Specification Forms

This help file applies to an out-of-date version of MainBoss.
The most recent version of MainBoss is MainBoss 4.2.4.
For the latest version of this help file can be found here.

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It's useful to include specific information about units in your MainBoss records. For example, for a forklift truck, it's useful to record facts like engine type, lifting capacity, height, width, and so on. For a space like a hotel suite, you might want to record room layout, the number of chairs and beds, and special characteristics (e.g. smoking vs. non-smoking).

Specification forms let you record any type of information. You create your own specification forms by stating what fields you want to appear in the form. For a hotel room, for example, you might create a form with blanks to fill in for number of beds, number of chairs, number of lamps, and any other information that you keep track of.

Although specifications are most commonly used to record nameplate information about equipment, they can also be used to create forms for storing information about other types of units. For example, you might record room dimensions, the type of bulbs used in light fixtures, the location of fuse boxes and so on.

Specification forms are made up of fields. Each field contains the following:

A label name identifying what kind of information the field contains.
A field name standing for the actual value of the field.
A field size giving the maximum number of characters in the field.
An optional field order. This is a number used to determine the order in which fields should be listed. Fields are arranged from lowest to highest (e.g. from 1 up).

Here is a typical list of fields describing a motor.

Label              Field name         Size         Order

Manufacturer          Mfr              30            1
Model #               Mod              20            2
Horsepower            HP                5            3
RPM                   RPM               7            4
Voltage               V                 7            5

This specification definition leads to a form that looks like this:

MainBoss

Note that when you use the form, MainBoss automatically adds fields for "Code", "Description" and "Comments" in addition to the fields that you specified.

Once you have created a specification form, it can be used in a unit record. A form filled in with information about a particular unit is called a specification. A unit may have multiple specifications; for example, a truck might have one specification for its engine and another about its carrying capacity. For more information, see Specifications.

The information from a filled-out specification may be displayed in unit reports. You can control the format in which this information is displayed:

Every specification has a default layout format, where each field is on a separate line and the field's label name is used to label the line.
Alternatively, you can specify a customized layout. In this kind of layout, you use constructs of the form <FieldName/> to represent blank areas where values should be filled in.

For example, you might define the following customized layout:

Manufacturer: <Mfr/>
Model #: <Mod/>
HP: <HP/> RPM: <RPM/> Volts: <V/>

This might lead to displays like

Manufacturer: XYZ Inc.
Model #: AG1234
HP: 300  RPM: 3000  Volts: 220

Once a specification form is used in connection with a unit, the form cannot be changed (although the actual specification values can be changed).

For information on viewing specification forms, see Viewing Specification Forms. For information on creating and editing specification forms, see Editing Specification Forms. For information on printing specification forms, see Printing Specification Forms.