The ABL Editor is the tool you will use most often in conjunction with the Visual Designer. For example, you open the ABL Editor to add the methods that implement event handlers.

While developing a user interface, you might have a .cls file open in both the Visual Designer and the ABL Editor. Changes in one are automatically reflected in the other. For example, if you drop a new control on a form in the Visual Designer, the code for that control is automatically generated and appears in the ABL Editor.

The ABL Editor is a standard Eclipse text editor that is customized for working with ABL code. It supports many features to make coding easier, including:

  • ABL statement completion
  • Drag and drop functionality
  • Wizards for creating new files and adding code blocks to files
  • Templates (macros)
  • Automatic code formatting
  • Color Coding for Keywords

When you have a file open in the Visual Designer, right-click on the form and choose View Source (or press F9) to open the file in the ABL Editor.