When that left menu thread started, one of the things buried in the discussion might have slipped unnoticed. Its the issue that if/when you change VP (to display a changed menu) you lose the grids and they are redrawn. Not good experience for end users. So we have to do a lot of 'extra work' to try and minimize this negative aspect if we really want to fine tune the UX.
There are several places in aware where this occurs - not saying aware is bad - just saying that when we want to REALLY fine tune something, its easy to go down a rabbit hole of tuning and experimenting.
Only a few will remember v5 or v6 with the CUSTOM SQL option.
One shortcoming, in my opinion, is the lack of ability to make a grid that Sorts multiple ways.
Because the built-in sort is hardcoded to the Query.
As soon as the Accounting Dept. wants it sorted differently than Customer Service, then WE have to duplicate the Grid (ie. Redundant code = Maintenance nightmare). OK, nightmare might be pushing it, but you see the point. Sometimes we need nested sorts - but can't do that when we can only click on 1 column to sort. I wonder how many of you have multiple grids in your app that basically show the same data.
Yes, It would be nice if we could hold down a key and set a 2nd & 3rd sort (btw, grouping doesn't fully solve this because of records spilling over to other pages), but then a user has to do it each time he brings up the grid.
One solution would be to allow a variable to be used for the ORDER BY clause. And that could be front-ended with a simple screen that allows a user to pick a few variables (Sales Rep, then State, then Balance Due DESC , for example) and then saved in a config table for use the next time that grid is run: ORDER BY <<LoggedInSystemUser.customer_sort>>
This reduces redundancy in our app, lowers maint and modification costs/time, and makes a better app.
BUT This goes beyond a simple FR... its part of a larger issue of things that are just a pain in the ass OR hard for a new user to accomplish.
Emails is another example. (a nice email, with a logo and HTML)
Forgotten passwords.
Combine those two with an email with a link to log you in.
...Log someone in and bring up a specific form/record to approve something.
Most serious aware ppl here have done these things... but it wasn't clear cut. Took a LOT of work to figure it out. How's a newbie supposed to get that done?... if they are evaluating the tool. There's SO MANY of these no code/low code tools out there that do so much for you now. I'm not saying we need to compete with them, just using this as an example.
