Keeping Tabs at Top of Main

kenlyle

I have some Tabs on the Main panel of my VP which serve as a navigation method. I'd like them to always be visible so that the user stay oriented. But when I select an object and drill down into that objects form, the tabs disappear. I can get them back manually by reloading Home using the Standard menu. Can I at least set an action to reload home when Object forms are closed?

BenHayat

kenlyle wrote
I have some Tabs on the Main panel of my VP which serve as a navigation method. I'd like them to always be visible so that the user stay oriented. But when I select an object and drill down into that objects form, the tabs disappear. I can get them back manually by reloading Home using the Standard menu. Can I at least set an action to reload home when Object forms are closed?

Not a problem!
Say, your first tab is a query that lists a bunch of customers, and for each line, you have an "Edit" operation that Opens a form to edit that Customer. So, if I understand you correctly, when the form opens to see the customer, you want it as a separate tab?

If yes, when you open your Form Operation dialog use the "Direct Output" to New Tab, as following:

kenlyle

Thanks, Ben. It's kind of the opposite, not about going to a new destination, but more about staying or returning Home.

Yeah, I have a tab like Customers where I list all the customers, and the user can Edit, etc., but going "into" that query result takes away the top tabs defined in the VP. It's fine that the user can focus on what they are doing once they pick a tab, but I want them to get all of the tabs back back, or not lose them in the first place, while drilling down within a tab. Like "auto-load Home Page when Query result list is Closed".

I'll try to attach a screenshot.

kenlyle

Here's a screenshot- not very interesting, just showing that the top tabs defined in the Admin VP go away when viewing the Customers list.

The result list is small because I was thinking that maybe it's a responsiveness issue, and that the tabs were being hidden due to my small netbook screen, but even with the query result set to 300 x 200 px, the tabs are gone.

kenlyle

After playing with some of the settings for panel sizes, making the Top Bar a border, etc. I haven't found an answer.

I did notice that my two buttons that switch VPs both restore the Tabs. My best hypothesis right now is that the queries use an internally defined VP, which doesn't happen to include the tabs defined in the Top Bar.

Moving the tabs to the left side of Main, they now stay when clicking a tab which runs a Select All list, but not for the Query By Form for a different object. Switching the second query to a Select All, unchecking Use Form, the tabs now stay, when positioned to the left.

Finally, putting the tabs back at the top, they stay when looking at the Select All lists for both objects/tabs.

So, this one is solved, but is there any explanation other than that the QBF code is overriding the Top Bar setting for the VP?

customaware

Ken,

In the Frame Setting of your Visual Perspective there is a Checkbox that says 'Show tab even if is the only one'
Set that to on and it should fix your issue.

kenlyle

Thanks, Mark.

In my experience, it seems that something in the Query By Form functionality is overriding the VP, per my notes. Can you possibly test that? Assuming you see the same thing, is that effect intentional? It seems a little disorienting to the user.

customaware

Ken,

Connect to me on Skype customaware and show me

tford

Are you initiating the Query by Form from a menu option?

kenlyle

No, Tom, I would say no. The Tabs are essentially like a menu, so "maybe".

The Customers tab in the VP is set to display the All Customers query. When I set that query to use the form (Query By Form), then that form pops up when the tab is clicked. Upon hitting Search, the tabs disappear.

kenlyle

Thanks to Mark and Skype...

We verified what I was seeing when using Query By Form within a tab of a VP.

We found that setting the Target Panel under Content Panels-Main to New Tab to be the apparent right way to use QBF without blowing away the tabs from the VP. The New Tab is closable, which makes for a nice solution.

As another option, for simple filtering, just turn on filters in the query, Display Results-Details, using the 3 bar menu at the top right.