I'm trying to solve a formatting issue I'm having with Oracle Apex. Overall, this is a fantastic tool for whipping up proof-of-concept type applications, but whenever it comes to "prettying up" a page, it seems to be very difficult to work around.
I have a simple form-based page based on a table. However, I'd like to do a few simple things like group certain fields together on the form (phone info), perhaps throw an image in etc. I can't see any way to do either of these things inside a form. For example, here is an example page
and here are the small changes I want to make (photoshopped):
What the heck am I missing here? I can't seem to add anything except database fields inside the form to visually change things.
Any help appreciated.
It can be done - see this demo (I took the liberty of copying your icon, hope you don't mind). It looks like this:
How it was done
1) I uploaded the image into Apex. (Alternatively it can be hosted elsewhere).
2) I created a page item of type "Display Image" with attributes as follows:
Note the use of rowspan=3 in two places (circled in yellow), to make the picture and its (blank) label occupy 3 rows of the HTML table Apex uses for layout.
3) I created a page item of type "Stop and start table" and put it after the Mailing Address item. This prevents the phone icon taking up the same horizontal space as the name and mailing address, resulting in phone items being pushed too far to the right.
4) I set the "Begin on new line" property of the first phone item to "No" so that it appears to the right of the icon. The remaining phone items have "Yes" so that they appear below the first.
Related
I am trying to implement multipage functionality with quill. I want to fix the height of each page, and when user reaches the end of page, instead of editor height to grow or scrollbar to appear, I want cursor to go to next page(editor), similar behaviour as observed in Google Docs or Microsoft word document.
I have already added 2 editors in the view, but not having any idea on how to switch to new page as cursor reaches the end of first page.
i come straight from google trying to figure out something similar with quill and as far as i know and as far as i came while researching this specific topic:
to me it seems as if its not possible with multiple editors since as soon as the user wants to select paragraphs/elements over a multi page span you'd have to figure out how to
make the selection actually possible (try to select content over a span of two div elements which both are "contenteditable"-enabled, which was one of my first tries kinda).
spread the selection on multiple editors (you'd have to keep track of how much the user selected and when and how far the selection is within which editor which is kinda tricky)
execute an action over multiple editors which will be especially hard since there is no thing as "shared toolbar" yet (as far as i know)
so i really hope (🙏) the time helped you to find an sharable 🤲 solution to this but as far as i built up my knowledge about quill so far (which is a bit over a few weeks old now).
what i will try in the near future is to add a new module to show a page break and style all other elements accordingly to simulate the look of a page.
I've been building my Codename One app for the phone screen format so far. There is a separate Form for the main menu, then a second Form with a list of elements, and then a third Form to edit an element selected from the list. Each Form has an overflow menu and various Titlebar command buttons. And each (Extended) Form has a lot of code that implements the functions in the Form and shares variables etc.
However, to use the tablet (iPad) screen estate, I would like to show the main menu on the left of the screen, the list of elements in the middle and the element edit form on the right. Something similar to the screenshot below. This seems to be a common type of layout on tablets and suits my app usage pattern well.
However, I don't see an elegant way of structuring the code to do this. I can't easily combine the list and edit Forms into one Form, and writing a completely new Form just for the tablet format would be a lot of work. I assume others have faced the same challenge and would love to hear how you achieved this.
PS. I know the side menu can be made permanent but that only solves part of the problem, not how to show a list and edit Forms at the same time.
There is no one answer for this but if you look at apps like Codename One Build you would notice they adapt to this form factor.
We usually just use isTablet() to adapt the UI at key points to the different form factor. One element is the permanent side menu which we turn on in the init method using code like this:
if(Display.getInstance().isTablet()) {
Toolbar.setPermanentSideMenu(true);
}
It makes the side menu stay open all the time. Within the code we try to use Container instead of Form. This allows us to package multiple logical pieces into a single UI for the tablet mode.
What do people think about using pretend hyperlinks, in Winforms apps?
Example:
In my example you would click "into" the Organisation record card for Acme Corp Inc or "into" the details of the next appointment.
If we ignore, for the moment, how the user edits the Organisation or adds/removes an appointment, is it a sensible UI in Winforms to use blue & underline to signify click here and i'll take you to a new screen
As in:
TextBox1.Font = New Font("Blah", 8.25!, FontStyle.Underline etc
TextBox1.ForeColor = Color.Blue
Not forgetting:
TextBox1.Cursor = Cursors.Hand
This would be for a reasonably rich application (for example a CRM) where you have a lot of different kinds of screens and the user is navigating between all sorts of records. And you want to show the user that he can navigate between detail views, grids, children, parents, siblings etc.
