OneByte: Forms Patterns and Styles in Dynamics 365 | OnActuate
 In A-ERP, A-How To, A-OnActuate Stories, A-Public Sector, Microsoft Dynamics 365

Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations stands as a cornerstone in the world of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), providing organizations with a powerful toolset to streamline their operations. Among the myriad features contributing to its efficiency, the diverse range of form patterns and styles emerges as a crucial element influencing user experience. In this comprehensive exploration, we will delve into the intricate world of D365 F&O forms, dissecting some patterns and styles to understand how they cater to the multifaceted needs of business.

Selecting a form pattern is a key step in designing a new form. A design pattern is a set of guidelines that standardize the appearance and use of a form. In addition, it ensures that a form appears well on different devices and form factors supported by Finance and Operations.

How to Add Pattern to your Form:

Create a new Form -> Right click on Design -> Click on Apply pattern -> Select the pattern you need to choose.

Image 1 – Apply Pattern on a Form

In this document we are going to read about Simple List, Simple List and Details (List Grid, Tabular Grid, Tree), Table of Contents.

Simple List

The most basic form pattern is called ‘Simple List’. It is for when you essentially only need to show a grid. The Simple List pattern is used to maintain data for simple entities. Simple entities are entities that have six or fewer fields and no parent/child relationships.

Structure-    ActionPane (ActionPane)

Custom Filter (Group)

  • Quick Filter (Quick Filter)
  • OtherFilters ($Field) [0..N]

TabularGrid (Grid)

Footer (Group) [Optional]

Create a form-> Apply Simple List Pattern -> Click on Simple List Pattern from down left side of your form.

To see what components are needed to complete form structure. Click on Pattern button available down the form. Add all the missing components one by one by right clicking on design and adding Action pane, group, and grid to complete your form structure.

Image 2 – Pattern of the form

After adding all the missing components, the form design will look like this:

Image 3 – Simple List Form Design

Add Data source fields in the Grid component of form.

The top ActionPane strip control has been converted to a standard ActionPane.

NewDelete, and Edit buttons are provided by the framework.

View mode is used by default.

Image 4 – Example of Simple List form visible on Frontend to the user

Simple List and Details

The next type of form we are going to read is Simple list and details form. It is the next most common type of form used.

The Simple List and Details pattern is prescribed when these conditions are met:

  • The underlying data has more than six fields.
  • There are between zero and five child data collections.

The Three Simple list and details styles we are going to read about further are:

  • Simple List and Details- List Grid
  • Simple List and Details- Tabular Grid
  • Simple List and Details- Tree

Structure – ActionPane

NavigationList (Group)

  • Quick Filter
  • CustomFilterGroup (Group) [Optional]
  • ListStyleGrid (Grid) | Tree | TabularGrid (Grid)

VerticalSplitter (Group) [only allowed for Tree or TabularGridvariants]

DetailsHeader (Group)

DetailsTab (Tab)

Similarly line Simple List, add a Simple list and details List Grid pattern on your form and add the required missing components.

Image 5 – Pattern of the Simple List and Details – List Grid Form

After adding all the four components, the form pattern will look like this beside Navigation List Group and Details Tab there is an exclamation sign that represents something is left to be added in these group and tab components.

Image 6 – List Grid after adding pattern components

Click on FormGroupControl1(Group) and FormTabControl1(Tab) to find the missing components in Patterns section.

Image 7 – FormGroupControl1(Group) Pattern

Image 8 – FormTabControl1(Tab) Pattern

Add Quick Filter Navigation List Grid in FormGroupControl1 and TabPage in FormTabControl1.

Image 9 – Pattern after adding all components

Image 10 – Simple List and Details – List Grid Structure

Now your pattern is complete you can add fields from Datasource to your TabPage.

Here is a preview for Simple List and Details – List Grid on frontend

Image 11 – Simple List and Details – List Grid

Similarly for Tabular Grid and Tree, add the pattern and check for missing components and add the fields and functionality.

There should be a tabular grid, a list-style grid, or a tree control on the left edge of the form.A Details section should be displayed on the right of the form. The list fields (whether they are from a list, tabular grid, or tree) should be the first fields in Header Group. They should appear in the same order that they appear in the grid or tree, so that the user can edit and see the labels of the fields. Here is a preview for Simple List and Details- Tabular Grid

Image 12 – Tabular Grid

A tabular grid can be used in some unique situations but isn’t generally recommended. If a tabular grid is used, it should not be editable.

Here is a preview for Simple List and Details- Tree

Image 13 – Tree Structure

Table of Contents

Apply the TableOfContents pattern on Form.Design.

This pattern should be used when two or more logically related forms are required for setup configuration. The vertical arrangement of tabs implies the order of completion.

The content area for the TOC content should primarily be one of three patterns:

Simple List, Simple List and Details, or Simple Details.

Structure: Tab (Style=VerticalTabs)

TabPage [repeats 1..N times]

                   Title (Group)

      • MainInstruction (StaticText)
      • SecondaryInstruction (StaticText) [Optional]

Body (Group) | FastTabContent (Tab)

Image 14 – TOC Form Design

This is the form design of Table of contents form. Add the pattern Table of contents right click on design then add Tab in pattern then right click on Tab and add tab pages. Tab page will show on the left side of the form. A tab page will contain a title and body. Title will contain the heading of the tab page and body will contain the fields containing data. Different design patterns can be added in  body part based on how you want to align the fields.

The General (Tab Page) contains GeneralTitle of the style Group, it contains static text- “Set up general information for banks”. And another Tab which contains two Tab pages- “General” and “Bank document” both having the pattern Fields and Field Groups.

The Content Body child container uses dynamic columns for a responsive layout.

An optional secondary instruction has been added under the Title Group.

Image 15 – Table of contents Form

Image 16 – GeneralTab having a TabPage

This image shows the GeneralTab having a TabPage of the pattern Fields and Field Groups containing fields that are added from the datasources.

Image 17 – How the Fields are displayed in General TabPage

This image shows how the fields are displayed in General TabPage.

Some BP Warnings:

  • Design.Caption isn’t empty.
  • The form must be referenced by at least one menu item.
  • TabPage.Caption isn’t empty.
  • TabPage.DataSource isn’t empty.
  • StaticText.Text isn’t empty.

About the expert

Shubhangani Tayal, Technical Consultant, OnActuate

Shubhangani is a Technical Associate in D365F&O with overall 1.5+ year of experience working in Dynamics technical department. Her experience includes development and customization for a variety of functionalities in Dynamics 365 FnO. She also carries experience in developing and customizing Power Bi and SSRS reporting and its integration with FnO.

Shubhangani is currently certified in MB-500: Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365: Finance and Operations Apps Developer Associate, AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals and MB-330: Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Functional Consultant Associate.

The “OneByte” blog series are technical how-to articles by OnActuate’s expert consultants covering technologies like Dayforce and Microsoft Business Applications (Microsoft Dynamics, Power Platform). Have a topic you’d like to learn more about? Email us at info@onactuate.com!

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