What are the differences between Custom Forms & Custom Editors?

How do I?
1

I’ve seen one example of Custom Form in the docs, but nowhere Custom Editors are mentioned. What are the differences between them? When to use which?

Thanks,
Rajeev

2

Hi rajeev,

Five provides you with the ability to create plugins to extend the capabilities of Five.

The most common type is a Front-End-Plugin which allows the addition of UI elements such as custom display types and screens. These Front-End-Plugins can be used in several different areas of a Five application and can be broken down into three categories:

  • Custom Fields
  • Custom Editors
  • Custom Forms

Custom Fields - Custom Fields are the simplest form of plugin. They are created as a display type and can be assigned to a field on a form. Five has several custom fields in its own interface, an example of which is the Schedule Picker in the Jobs form.

Example of a Custom Field in Five
Example of a Custom Field in Five2689×1376 95.8 KB


Custom Editors - If you need more space but still want your plugin to be a field on a form, you can use a Custom Editor. Custom Editors are displayed as a simple field which, when clicked, expand into a dialog, giving your plugin more real estate. These are again used within Five, an example is the Query Builder on the Queries form.

In the expanded view, Custom Editors have a tool bar with a Full Screen, Cancel, and Save buttons included, leaving a large area to be used by the plugin.

Example of a Custom Editor in Five
Example of a Custom Editor in Five2658×1322 65.4 KB


Custom Forms - Custom Forms give you the most freedom, suppling a blank slate for your plugin, not confined to a field in a form. This can be configured to be displayed in two different ways: it can occupy the space of a form, with the list selection remaining on the left, an example in Five would be the Table Wizard.

Example of a Custom Form in Five
Example of a Custom Form in Five2658×1507 89.2 KB


Or it can take the entire screen like the Code Editor.

Example of a Custom Form in Five
Example of a Custom Form in Five2643×1143 58.1 KB


There is a template provided for each of these types in our online help. Please click the following link to have them available to download and extract.

And please use the link below to know how to prepare your work environment.

All Custom Actions are added into Five by uploading a zip file. Please use the following link to have more knowledge on how to do this.

When to use each one would depend on your use case in your application.

3

Thanks @Jo-Anne for the explanation. I did see the codes for these while checking out the Recipe Card demo in the docs. And that’s where my question came from, as I didn’t find any info on the custom editors. For custom field I could guess that it is an individual field.

Best,
Rajeev

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