_{The Palette}
Palettes are repositories of basic resources which become, in this case, the building blocks and manipulators of the Procedure being created.  Procedures are used in six different applications:

• Transactions, Subledgers, and Global Procedures are related to a given Template and, therefore, include a listing of all fields of their Host Template as part of the Local area of Main Resources;
• User Functions, Report, and Process Procedures utilize the same format as Transactions, Subledger, and Global; however, they do not contain any Field-based resources (under the Local area of Main Resources) since they are not related to any specific Template.

All Procedure Palettes have at least three basic views (Print templates are applicable to the Report Procedure only):

Main resources

Local
Database Source
Database Fields
Operators and dividers
Draggable objects (Trigger conditions)
Draggable objects (functionality explained)

Functions
Accounts

Lists
Groups

Print templates (applicable to the Report Procedure only)

_{Procedures Palette - Main Resources}
Main resources has three groups of resources (the image shown is that of the Common Template Procedure Palette, hence the Fields shown under Resources - Local are the fields as they occur in the Common Template; it also has Display only fields) :

• Resources
  • Local
  • Database - Source and Fields
• Operators and Dividers
• Draggabble objects

• Resources - Local

  
  These are the resources that deal specifically with the Procedures' Host Template, if applicable (n/a with User Functions, Reports, and Processes) as well as system resources. These resources consist of:

  Unique to Template-based Procedures

• Fields (the fields used in the Procedure's Host Template)
• Display only (View fields)
• System
  • NEW_RECORD
    for use in both Subledgers and Global Procedures
    i.e. is the record I'm working on a new record?
  • CNTRL_GL_PREFIX and CNTRL_GL_NUMBER
    for use in Subledgers Procedures only
    e.g. is the CNTRL_GL_PREFIX == EMPTY
• Arrays
• Special
  for use in Check Writing Transaction Procedures
  • CHECK_#
    optional, to override the default
  • PAY_TO
    optional, to override the default
  • ORIGINAL_AMOUNT
  • PAYMENT_AMOUNT

Unique to User Functions, Report and Process Procedures

• Parameters
  Create as many as you need. This is a device which enables the introduction of data from the "outside world" into the procedure or, conversely, from the procedure to the "outside world." This data can be provided at run-time or obtained from the database. To create a new parameter, select the Parameter object and click New parameter or drag it into the target object, at which point it is registered as par1, par2, etc. under the heading Parameters. To properly name the generic id, double-click the generic id in the Local resources (this will make it editable) and type a meaningful name. Parameter id's may consist of multiple words separated with a space. Click here for additional detail.
  

Common to all Procedures

• Constants: The Logical Yes (switch is On) and No (switch is Off), and the condition of the field or variable: Empty.
  
• Variables (user-definable)
  Create as many as you need.  To create a new variable, select the target object in the Workspace and click New variable or drag it into the target object, at which point it is registered as var1, var2, etc. under the heading Variables. To properly name the generic id, double-click the generic id in the Local resources (this will make it editable) and type a meaningful name. Variable id's may consist of multiple words.

Initially the contents of the new Variable is EMPTY. It can be set by explicitly assigning a value to the Variable in the Calculation object, through the Function object, or Array Out object. Unlike the Parameter, whose data type is explicitly set in the Parameters object, the Variable's data type is inferred from the context of the Procedure in which it is used. Selection of the data type in this case is done according to the following rules:

• if the Variable is assigned a value from the database field, it inherits this field's data type;
• if the Variable is assigned a value from the Function object, its data type is determined by the Function's return value type, or by the Function's Parameter, if the Variable is placed into the Parameter slot;
• if the Variable is assigned a value from the Array Out object, its data type is set to the data type of the Variable in the same position (slot) in the corresponding Array In object;
• if the Variable is assigned a value from the constant, it inherits the constant's data type. For example:

If there are several assignments of value to the same Variable that set it to different data types, then the result may be either a syntactical error, or one of the data types taking over. For example, assigning a FLOAT value to a Variable of INTEGER type will make (promote it to) a FLOAT type, while the assignment of TEXT type, in similar circumstances, is treated as an error.

• Resources - Database
  This portion of the Main resources view has two columns: Source and Field. Source shows all available database tables and clicking on any database table name shown will display in the Field column all fields contained in the database table selected.
  
  
  • SOURCE
    shows all database tables: Transaction and System tables; and user-defined Global and Subledger tables (listed in alphabetical order). To load a database table name (e.g. into a selected Retrieval object) click the database name or drag it into the object.
    
    
  • FIELDS
    shows all the user-defined fields of the selected table listed under Source; plus the System and Special Condition fields:
    • specific to TXDetail and OpenItem tables
    • specific to OpenItem table only
    • specific to Subledgers only
    • applicable to all database tables

    To load a database field into an object in the Workspace (e.g. Retrieval, Calculation, etc.), select the object, then click on the field name.

• Resources - Operators and Dividers
  Operators and dividers are used in Calculations and Conditional statements. To load one of these into the selected object in the Workspace, click on the desired symbol or drag it. They consist of:

+	Plus
-	Minus
X	Multiply
/	Divide
=	Assign value of
>	Greater than
>=	Greater or equal
<	Less than
<=	Less or equal
==	Equal
!=	Not equal
AND	Logical AND
OR	Logical OR
[	Start of field
]	End of field
(	Start of group
)	End of group
;	End of statement

• 
  Resources - Draggable objects
  Draggabble objects are the executable building blocks of the procedural flowcharts. To drag an object from the Palette to the Workspace, grab the icon with the mouse, and start dragging. The functionality and the usage is explained under Working with Draggable Objects.

• _{Procedures Palette - Functions}
  The Functions view is displayed automatically when a Function draggable object is landed into the Procedure Workspace. The view has two columns: Name and Description (displayed when a Function is selected in the Name column). The Name column lists the available Functions within three possible groups: User-defined, System, and Reports.

• User-defined
  all Functions created under Architecture > User Functions
  

• System
  a large variety of useful functions e.g. AddToDate:

AddToDate function increments or decrements the date by the given number; the number is treated as days, weeks, months or years according to the setting of the Units parameter. The Function takes the following input parameters:

Once a Function object is brought into the Workspace and the function name (e.g. AddToDate) is selected (click or drag-and-drop), the object expands to receive the parameters:

• Reports
  all user-defined reports (Report Builder > Report Procedures).
  
  

_{Procedures Palette - Account lists}
Account lists can be utilized when defining the Search Criteria for database related activities e.g. retrieval; or in Function objects. The view has two columns:

• Name (of defined Account lists)
• Description (of accounts or account ranges making up the selected Account list)

_{Procedures Palette - Account groups}
Account groups can be utilized when defining the Search Criteria for database related activities e.g. retrieval; or in Function objects. The view has two columns:

• Name (of defined Account group)
• Description (of Account list(s) making up the selected Account group)

_{Procedures Palette - Print templates}
The Print templates view will be displayed when a Print object is loaded into the Procedure's Workspace or when specifically selecting Print templates Palette tab.

When the Print Template Name has been loaded into the Print object in the Workspace, the Inspector will display the Print template variables, if any, and show placeholders for the flowchart variables that carry data to be printed by the template.