Do We Want This - Default Setting Management?

customaware

Imagine we had a Default Setting area in the Configurator where we could set the default for the configurator to use.

For example....

In the more recent versions we can set the Yes and No Values of a Yes/No Logical Attribute. So, change the default ON to YES and the Default OFF to NO.

But.... currently that needs to be done for EVERY Attribute manually.

Imagine being able to set that default somewhere in the Configurator! So every time you create a Yes/No Attribute... you Defaults will automatically apply if it is a Checkbox or a Switch, the ON to YES and the OFF to NO.

So... if we were able to get Support to look at implementing......Lets create a list of ALL the things we can think of to be able to set Defaults for.

Some I can think of off the top of my head....

Default Number Format
Default Fetch Records Settings
Default Button Alignment
Default Center Alignment
Default Label Column Width
Default Label Position

etc, etc

Need some thought also if these Defaults should be Configurator Wide in scope or Business Space Wide in Scope.

My Preference is to have a Configurator Wide Scope set of Defaults. Then, when you create a new BS, it will inherit the Configurator Wide set of Defaults and then you can change them just for that Business Space.

Please contribute your ideas and lets see if we can get this implemented. Would be a massive time saving improvement.

PointsWell

Default Date/Timestamp = defer to locale

numberz

I'd like to add...

Do not ":" after label

ACDC

Imagine being able to set that default somewhere in the Configurator! So every time you create a Yes/No Attribute... you Defaults will automatically apply if it is a Checkbox or a Switch, the ON to YES and the OFF to NO.

What about having a configuration text file that can be edited with default settings of this nature. No UI work required, just a simple config file containing default parament values

Do not ":" after label

This is already there

numberz

I'm referring to "application wide"...ONE time.
Where is this setting if it exists please?

ACDC

I'm referring to "application wide"...ONE time.
Where is this setting if it exists please?

Apologies, I lost sight of the subject matter 🙂

BLOMASKY

And these defaults should have default presentation values. Esp for Yes/No where I want colored, stylized check boxes, Number alignment, etc.

However, remembering my many years with Magic, perhaps what would work best is to have a "Styles" table and then be able to base BO attributes on a specific style. Example. Integer #s would have small width, a different picture than money.

Can I also suggest an UPPER CASE option for text fields?

Bruce

aware_support

Most of what you are asking for is already available in FORM STYLES - this is the preferred solution for this.
Button alignment, "fetch" for combo boxes, centre alignment, label position, label width are already available there.

Form styles (and grid styles) are global in the system and are not specific to a business space.

It does make sense to extend form styles to also have Yes/No defaults and colon in the label - we will add these to the TODO list.

I guess, the question is whether there are any global defaults that have nothing to do with forms or grids. Can you think of any?

ofmar99

It is not a default form or grid; It is adding to each attribute when created the first time in de BS an option to be used as a default presentation each time it is created in any new BO this way if you recreate a Picture attribute in the first BO any other time you create it will be presented the same you don't need the whole form.

aware_support

Yes, and you achieve this by a form style - you create the one you want and use it. A form is initialized with this style, which is like setting some global defaults. Then you can change it if necessary for each individual form. Otherwise, form and grid styles are pointless.

And these defaults should have default presentation values. Esp for Yes/No where I want colored, stylized check boxes, Number alignment, etc.

These are also available in a form style ("presentation rules" button)

Some truly global defaults I can think of are:
(the first 3 are not form-style based because they affect the database structure.

1) Date format (including "take from locale")
2) Timestamp format (including "take from locale")
3) Number format
4) Standard margins of a content panel in a visual perspective (currently there is no control for this at all)
5) Which pane to ALWAYS show first - in rules (Standard View vs Textual View), in objects (Attributes or Forms) and in queries (Standard View vs Textual View)
6) REPORT ERROR styling (size, font size, title)?
7) Color theme of the Configuration Tool (future)

Can you think of anything else?

BLOMASKY

I must be missing something. I thought this thread was asking for global styles that can be applied to attributes, I see that the response is to use Form Styles. I am having a disconnect. How can this affect the format / min-max, presentation style of specific attributes.

Bruce

aware_support

Attribute presentation (not format as explained above) is already available in Form Styles - take a look at them.

customaware

My intent was not anything to do with Form Styles or Grid Styles.

I envisaged a Global repository for Attribute settings that would be inherited for any new BS and then could be modified for that BS.

