Bug 337440

This is to allow viewing of multiple records on a form with the data of the selected record in the Form Object shown and editable in the Field Objects displayed in the same Form.

Reproducible: Always




In the case of a group of similar records with only minor differences in certain fields this allows side-by-side inspection of records to more easily determine which is the desired one.

It means that you do not have to keep flipping to different tabs (table to form, or maybe report to form) to determine if the record to be edited is really the one from a bundle of similar ones.

For instance, with my book records, we may have items that differ only by an isbn number. The same author, same title, the same edition, but a different isbn (Penguin are good at putting a new isbn on an existing book that has only the 'new season' cover) and is otherwise identical to the preceding issue. We forget which book is which and need the jog of the run of issues to nudge us to certainty.

Another case where this feature is of considerable use to me is when the publisher of an academic books authored by (say) Grotowoski, Brown, Gillfillan, & Migdol drops, or adds, or promotes an author, subtly changing the author sort-order.  Also, the 10th edition may sort before the 1st edition. International editions compound the issue, and a series of essentially the same book issued over the years does not sort in the ideal 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, .... sequence of editions.

In this case it is very advantageous to be able to see a tabular layout of records showing the sort order.