Working with user-defined forms in SBO

Question

Hi, newby here.
What is the right way to work with userdefined-forms in SBO?
My add-on adds a button to a system-form (when it is loaded).
User presses the new button, and the following code is executed:
- LoadFromXML("MyForm.xml")         ( like the sample code)
- oForm = SBO_Application.Forms.Item("SBOFormEditor_11")
- oForm.visible = true
The user-form is displayed
User presses the OK button on the new user-form, which triggers
- oForm.close()
This works. But a possible disadvantage may be that the form is loaded from XML, each time the user clicks the new button on the system-form.
I would prefer to load the form once, upon starting the add-on. And then display or hide it, by simply turning the oForm.visible-switch on and off. So, when user clicks the OK button: oForm.visible = false.
The problem here is that when the user clicks the close-form button (X), the new form seems to be gone/destroyed/removed.
So, when the user clicks the new button, I need to know how the user exited the new form previously:
If user clicked OK, then I can set the oForm.visible switch on,
but if the user had closed the form, I need to re-load it from XML.
In my experience, if a solution is not pretty, there is usually a better one. But then again...beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Any comments, or better alternatives, would be appreciated.
Thanks
Erwin

Answer 1

Hi Erwin,
Welcome to the forum.
I don't think I've ever seen an addon which hides its forms until they are needed again but it's an interesting idea. Whereas I can see some advantages, I'd be inclined to always load the form from XML for a few reasons:
1) Most of the time I tend to be working with multiple instances of the same user form (ie the user can open my form multiple times like a lot of the system forms). Keeping track of how many instances of my form are open and whether they are hidden or not is more of a pain than just closing and opening the form.
2) Hidden forms still take up memory on the workstation, although that's probably a minor issue for one or two forms at a time.
3) Unless the form is quite complex (ie large number of controls or lots of comboboxes to populate) the load speed is acceptable.
If your form is quite complex and the user is likely to be opening and closing it regularly then I can see an advantage in hiding the form until it is needed again as this should speed up the response time.
There are ways to stop the user closing your form unless they use the Ok or Cancel buttons:
Re: Menu UID for Minimize/Maximize/Close buttons
Kind Regards,
Owen