Understanding WinStudio Customizations

About WinStudio customizations

WinStudio customizations can affect all of these areas of the client tier:

• Forms and components: Authorized users can add, copy, or alter forms. They can also add, delete, recaption, hide, move, or otherwise alter components on a form.
• Global objects: Themes, image files, strings, variables, shortcut menus, validators, scripts, component classes, and property class extensions are all global objects that can be used by more than one form or component. Authorized users can add, delete, change, or associate global objects with different forms or components.
• The Explorer window: Authorized users can customize public folders. All users can customize the folders in My Folders. An application can also have customized versions of folders in the Master Explorer.

Customization versions

All customizations are stored in the forms database. Forms and global objects can be customized for one user, for a group of users, or for all users. As a result, the forms database can include more than one version of the same form or global object.

• The Vendor version of a form or global object is the version originally supplied by your vendor. It is unaffected by customizations.
• A Site version of a form or global object is a customized version that all users at a particular site can access, unless it is superseded by a Group or User version. Only a user with Site Developer editing permissions can create a Site version.
• A Group version of a form or global object is a customized version that all users in a particular group can access, unless it is superseded by a User version. Only a user with Site Developer editing permissions can create a Group version.
• A User version of a form or global object is a customized version that only one user can access (the user who created it). Users with Basic, Full User, or Site Developer editing permissions can create User versions.

Basic and major customizations

Basic WinStudio customizations are simple changes to forms and components that do not affect functionality. Users with Basic editing permissions can make only these changes:

* These changes can be made by any end user, regardless of editing permissions, without the system having to save a full User-scope version of the form. If you have set your User Preferences to prompt you to save form, splitter, and grid changes, WinStudio prompts you when closing the form after making such changes. Otherwise, the changes are saved without prompting.

You should be aware, too, that system administrators can override the ability to save run-time form changes like this with the Allow saving form runtime changes process default.

Changes other than Basic changes can affect functionality and are referred to as Major changes. Developers with Full User or Site Developer editing permissions can make Basic changes as well as the more extensive, Major customizations.

These are the default settings for form synchronization with the Form Sync form:

• Automatically merge Basic form and component customizations with the new vendor version without prompting.
• Prompt you about how to handle Major customizations to forms and global objects. You can choose to perform these actions:
  • Keep the customization without changing it.
  • Remove the customization, replacing it with the new vendor version.