Managing And Displaying Forms To Users

There are two ways to display a list of forms to users: real-time web service calls or download the forms data into a local database.
Real-Time Web Services
All the Forms Data web services can be called at run-time to download only the requisite forms. Call each desired web service and pass search parameters. For example, you can provide an advanced search feature to users in your application by calling the web services to get a list of dealers, states, categories and transaction types to fill your drop-downs and list boxes with options for your user to choose. Then, allow the user to select from the search criteria and pass that data to the next web service call (e.g. the forms list method) to return only the desired forms. This method is optimal because it enables your application to be in synch with the Quik! web server in real-time.
Local Database
To manage the list of Quik! forms available to your users, we have built a turn-key ASP.NET web application and SQL Server (2005) database that can be setup and scheduled to synchronize your form data. Please see the QuikFormsWizard project for details.
If you want to build your own database and web service calls, we recommend updating a single table containing the list of forms. This table should be updated at least once per day to ensure the list of forms is current. In addition, if the customer provides the forms service to multiple broker/dealers, the customer should also manage which dealer's forms a user or set of users can see (based on their broker/dealer affiliation).
Quik! recommends the following tables to manage forms (a script to generate all of these tables is included in the file named QuikFormsWizard_TableScript.sql):

• tblQFForms – contains the list of forms and their attributes, as updated by the forms data web service.
• tblQFDealer – contains the Quik! dealer ID and dealer name, as updated from the dealer list web service.
• tblQFDealerType_lkup – contains a list of dealer types as defined in Quik!
• tblQFDealerDealerTypes_xref – cross-references dealers with their associated dealer types
• tblQFFormCategory_lkup – contains a list of categories for forms
• tblQFFormQFFormCategory_xref – cross-references forms with their associated categories
• tblQFStates_lkup – contains a list of state codes and names
• tblQFFormQFState_xref – cross-reference of forms and their associated states
• tblQFFormTransType_lkup – contains a list of transaction types
• tblQFFormQFFormTransType_xref – cross-reference of forms and their associated transaction type(s)

NOTE: Primary keys are in BOLD BLUE and foreign keys are in blue.
tblQFForms Schema
The purpose of this table is to hold the list of forms and their attributes to display to users in your application.

tblQFDealer
This table contains the Quik! Dealer ID and dealer name, as updated from the dealer list web service. Dealers include any entity that provides forms (broker/dealers, mutual funds, insurance companies, etc.)

tblQFDealerType_lkup
This table contains a list of dealer types as defined in Quik!

tblQFDealerDealerTypes_xref
This table is a cross-reference of dealers with their associated dealer types

tblQFFormCategory_lkup
This table contains a list of categories for forms.

tblQFFormQFFormCategory_xref
This table cross-references forms with their associated categories

tblQFStates_lkup
This table contains a list of state codes and names for use with tblQFormStates.

tblQFFormQFState_xref
This table is a cross-reference of forms and their associated states

tblQFFormTransType_lkup
This table contains a list of form transaction type values.

tblQFFormQFFormTransType_xref
This table is a cross-reference of forms and their associated transaction type(s).