Ninext

Edit field

In Ninox's "Edit fields" window, where you modify a table's fields in edit mode, Ninext places a badge on the icon of each field that other elements of the database use. At a glance, it shows how many scripts depend on the field and what a modification would put at risk; with a click, it opens the details in the Ninext panel, without leaving the window.

Ninox's Edit fields window, a badge on each field used elsewhere, and the Ninext panel on the right

Reading a badge

  • The number: how many scripts use the field directly (formulas, triggers, display conditions, view columns…), each counted once. The field's own scripts do not count.
  • The color and the shape: the most serious level of impact among these scripts, as in Fields & Formulas:
    • red square: a formula, a trigger, a global function, the "After Open" trigger or a print report uses the field, and modifying it can change how the database works;
    • orange rounded square: only the user interface uses it ("Display field only, if", "Writable if", "Readable if", "Show as", dynamic choices…);
    • green circle: only columns display it, in views or in print report tables.
  • No badge: nothing uses the field. Layout elements (tabs, buttons, texts, spaces…) never carry one.

Tab rows are tinted blue-gray, so that they are not confused with the selected row. The red icon of a field in error, on the other hand, comes from Ninox: it is not a Ninext badge.

Inspecting a field

Click the badge: the Ninext panel opens on Fields & Formulas, with the field selected, in the last sub-tab used, List or Dependency tree. The click does nothing else in Ninox: the field's settings dialog does not open and the row does not move.

Moving from one field to another

The "Edit fields" window stays open next to the panel: click another field's badge, and the panel follows it, whether in the list or in the tree. This way, you go through a whole table without closing anything.

Clicking the badges of Invoice Date, Due Date and NET Total, then that of TOTAL in the dependency tree

From the panel's list, clicking the bold part of a dependency opens its script. For the formula of another field in the table, Ninext opens that field's settings dialog and its formula editor on top of the "Edit fields" window, which stays open underneath: close the editor and the dialog to return to it.

From the panel's list, clicking "Formula" opens Due Date's formula on top of the Edit fields window

Settings

In the Ninext Settings:

  • the badges depend on the Fields Inspector setting, in the "Script Manager" section: it is the same setting as the Fields & Formulas tab. It is enabled by default and reserved for administrators;
  • Fields editor responsive layout, in the "Additional Tools" section, enabled by default, docks the "Edit fields" window to the left of the Ninext panel, so you can see both at once. It also keeps out of the panel the find-and-replace window of Ninox's code editors (Ctrl + F, ⌘ + F on Mac), which would otherwise appear underneath it.

In 3.1.2 (stable version), clicking any badge selects the last field of the list, and the number also counts the field's own scripts. Both defects are fixed in 3.2.0 (beta).