Using menu items to control a state machine

In this section, we will actually add the state machine to the form, so we can use it. Using menu items for this is a nice concise way to control the state machine, and follows the UI patterns found in other areas, such as the projects module.

Getting ready

The prerequisite for this recipe is that we have a table with a state machine that has been generated.

How to do it...

To create the state machine menu items, follow these steps:

1. Add a new action menu item to the project named ConWHSVehInspStatusWaiting. Complete the property sheet as follows, in the order stated in the following table:

Property	Value
State Machine Data Source	ConWHSVehicleTable
State Machine Transition To	Waiting
Label	The label you use in the Waiting state's Label property
Help Text	The label you use in the Waiting state's Description property
Needs Record	Yes

2. Create the menu items for the remaining states (InProgress and Complete) following the same pattern.
3. Open the ConWHSVehicleTable form...