"Style" Attribute

bkonia · Post by **bkonia** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 10:04 pm

I would like to request that in the Attribute Presentation dialog, you add a box where the user can enter a custom HTML "style" attribute. This would allow the user to override the default style sheet at the attribute level.

I feel that this would be immensely useful to many users, as I've noticed numerous requests from users in this forum for more control over the presentation of the Aware IM user interface. Yes, I realize that we have the ability to create entirely custom forms, but using custom forms defeats one of the main advantages of using Aware IM in the first place.

Adding this feature would be a trivial programming task for the Aware IM development team and it would really help your customers a lot. For example, I have a "Received Email" form and I want to prevent my users from editing the message content of received emails. The only way I can do this is to enable the "Calculated" flag for the message attribute. Unfortunately, calculated attributes are displayed as gray text on a gray background and are practically unreadable. I certainly can't expect my users to have to read their emails with this color scheme. If I had the ability to apply a custom style to the message attribute, I could easily overcome this problem.

PLEASE consider adding this feature!

aware_support · Post by **aware_support** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:12 am

This will be taken care of in the next version that is due out within a couple of weeks. You will be able to refer to attributes and attribute expressions in the HTML cells, which means that you can use CSS styles, HTML tags etc

Elmar · Post by **Elmar** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:40 pm

aware_support wrote:This will be taken care of in the next version that is due out within a couple of weeks. You will be able to refer to attributes and attribute expressions in the HTML cells, which means that you can use CSS styles, HTML tags etc

Very good to hear. The hole approach should include providing an own FW folder that contains a set of user defined images and styles. Of course these should derive from the original image and style names (dev1 or dev2) but it would be great to have built in support so that I don´t have to replace all that stuff by hand after regenerating.

Elmar

aware_support · Post by **aware_support** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:04 am

Version 2.3 is out now. It has support for tags inside HTML cells.

bkonia · Post by **bkonia** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:43 pm

aware_support wrote:Version 2.3 is out now. It has support for tags inside HTML cells.

I haven't had a chance to try this yet, but from reading the description on your website, it would appear as though this is only applicable for real-only elements. For example, it would allow you to display the value of an attribute using a custom style, but not edit the attribute on the form.

The ability to display attribute values within HTML is definitely an improvement, but it does not address the concern I mentioned when I created this thread. I also would like to be able to apply custom styles to form elements. The example I mentioned was a text area that had the "Calculated" flag set. In IE and Firefox, readonly text areas are rendered with very light gray text, making them virtually unreadable. It's easy to correct this using CSS, but presently there is no way to apply CSS to form elements within Aware IM.

Elmar · Post by **Elmar** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 8:50 pm

bkonia wrote:...In IE and Firefox, readonly text areas are rendered with very light gray text, making them virtually unreadable. It's easy to correct this using CSS, but presently there is no way to apply CSS to form elements within Aware IM.

Actually there is a way to do this with CSS. I will post a tutorial in the next days how to circumvent this very ugly greyed out form element.

Elmar

aware_support · Post by **aware_support** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:41 pm

Yes, this feature applies to read-only attributes, but as far as calculated attributes are concerned, they ARE read-only. So rather than fiddle with CSS styles for these attributes you can display the attribute as a plain label using an HTML cell. The label will be read-only and will not be greyed out.

greg · Post by **greg** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:49 pm

Please still post your tutorial, Elmar. I assume it would be easier for me to adjust a single CSS for an existing application than to make changes on numerous forms. Besides, many of my attributes are not defined as read-only, they set so by the BO rules depending on other parameters.

pbrad · Post by **pbrad** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 3:07 am

I must admit that I was a little disappointed to discover that I could only display 'defined' or read only data in the html cells. For me, the ability to customize the forms easily and rapidly remains my number one wishlist item. Somebody pointed out a while ago that CodeCharge had a fairly slick way of handling this and in checking it out, I have to agree with them. Controlling the look and feel of queries and forms and being able to add more controls would be a huge bonus.
Pete

PEFS · Post by **PEFS** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 3:21 am

Hey Pete,

I love the CodeCharge style editor. It's easy, lots of base selections to choose from and if you are creative, you can almost produce any standard look & feel. I use their product for mock-ups and quick deployments for exisiting Access applications that need a Web Front-end.

I too was disapointed with the outcome of the first wave of UI solutions but I have been floored by the amount of progress and growth that Aware has put into their product in just the last 9 months. I have no doubt that they will be flooring us all with their UI solutions. If they can integrate Open Laszlo...Native in their product...man. No one will be able to touch Aware IM developers. Maybe then I can ditch CodeCharge, Iron Speed and Visual Stupido.

...and then I can retire and move to a small island somewhere

PEFS

aware_support · Post by **aware_support** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 3:29 am

The emphasis of version 2.3 was some enterprise features like Oracle and LDAP. It was never intended to provide UI improvements, therefore don't judge it too harshly in this department.

The emphasis of the next version will be UI improvements and we will be considering all your feedback in this area.

pbrad · Post by **pbrad** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 1:51 pm

Hi,
Don't get us wrong, we are thrilled with you guys, we are just a little over excited by what we know is coming!
Cheers,
Pete

PEFS · Post by **PEFS** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:43 pm

I will second that!!!

PEFS

pixerp · Post by **pixerp** » Mon May 14, 2007 2:55 pm

Hi Support,

any news on the UI improvements to come ?

Thanks

aware_support · Post by **aware_support** » Tue May 15, 2007 3:27 am

Some have been already implemented - including HTML editor and customization of text on standard buttons. Others are coming but no specific news yet.