Palm OS Programming, 2nd Edition

User Interface of the Sales Application

The sample application we are creating is a forms-based application that will be used to record orders. This application is for a person who sells toys to stores. These are the activities we want the salesperson to be able to accomplish in the application:

• Create a new order for a customer.

• Delete an order.

• Delete or modify items in an order.

• Beam a customer to another device.

• Modify, delete, or create a new customer.

The Sales Application Customer List

The user starts the application and picks a customer from a listFigure 3-45.

The Customer list

This is the startup form of the application. It is a list of all the customers that our salesperson normally sells toys to during that selling period. The user can tell which customers already have orders because those who still need orders are in bold.

We admit that bolding an item to indicate status is a subtle, if not obscure, design element. Its presence is reasonable when you remember the audience of this application. The same user will use it daily for taking orders. The bolding of an item in a constantly used application may be warranted, while it may not be in a more general purpose application. In any case, a user who doesn’t know what the bold is for is not hurt—it’s just a shortcut for the experienced user.

When a name is selected from the Customer list (see Figure 3-45), the Order form for that customer is opened.

Figure 3-45. Picking a customer from a list

For the rare occasion that the salesperson ...