Feeling Fancy? Learn How To Add A Vista Custom Tab

I recently, had a hand in creating a custom tab in Vista and let me tell you ... it really made me feel fancy.   

This tip is definitely a bit more technical for the normal user, but is intended to show you the endless capabilities of Vista customization. 

Are you feeling fancy too?

Come on then, let's jump right into it. 

Let’s say you created a user defined form in Vista, maybe something related to payroll employees, projects or jobs.
And now you want to reference that form in an existing module within Vista. 
We can do this by adding a custom tab in PR Employees, PM Projects or JC Jobs, just to name a few, so that the records on your user defined form correlate to the specific employee, project or job. 

Below, we will walk through the steps for adding a custom tab to PR Employees for a user defined form we are calling "Manpower".

Adding a Custom Tab in Vista
 
First, start out by creating a basic inquiry in VA Inquiries.  This inquiry below is selecting all of the fields that I created in my user defined table that I would like to see in the new custom tab I will be creating in PR Employees.  
Once you have created your query, move over to the Parameters tab and make sure any parameters used in your Query Text are also assigned in the Parameters tab as well.

Here we are using: @Co for the company and @Employee for the Employee. 
 Setting these parameters ensures that when you are looking at a specific employee in PR Employees that you only see records related to that employee instead of it pulling in all the records from your user defined form.  

Next, while you are still in the VA Inquiries program in Vista, locate the Vista Standard inquiry for PREmployees, (This is where I want to add my custom tab.  I find this easiest to locate by using the grid tab)
While selected on the PR Employees inquiry, locate the Links tab.  Now, and this part gets a little confusing, so try and stay with me, we want to link the new VA Inquiry we just created to the already existing PR Employees inquiry. 
 
In your next blank line in the Related Query field, select F4 or select the binoculars to lookup existing queries and select the custom VA inquiry you created, here it is called udManpower. 

We want to then define our parameters again for the PREmployees inquiry, just like we did before, by double-clicking the Related Query name you just added.  A new window will pop up to define these parameters. 
Once you have entered your parameters, select save and you can close out of VA Inquires, we are done in here. 

Next, we need to create our custom tab in PR Employees.  To do this, open the PR Employees program. From the menu options select Tools > Form Properties.
In the new window, select the Tab Pages tab, then Add to give your new tab a name.  
Lastly, we need to edit that new tab.  Click on the name of the tab page you just created and select Edit. 
A new window is displayed to select your VA inquiry we created earlier.  Change your Control Type to 3-Query
In the Query Name field, use your lookup to select your VA Inquiry you created earlier. 
Once you have selected the Query Name, you can save and close the VA Custom Form Tabs section. 
  
Don’t panic, this will cause PR Employees to reload the form but it will open back up on it’s own. 

Once the form has reloaded, you will see your new tab created up on the top.  Click the tab to make sure all fields are displaying properly.
This process can be a little tricky, so if you don't get it on the first go round don't get discouraged, we've got you covered.  Now go get fancy! 

Connect with ConstrucTech Consulting to learn about this customization and many more!