Differences Between the Smart and Web Clients

Web clients do not support some of the diagnostics tools available in the smart client.

In addition, other limitations that web clients have, compared with the smart client, include these:

• The web clients do not support the "auto-insert" (*) row in grids. There is an accessibility-related difference: tabbing inside of a grid in the web client moves focus out of the grid and into the next component in the form that can receive focus.
• The web clients do not support custom columns for the data views even if added in a smart client.
• The web clients do not support creating calculated columns in a Dataview.
• The web clients do not support the use of the response types Execute Exe, Goto Explorer Folder, or RunExe for form event handlers. Other response types are supported.
• The web clients do not support all the options under User Preferences that are available to the smart client. See Setting user preferences in the Windows client and Setting User Preferences in a Web Client
• Double-clicking is not supported in mobile forms, that is, forms that use a .mobi extension.
• Tap-and-hold in mobile browsers is treated as a right-click.
• The right-click menu in web clients does not include Cut, Copy, or Paste options.
• These options on the Form menu are not available in the web client:
  • Page setup
  • Print preview
  • Print
  • Export to File
  • Workspaces
• The Explorer displays and works slightly differently in the two clients.
• The sub-menu on the Dataview Results form works differently in the two clients.
• The View menu in the web client does not include these options (that are present in the smart client):
  • Activate Next Collection
  • Home Cursor
  • Warnings
• Several other options on the View menu have slightly different labels in the two clients but function essentially the same.
• In the web clients, most modern browsers hide the status bar and only flash it if there is a URL change or URL hover.
• The web client overrides browser settings when displaying "in-application" values such as currency values and date/time settings. The values displayed use the locale settings as specified.
• The Timer response type for form events behaves a little differently in the two clients: In the web client, the minimum valid value for the Timer is 5 seconds, as opposed to the one-second minimum for the smart client. Also, in the web client, the Timer response type works only if the form has the focus, as opposed to simply being active, as in the smart client.
• If you set the User Preferences default Language to something other than US English, in the web client, you must make sure that that language is actually installed on the system. If you do not, the system generates 404 "Help not found" error messages for any requests for the help.