Sesame Library | Introducing New Form Elements in Sesame

As you would expect from a modern Windows program, Sesame offers many more types of "widgets" on your form than Q&A for DOS -- or even Q&A for Windows --- do. By widget, I mean a device or control for entering and displaying data other than an information field into which you type your entry. In Sesame, these widgets are called Layout Elements. As you can see from the above screen shot, the list includes Labels, Text Boxes, Lines and Boxes. These can all be found in Q&A. The others, though, are either entirely new or new in the way they are implemented in Sesame. You have probably encountered devices like Combo Boxes and Radio Buttons in other Windows programs such as your word processor or email program.

Check Box

A Check Box is a form layout control that would normally be used for Yes/No fields. Rather than having to type a "Y" or "N" into the field, you simply click on the corresponding Check Box as shown here. A check mark represents a "Yes" entry. Sesame Check Boxes are highly versatile. For one thing, they are tri-state. This means that as well as being able to show "Yes" (checked) or "No" (unchecked) they can also show "Unknown." This is compatible with Q&A in that a Yes/No field can be left blank. This might appear at first glance to be a minor distinction, but it certainly is not. For example, if the Yes/No field in question is "Blood Sugar OK?" then there is a world of difference between the unchecked "Blood sugar level is NOT OK" and the indeterminate "We don't know-results not in yet."  Another interesting characteristic of Sesame Check Boxes is that they are sizeable. Some other database products offer only two-state check boxes of fixed size.

List Box

The List Box layout element (see left) displays all the possible values for a field all the time. The selected one (the current value) is always highlighted. This is convenient when the list of choices is brief and doesn't vary (such as Small, Medium, Large). The disadvantage is that the List Box permanently occupies an area of "real estate" on the form layout. Although List Boxes like these are useful, many users will, I think, prefer to use Sesame Combo Boxes.

Combo Box

A Combo Box is a combination of a picklist, where you select a value from a prescribed list, and a Text Box, into which you type a value. The screen shot below (left) shows a closed Combo Box, and the other one (right) shows an open Combo Box. One big advantage of a Combo Box is that, unlike a List Box, it only occupies the space of a normal field until it's opened by clicking on the down arrow alongside it to drop down the list of permitted values. A user can optionally type a value that is not on the list, or be prevented from doing so, depending on how the Combo Box is set up. Combo Boxes are also active in Sesame's Retrieve Spec, which is a vast improvement over Q&A. (Q&A offers no way to simply select retrieval parameters-you must always manually type them in.)

Radio Buttons

Where there are a small number of non-changing values to choose from-and where the entries are mutually exclusive-(that is, selecting one automatically deselects the others), then Radio Buttons (see left) can be tremendously useful. Classic examples are sizes like Small, Medium, Large or shipping methods such as USPS, FedEx, UPS. Why choose Radio Buttons over Check Boxes? Well, for two reasons. One is that there is a Windows convention that a square box is a Check Box, and any number of these can be checked. For example, in the earlier illustrations, an article on programming can apply to both DOS and Windows versions of Q&A, so they can both be checked. The size of a garment, on the other hand, has to be just one of the available sizes, it can't be "Small" and "Large." Another important distinction is this-whereas three Check Boxes represent three values for three separate fields, a Radio Button group returns just one value, and as such corresponds to just one field. But Sesame Radio Button groups have another advantage. Unlike most Windows Radio Button groups, Sesame's can be deselected. In other words, once you've made a choice, you can completely deselect it to return to a "no choice" state. The database designer can assign a default choice, and that Radio Button will be selected by default unless the user selects another choice. Revisit this page soon for an introduction to the process of converting a Q&A database to Sesame, then redesigning the form to include these appealing new widgets.