About drill-down from components to additional data

Many components are intended to maintain values that refer to items that are maintained elsewhere in the system. An order-entry form, for instance, may contain a Customer ID component that is used to reference the customer placing the order. However, the actual customer is typically maintained in the Customer collection.

Windows client provides a built-in facility that makes it easy for the user to navigate from the component that references an item to forms in which the item can be maintained or queried. Shortcut menus for components support three types of navigation behaviors: Add, Details, and Find.

Navigation Type Description
Add The Add command presents the form used to maintain the item referenced in the current component. The maintenance form is initialized for the insertion of a new item. Any new item added may optionally be returned to the component.
Details The Details command presents the form used to maintain the item referenced in the current component. The maintenance form is initialized to the item currently referenced in the component.
Find The Find command presents the query form for the item referenced in the current component. The query form can be used for selecting an item which will optionally be returned to the component.