Understanding and using Form Customization Editor / Form Designer

Article • 6/18/2026 • 2 min read

The tools used to develop customizations include a built-in form designer.

Form Designer

The designer is built into the Made2Manage. The designer allows editing of Layout Models and Entity Models. The designer comprises of three components that includes a Form designer, Property Layout, and Configuration Layout window.

The Form designer allows for layout changes using drag/drop and grouping capabilities. The Property Layout allows for entities and attributes to be created or deleted. Finally, the Configuration Layout is used for changing attribute values.

The Layout Model and Entity Model are written to files in the extensions folder once the changes are made and saved.

You can access the designer from two locations: from the Screen Maintenance window or from the Screen ➜ More Actions ➜ Enable Form Designer.

Types of Models

There are two types of models.

Models	Description
Layout	The metadata definitions are referred to as Layout Models. A Layout Model consists of a Form (default View), Index and may include one or more Alternate Views. The Layout Models are stored as files and embedded into the core Made2Manage solution libraries. The Form and Alternate Views represent windows in the Made2Manage product. These views describe the fields, present on a form and how they are arranged.
Entity	An Entity Model defines a business object’s data structure. It is similar to a database with Entities (tables), Attributes (columns and column constraints) and Relationships (table constraints). An Entity Model consists of one or more Entities where each Entity includes a collection of Attributes. An Entity Model may also contain Entity Relationships if the model contains more than one Entity. The Entity Models are stored as files and embedded into the core Made2Manage solution libraries. The Entity Model is the logical representation of a subset of the database.It includes table/column mapping specifications to facilitate reading/writing data to and from the underlying data store.

Models

Description

Layout

The metadata definitions are referred to as Layout Models. A Layout Model consists of a Form (default View), Index and may include one or more Alternate Views. The Layout Models are stored as files and embedded into the core Made2Manage solution libraries. The Form and Alternate Views represent windows in the Made2Manage product. These views describe the fields, present on a form and how they are arranged.

Entity

An Entity Model defines a business object’s data structure. It is similar to a database with Entities (tables), Attributes (columns and column constraints) and Relationships (table constraints). An Entity Model consists of one or more Entities where each Entity includes a collection of Attributes. An Entity Model may also contain Entity Relationships if the model contains more than one Entity. The Entity Models are stored as files and embedded into the core Made2Manage solution libraries. The Entity Model is the logical representation of a subset of the database.It includes table/column mapping specifications to facilitate reading/writing data to and from the underlying data store.

You can customize this model.