As you add visual objects to the window, the AppBuilder generates code to populate them with data automatically.

To add fields to your window:

  1. Display some fields from the Customer table by clicking the DB Fields icon on the Palette, and then double-click on your design window. The AppBuilder does not support true drag and drop between the Palette and the design window, so use two distinct clicks.

    Because you requested database fields, the Table Selector dialog box appears to let you select the database table that contains the fields.

  2. Select Customer from the table list for the Sports2020 database, then click OK:

    The Multi-Field Selector dialog box appears, showing all the fields in the Customer table.

  3. Select some fields by double-clicking on them in the Available Fields list or by selecting one or more fields and clicking the Add button. For example, select the CustNum, Name, Address, City, and State fields:
  4. Click OK. All the fields appear in your design window in a default layout:
  5. To arrange the fields in a more useful way, first click in the window background to deselect the fields, and then click on each individual field and drag it to a more visually sensible location:

In the section, “Use Basic ABL Constructs”, you saw how the ABL Virtual Machine (AVM) displays objects in frames. When you create a window in the AppBuilder, it creates a default frame for you that fills the whole design window, and all the other objects, such as your Customer fields, are contained in this frame. If you click on the background of the design window, that is, in any part of the window that shows the layout grid, then you are selecting that default frame, and it appears in the AppBuilder main window as the selected object. Logically enough, its name is DEFAULT-FRAME.