For forms that are bound to data
sources, you can associate a data element with a form object, such
as a field or a subform. This association is called data binding. You
can choose objects that shrink or grow depending on the amount of
data they display.
Many data
binding definitions can produce the same results when a form is
rendered. However, the more obvious the relationship between the
form object and its data element, the more efficiently Forms can process
the data binding.
The following diagram shows a field binding example where two
field objects in the form are bound to data elements. The binding
is ambiguous because multiple instances of the field objects and
their data exist. More processing is required to match the nth occurrence
of each object to the nth occurrence of the corresponding data when
rendering the form.
The following diagram shows the use of subform binding to group
objects and thereby simplify the processing to render the form.
The subform is bound to the repeating group in the data, eliminating
the ambiguous binding. The binding is evaluated for the first group
and does not need to be re-evaluated for subsequent repetitions.
You
can use subforms to group and organize objects without binding the
subform to a data element. To prevent Forms from searching for a
data element for the subform when merging data, change the subform’s
data binding type from the default value of Normal to None.