Would not want to create a Form Style just so as to have a constant setting for on Attribute setting.

BLOMASKY

Mark, I agree,

I am not sure everyone else "gets" it. But having user defined styles that control much more than the presentation that can be inherited by attributes would make initial development run faster and allow more standardization. For me I would like the following

Display Format
Input Format (Either RegEx or picture for input requiring characters and/or numbers)
Input automatic focus out when field is filled (optional)
Upper / Lower case conversion
Icon display. (how many times do you have yes/no attributes where you want the yes to be a green checkbox and the no to be mmm.errr. something else and you have to create two presentation rules for EVERY attribute, having a style would make that much faster.
Storage (why are some integers BIGINTs and some INTS and some floats?)

and there are probably more.

Bruce

aware_support

I still don't understand why you cannot use form styles - your presentation rules are already supported there and so is button alignment, center alignment etc, If these are taken out of form styles, what's the point of having form styles in the first place?
Just define a style, set it as default and there you go.

Jhstephenson

I think it would be great to have the ability to change some of the default setting.

The default setting for Yes/No attributes, right now is On/Off-not ‘Yes/No’. Everytime I create a Yes/No attribute I have to go in and change the Widget setting to ‘Switch’ (Yes, I know that can be set in the Style) and then change the ‘Yes’ string to ‘Yes’ and the ‘No’ string to ‘No’. Having access to something where I could set the default would be really helpful.

It would also be nice to be able to change the Default Icon and its color for each operation that might be used on either ‘Operations with Records’ or ‘Panel Operations’

I hear a lot about how great Grid and Form Styles are. I really want to believe that, but I keep running into issues that make using them less than practical.

A couple of examples:

When defining a Grid I want to have Edit and Delete buttons on each row. No Problem. I define an Edit operation, but I only want someone defined as an Admin to add new records. I click on the Elipsis next to the Applicable setting. I start to type ‘L’ (intending to enter LoggedInRegularUser.Access=’Admin’), but I immediately get an “Internal Error” message and cannot type anything else. The details just say ‘java.lang.NullPointerException’.
Panel Operations - I want to add an Operation to Add New Records. On a ‘normal’ grid I can add an operation to add a new record and select a type of ‘Create Object’. The only type available on a Grid Style is ‘Add New Record (inline editing)’.
I want my Query rows to be thinner. I have a CSS Class defined called ‘thinrows’. No place to put that on the Grid Style Properties. So I have to change it after I apply the style.

The examples I have given would be used to create a style for the dozens of ‘Master Files’ that I might have in an app. On a limited basis each one does not take that much time to add to a query. But if I am doing each of these for every query that I might create it will end up taking almost as much time as to just manually make those changes when I create each query.

I like the potential time savings of using styles and maybe more importantly the standarization it would give to queries for things like master files.

Jaymer

great list Jim.
w.r.t Yes/No fields: its almost mandatory to have EITHER yes or no (not null) in these fields. Its an unnecessary step to manually have to assign Yes or No to these when it could be a system-wide default.

and this isn't an issue to be handled with a Form default... its at the table level.

Jaymer

I still want (after 2 years now) a Combo Box in the eclipse too for Recent Objects.

Many times, you can have (for example) 1 VP, 1 BO, 1 Grid, 3 Processes open and you need to Test and then Publish.
Once you see it with live data you need to edit those very objects you just had open, and might still be on the screen, but they are from the CURRENT VERSION and not editable.

So you have to wade through a long Processes menu and folders to restore where you were just a minute or so before.
A simple RECENTS COMBO BOX (up there by where none of us use the Grid & Form Style combo) would be EASY and efficient.

Jhstephenson

One other thing that I have always wanted was that when I create a new BO, right now it autogenerates the Main form for us. That is great. I wish it would also generate a default query for that BO, with every attribute in the BO defined.

I could then go in and take out any attributes not needed, and make it more presentable; but the main boring work would have already been done.

I'm still hoping for a data dictionary too. 😃

Jaymer

Jhstephenson wrote
One other thing that I have always wanted was that when I create a new BO, right now it autogenerates the Main form for us. That is great. I wish it would also generate a default query for that BO, with every attribute in the BO defined.

Yes, just a generation of the grid would be great.
But pair that with all the other customizations/defaults from this thread, so in my case, it would have the icon turned off, collapsible turned off, plus custom header and row operations, buttons on left. Nice! Saves that drudgery every time.