Creating a Background Color object

To ensure consistency and "same-look-and-feel" across a variety of forms and components, you can create and apply a set of "Background Color" global objects for the forms and components in your application. These color definition objects are created and maintained using the Edit Color dialog box. Once created, these color definition objects are available for use in both forms and components.

Note: To adjust a color definition object without affecting the definition itself, apply the object to the form or component and then adjust it in the form or component property sheet (at which point it becomes a custom or modified definition). This procedure assumes that you already have at least one background color definition object created and available in the system.

To create a color definition object:

With no form open, go into Design Mode.
In the web client, this launches the Web Designer page.
From the Edit menu, select Background Color.
In the Edit Color dialog box, click New.
In the Name field, type the name for the Background Color object.
Click OK.
The new color object displays in the color object list, prefixed (automatically) with "gbgc_".
If the new color object is not selected, select it.
From the Style drop-down list, select whether the Background Color object is to be a solid color (Color), a graduated blend between two colors (Gradient), or completely transparent/no color (None).
If you selected Color or Gradient, use the first input field to the right of the Color field to specify the basic color in standard RGB format.
For example, to specify solid red as the background color, you would enter 255,0,0.
The Color field and Preview panel both display the basic color.
Optionally, in the second input field to the right of the Color field, specify an alpha (transparency) setting between 0 and 255.
The Preview panel changes to display the color with transparency setting.
If you selected Gradient as the Style, specify the secondary color settings in the RGB and alpha fields, the same as you did for the basic color.
If you selected Gradient as the Style, from the Direction drop-down list, select what direction you want to display the gradient transition.
To save the new background color object, click OK.

The system creates and saves the background color definition. If it has already been specified anywhere in the application, it is automatically applied.