Tutorial Blog: Delphi - Interbase Tutorial # 3 : Create a user interface for manipulating table without DBNavigator

In the previous tutorial we have created a tiny user interface for manipulating table. Now we’re going to create a user interface without using a DBNavigator. If there is no DBNavigator, how do we manipulate our table ?. We’re going to use some buttons and codes to manipulate our table. Let’s see our blank form, add some components into it : a DBGrid, a Table, a DataSource, ten Buttons (Button1……Button10)

Set the properties of our components :

Form

Caption

EMPLOYEE TABLE

Table

Active	True
DatabaseName	ALIASMYDATA
TableName	EMPLOYEE

DataSource

DataSet

Table1

Button1

Caption	&First
Name	First

Button2

Caption	&Last
Name	Last

Button3

Caption	&Previous
Name	Previous

Button4

Caption	&Next
Name	Next

Button5

Caption	&Add
Name	Add

Button6

Caption	&Edit
Name	Edit

Button7

Caption	&Save
Name	Save

Button8

Caption	&Cancel
Name	Cancel

Button9

Caption	&Delete
Name	Delete

Button10

Caption	E&xit
Name	Exit

Now our form appears like the picture below :

Type the code for the OnClick event of the buttons :

procedure TForm1.ExitClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
Application.Terminate;
end;

procedure TForm1.FirstClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
Table1.First;{go to the first record}
end;

procedure TForm1.LastClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
Table1.Last;{go to the last record}
end;

procedure TForm1.PreviousClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
Table1.Prior;{go to the previous record}
end;

procedure TForm1.NextClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
Table1.Next;{go to the next record}
end;

procedure TForm1.AddClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
Table1.Append;{insert new record }
end;

procedure TForm1.EditClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
Table1.Edit;{edit existing record }
end;

procedure TForm1.SaveClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
Table1.Post;{save record }
end;

procedure TForm1.CancelClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
Table1.Cancel;{cancel record }
end;

procedure TForm1.DeleteClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
Table1.Delete;{delete record }
end;

To insert data we can use Table1.Append or Table1.Insert procedure. Find out yourself, the different between these two procedures.

Run the program. You can navigate and manipulating employee table by clicking the button. Notice that you can not delete any record in ‘employee’ table, because there another table that refers to ‘id’ column value of table employee. If you try to click Delete button, an error message will be appear :