Forms-Based Application Development Tools User Guide > Part 2: Vision > Modifying Vision Code > Modifying the Template Files > Types of Template Files
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Types of Template Files
There is a separate template file for each frame type. The frame type template files include additional template files that provide information about menu items. There are also template files for Help files.
Template Files for Frames
Vision uses a template file to generate the 4GL code for each Vision frame type. These files are described in the following table:
File Name
Generated Frame Type
ntmenu.tf
Menu frames (no tables used)
msappend.tf
Append frame, Master table only (simple fields)
mtappend.tf
Append frame, Master table only (table field)
mdappend.tf
Append frame, Master and Detail tables
msbrowse.tf
Browse frame, Master table only (simple fields)
mtbrowse.tf
Browse frame, Master table only (table field)
mdbrowse.tf
Browse frame, Master and Detail table
msupdate.tf
Update frame, Master table only (simple fields)
mtupdate.tf
Update frame, Master table only (table field)
mdupdate.tf
Update frame, Master and Detail table
Included Files
The frame templates refer to additional template files that are included as needed when the code for the frame is generated. These files provide additional specifications for a frame, such as Vision-generated menu items. The names of the included files:
• Begin with "in"
• Have a file extension of ".tf"
Included files can be used by more than one frame template.
Help File Templates
Vision also provides help file templates. Vision uses the help file templates to create one or more help files for each frame in the application. The Vision help files contain generic information about the frame type. You can change the template; however, it is often more useful to customize each frame's help file after it is generated. To change the generated files, see Editing Vision-generated Help Files.
Vision generates the help file for each frame by:
• Making a copy of the appropriate template help files for the frame type
The names of template files for generating Help windows all begin with "fg" and have the extension "hlp." Each ##generate help statement in the template file provides the name of the help file that is to be copied.
• Giving this file the same name as the frame and the extension ".hlp"
Help files with the extension ".hla" and ".hlq" are generated for Update frames that contain submenus.
• Placing the file in the specified source code directory for the application
Last modified date: 08/14/2024