Inquiry Forms: General Information

On an inquiry form, you can view data narrowed by the selection criteria that you have specified. These forms are similar to reports but designed for the flexible analysis of data online rather than for printing.

You can create an inquiry form in a customization project or create an inquiry form based on an existing inquiry form that is available out of the box with MYOB Acumatica, such as the Account Summary (GL401000) form and the Account Details (GL404000) form.

As an alternative to creating an inquiry form in a customization project, you can instead create a generic inquiry using the Generic Inquiry (SM208000) form. For more information on generic inquiry forms, see Managing Generic Inquiries.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter, you will learn how to do the following:

  • Create an inquiry form without any custom filtering parameters on the Selection area of the form
  • Define the DAC for the grid view of the inquiry form
  • Define the data view of the inquiry form
  • Configure the ASPX page of the inquiry form

Applicable Scenarios

You develop an inquiry form without filtering parameters in the following cases:

  • You want to be able to view records from a single entity or multiple entities in the same table
  • You want to view data narrowed down by reusable filters without specifying any custom filtering parameters on the Selection area of the UI
  • You want to be able to flexibly analyze data online without having to print a report

Components of an Inquiry Form

Inquiry forms have IDs that start with the two-letter abbreviation (indicating the functional area of the form) followed by 40, such as RS401000 for the repair services (RS) functional area. The names of the graphs for inquiry forms have the Inq suffix.

In some cases, you do not need to give users the ability to specify a custom selection criteria, so you do not need to define any custom filtering parameters.

Because users do not edit any records on the inquiry form, you use the ReadOnly view type when defining the data view for the grid, which defines the selection of records in read-only mode. In the UI, MYOB Acumatica Framework automatically disables the editing of data records that were retrieved through a read-only data view.

To create an inquiry form in the Screen Editor, you should use the FormDetail template. The ASPX page that represents an inquiry form contains the Content element for the Selection area and the Content element for the grid area.

Grid View DAC of an Inquiry Form

When defining the DAC for the grid view of an inquiry form, you should derive a new DAC from the data entry form's DAC (whose data is being displayed on the inquiry form) and extend the new class with additional DAC fields that are specific to the inquiry form.

For the DAC fields that are not specific to the inquiry form but are defined in the data entry form's DAC, you will add abstract classes with the new modifier for those fields in the derived DAC. The definition of new abstract classes is required because you will use the data fields of the derived class in BQL statements (such as the BQL statements in the data view of the inquiry form and in attributes). If you do not define the abstract classes for the original fields in the derived DAC, these fields will be referred to in the SQL statement that corresponds to the BQL query as the fields of the original DAC. Data inconsistency issues can result when the original and the derived DACs are used in the same BQL statement.

Reusable Filters on an Inquiry Form

It is possible to create an inquiry form without any custom filtering parameters and enable the ability for users to define reusable filters. You enable reusable filters on the grid by adding the PXFilterable attribute to the data view that provides data for a grid. The attribute enables the Filter Settings dialog box for the grid, in which the user can define and save filters and then use them every time this user opens the form. Reusable filters are frequently enabled in the grid on inquiry and processing forms, so that users can customize these forms to show the specific data that is most relevant to their needs and responsibilities.

For more information on reusable filters, see Saving of Filters for Future Use and To Filter the Data in a Table. For more information about configuring custom filtering parameters on an inquiry form, see Filtering Parameters: General Information.