane name appears in the window editor, below the plane number.

Remark: Window templates: You have the ability to name planes in the window templates. If a window that uses a template overrides the naming of the template planes, the naming will no longer be updated when the template is updated.

Modify the order of planes

The planes are displayed in their creation order by default. The window for plane management is used to modify the order of planes.

To modify the order of planes:

In the window for plane management, select the thumbnail of plane to move.
Drag and Drop the thumbnail to the new desired position: the thumbnails representing the other planes are moved in order to see the final position of moved plane.
Drop the thumbnail of moved plane on its new location. In case of doubt, the number of insertion plane is requested.
All the affected planes are re-numbered. The names of planes are unchanged.
Validate the window for plane management to take the modifications into account.

To swap the position of two planes:

In the plane management window, select the thumbnail of the two planes whose positions must be swapped (press Ctrl for multiple selection).
Right-click to open the context menu of the selection and select "Swap".
The thumbnails of two planes are swapped and the planes are re-numbered if necessary.
Validate the window for plane management to take the modifications into account.

Adding or deleting planes

The window for plane management allows you to add or delete empty planes.

To add an empty plane:

In the window for plane management, select the thumbnail of the plane in front of which an empty plane will be inserted.
Right-click to open the context menu of the selection and select "Insert a blank plane".
The empty plane is inserted and all affected planes are re-numbered. The names of planes are unchanged.
Validate the window for plane management to take the modifications into account.

To add a set of empty planes:

In the window for plane management, select the thumbnail of the plane in front of which the empty planes will be inserted.
Right-click to open the context menu of the selection and select "Start from plane".
In the window that is displayed, specify the number at which this plane will be positioned.
Validate. As many empty planes as necessary will be inserted in front of the selected plane. All the affected planes are re-numbered. The names of planes are unchanged.
Validate the window for plane management to take the modifications into account.

Remark: If more than 6 empty planes are displayed one after another, only the first and last empty planes will be displayed in the window for plane management.

To delete an empty plane:

In the window for plane management, select the thumbnail of empty plane to delete.
Right-click to open the context menu of the selection and select "Delete".
The empty plane is deleted and all affected planes are re-numbered. The names of planes are unchanged.
Validate the window for plane management to take the modifications into account.

Changing plane through programming

The Plane property allows you to:

find out and change the current plane in a window or report.
find out and change the plane associated with a control.

Changing plane in a window

Changing plane in a window can be performed at any time. A button is often used to change plane.

Example:

// Switch to plane 4 for adding orders
WIN_CRM.Plane = 4

The change of plane is immediate: only the controls associated with the plane are displayed.

Remark: If the planes have been named in the window editor, the plane name can be used instead of the plane number.

Changing plane in a report

The change of plane in a report must be done when printing the report. It is recommended to use the Plane property in one of the events associated with the report, blocks or controls.

// Open the report
// Display plane 2
MyReport.Plane = 2

The change of plane is immediate: only the controls associated with the plane are printed.

Remark: Replacing the substitution blocks by planes:
Until version 18, the substitution blocks were used to replace a block by another one during the print. However, to avoid the print problems, it was recommend to create substitution blocks with the same height as the block to replace.
From version 19, the planes can easily replace a substitution block. To do so, you must:

in the editor: position the controls of the substitution block in the desired block and assign them to a plane.
programmatically: replace the call to iSubstBlock with a call to the Plane property to display the desired plane.

Related Examples:

Training (WINDEV): WD Wizard

[ + ] This example explains how to create a "Wizard" window with the WLanguage functions.
The following topics are presented in this example:
1/ the management of planes
2/ the dynamic modification of a static

Summary of the example supplied with WINDEV:
This example explains how to easily manage a "Wizard" in a window via the concept of planes. The user is guided step by step by clicking the "Next", "Previous" and "Done" buttons