How to support a user who opens multiple tabs.

tford

Attached is very rough BSV that show how this can work.

Customers.zip

37.11kB

1- Add a few customers via menu option.
2- You can edit any Customer by clicking on the customer. On the customer form, there is an option to Add Order which will associate the order with the customer, then view it

aware_support

As you know, when you specify "output" of an operation as "new tab" you can set properties of the tab you open. One of the properties is "process name", where you can specify the process that will automatically run when the user selects a tab. Moreover, the context of the process will be automatically set to match the context that existed when the tab was initially opened.

So if the user initially clicked on a "customer", which resulted in a new tab running the DISPLAY LAYOUT operation, that customer will be remembered as context of the tab. So all you have to do is create a process that takes customer as input and sets this customer into LIRU:

LoggedInRegularUser.SelectedCustomer = Customer

Then you specify this process into the settings of the new tab. When the user switches between tabs this process will run and your existing LIRU-based solution should work

(this process is a replacement to the "script" John was talking about)

BLOMASKY

I learned something new today.

1st, thanks to Tom, I learned that I can enter the VALUE when I have a panel operation. I didn't know that. I saw that the field was blank and didn't know I could override it. So I can pass the BO from a form to a process.

2nd, Vlad's post let me know that using a process on a tab will allow me to have multiple tabs with the ability to set the desired BO into the LIRU when the user selects the tab.

Wow, 2 new things! My brain might explode!

Thanks for the help guys!
Bruce

tford

I learned something new today too, Bruce! I had never really fully explored the newer functionality that allows you have have a process that fires each and every time you click on a tab.

rocketman

Not sure why you need to store the customer in LIRU? If you are processing one order and somebody phones. just select your "Order Entry" process and have it open in a new (closable) tab. They'll both be there and the salesperson can easily switch between the two. I do it all the time with no issues. As long as the open form in each tab says - something like "processing order for Customer ZXY" there shouldn't be any way to confuse the two (or three or four or whatever).

Unless I'm missing something .....

BLOMASKY

rocketman wrote
Not sure why you need to store the customer in LIRU?

Well, let me explain what I am doing and you can tell me.
1) On the quoting page, I have a query of open quotes, and the query is: "FIND Quotes WHERE Quotes.ob_Customers=LoggedInRegularUser.selectedCustomer". I need to have this query refresh as the user is editing / modifying quote records. If I have 2 or more tabs, how can I have it refresh?

2). I also have some totals (# of open quotes, total $ of them, etc. ) that are in a related table to the customers. That again, has to be refreshed as data is changed. So I feel like I need the current customer saved in some variable and LIRU seems to work well.

Do you have a better idea?

Bruce

johntalbott

To confirm ... does it work like this?

A user selects a customer in the grid on the Customers tab
The user goes to the Quotes tab and the queries displayed are based on the Customer selected in step 1

If so, it seems the tricky part is that a single Quote tab is shared across customers. Meaning the need to save the customer in LIRU is driven be the need to reload the Quote tab every time a customer is selected on the Customer tab. If this is the case, I don't see a way around using something to track the currently selected customer.

My suggestion would be to open a new customer tab for each selected customer. Each customer tab could display quote info specific to that customer. This eliminates the need for LIRU and imo is a better UX.

BLOMASKY

johntalbott wrote
To confirm ... does it work like this?

My suggestion would be to open a new customer tab for each selected customer. Each customer tab could display quote info specific to that customer. This eliminates the need for LIRU and imo is a better UX.

but.. but.. but.. John... questions:

1). Assuming I do open multiple customer tabs, as the user goes between the open customer tabs, how do I know which one is the current selected one (without having a process run when the tab gets focus.) and if I am doing that, I can shove the current customer into LIRU.

2). Assuming the customer tab also has a Quote query, how do I filter the quote query between the multiple tabs. Right now I have "Quote.ob_Customers = LoggedInRegularUser.selectedCustomer". How would you handle this?

Bruce

tford

1). Assuming I do open multiple customer tabs, as the user goes between the open customer tabs, how do I know which one is the current selected one (without having a process run when the tab gets focus.) and if I am doing that, I can shove the current customer into LIRU.

Is there a reason why you don't just run with the bold underlined approach you mentioned above?

Assuming the customer tab also has a Quote query, how do I filter the quote query between the multiple tabs. Right now I have "Quote.ob_Customers = LoggedInRegularUser.selectedCustomer". How would you handle this?

Again, as the user would change focus from one Customer tab to the next, it sounds like your query above would work assuming it auto refreshes on the process that is run when the tab receives focus.

BLOMASKY

Tom, that is just what I am doing now. I was questions John's suggestion that I do not use LIRU for this, but with the following:

1). Having a process that sets LIRU to the customer that was in context when the tab is opened
2). With your help, realizing that I can have a Panel operation on a form pass the record that is being displayed

Then, it seems easy peasy to have the user open multiple quoting tabs. I still have the 1 customer query that will trigger a process to open a quoting tab, so in the end, I will have a single customer query tab and 1 to N quote tabs open.

Now, what I don't have a clue how to do, is to conditionally rename the quote tab so they don't all say "quote". It would be nice to say "Quote for: XXX".

Bruce

tford

Now, what I don't have a clue how to do, is to conditionally rename the quote tab so they don't all say "quote". It would be nice to say "Quote for: XXX".

Are you using DISPLAY LAYOUT in a process to open the new tab once you select a customer?

BLOMASKY

Yes I am.

johntalbott

I pictured that you would just open a new customer form in each new tab and quotes would be a reference attribute grid that would be in context of its parent customer.

If using Display Layout for each new tab, I believe you will need track the "active" customer tab.

Did you get this working the way you hoped?

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