Wizard: Form

When to use it: you have a table (custom or Microsoft) and need a form that is conformant to its pattern from birth — Dialog, ListPage, DetailsMaster, or a plain pattern-free start.

Size: L · Automatable: fully (scaffold is complete; real layout continues in the designer).

Prerequisites

• Metadata index at tier ≥2 (tier ≥3 if your data sources are Microsoft tables).
• A target custom model; the table(s) you bind should exist (or scaffold them first with the Table wizard).

Steps

1. Basics — name (validated live, collision-checked), model/module.
2. Pattern — picker over six pattern cards: display name, version, one-line structural description, and a live wireframe built from the pattern’s minimal scaffold. “No pattern” is an explicit option.
3. Data sources — index-backed table picker, multi-add; the primary source defaults the form caption from the table label.
4. Initial layout — pattern-derived scaffold preview + per-pattern options (grid on/off where optional, quick filter, details tab name, dialog button set OK/Cancel vs Yes/No).
5. Extras — display menu item checkbox (name defaults to the form name), form classDeclaration body (default extends FormRun).
6. Summary — files (AxForm [+ AxMenuItemDisplay]), preview panes, a conformance report, and your open-in choice (designer by default).

The Form wizard's pattern picker showing six pattern cards with versions and a live wireframe preview

Output anatomy

• AxForm/<YourForm>.xml — the form tree in canonical element order.
• AxMenuItemDisplay/<YourForm>.xml — if the menu-item extra was checked.
• Both under <root>/<Model>/<Module>/, re-indexed and opened.

Pattern versions are load-bearing

The wizard pins the exact pattern name and version the compiler validates against (DetailsMaster = 1.4, ListPage = UX7 1.0 — a string, Dialog = 1.2). A wrong version is the classic “Pattern ‘X’ not found” compile error; the wizard emits the field-verified pair every time.

Verify it worked

• The conformance report shows 0 errors before you commit.
• On-VM compile: 0/0 with no hand-fix; XML element order matches the canonical order table (structure, not luck).

If it goes wrong

• “Unable to validate pattern … not found” downstream — the tell-tale of a hand-edited pattern version; regenerate or restore the emitted version.
• Data-source picker degraded to free text — the index is stale or mid-tier; wait for convergence or type the table name and let the build verify it.

Next: Menu wizard to place it in navigation, or Dialog wizard for the parameter-dialog idiom.