Pros:
it's familiar to users and it's
obvious, without being obtrusive or
taking up any screen real estate
easy to implement
the often-used alternative (a button
with an icon or even just three dots
[...]) looks a bit old-fashioned,
doesn't work very well in grids, and
takes up space
Cons:
with all the flexibility and control
you have in a Winforms front end, you
should be able to devise a smart ui
without needing to borrow from
browsers (maybe???)
these pseudo links won't behave as
true anchor tags (there won't be any
"visited" [ie. turn me purple if I've
already been in here] or "hover"
behaviour and no open-in-new-tab
features, without a lot of work) ... potentially annoying to users?
detracts from genuine hyperlinks (as
in email addresses etc) - these no
longer stand out as links "out to
the internet" (to the browser, to
email client) ... very minor issue?
Not even browsers work this way. Use a LinkLabel, not a TextBox.
In general, it’s a good idea to use hyperlinks (real or simulated) in thick-client apps for opening forms of additional information. It is helpful to distinguish between a control that merely navigates (a hyperlink) and a command that changes the underlying data (a command button), so the users know what they’re getting into. I don't think most users care (or even know) if a browser is involved or not. Navigating is navigating.
Making an attribute value look and act like a hyperlink like you’ve done is fine except for one thing that is a showstopper for most applications: it precludes any other interaction with the attribute. The user can’t edit or even copy the attribute value since any clicking in the field will launch the new form. Keep in mind that to edit a value, such as to correct a day of the month, the user may be inclined to click in the middle of the field to position the cursor. Even if you’re using a drop-down menu (e.g., to set the organization), you want to allow users to click in the field and select by typing the first few letters of the value they want. If your app has one drill-down-able field that needs to be editable, then for internal consistency none of your fields can use hyperlinks –all drilldown needs to be by some other method.
Also, while hyperlinks are intuitive for navigating, such as drill-down, I’m not so sure they’re good for assigning a field value. There is a difference between getting more information about Acme Corp organization (which is what your Acme Corp link implies) and getting a dialog to pick the organization for John Smith (an assignment function). So if your intent is assignment rather than true drill-down, then links are probably not a good idea. For assignment, the button with the three dots makes a lot of sense. Assignment changes the underlying data, so it should use a command button. It’s a natural extension of the button in a dropdown control. The three-dot button caption minimizes the space used and is associated with dialogs since that’s what they imply in menu and button captions. It might look old-fashioned, but that’s why it works –it’s consistent with past user experiences.
Looks okay to me. The concept of links has anyway already migrated from web to desktop applications. Users should accept this without problems (maybe after first ten minutes playing out with your program).
Also quite popular in enterprise applications.
Maybe consider changing the color, to, maybe brown or green, so that it doesn't immediately imply a native web link.
Also many web applications built with some event-driven frameworks (like ASP.NET WebForms, JSF etc.) heavily use links that do not link anywhere but invoke some server-side processing (basically an event handler). So it's not unusual use.
I don't like it. If I see a link I expect it to open a browser window when clicked. More standard would be to have a little "edit" button/icon next the label. You could get away with having a link-style "(edit)" after the text, that would also look quite normal rather than suggesting a browser is involved.
e.g:
Organisation: | Acme Dustbins (edit) |or
Organisation: | Acme Dustbins| (edit)
I have a list that the user can filter in several ways. two of which lend themselves to combo boxes and two that need to accept user input. For example, one textbox allows the user to type in any part of a list item's description, and the dialog will only present items whose description contains the text entered.
It is a dialog 'picker' type of window, so space is at a premium. I'd like for the text boxes not to require a traditional label. Instead, when the dialog is first invoked, the label (ie, "Description") is grayed out, centered, and in italics. Maybe a tool tip to further make it obvious to the user what it's for. When the user starts to type, the faux label disappears and the entered text is normal left aligned text.
Does wpf / silverlight have any native support for doing something like this? I guess it could be a combination of styles and eventing. I'd rather not invent any wheels that might be out there (I got the idea specifically from looking at Tortoise' "Show Log" window, but I've seen it before).
Does anyone have any sample code they can share to do this? Or a an alternative idea that also saves space and simplifies the layout?
Cheers,
Berryl
Kevin Moore's InfoTextBox, which is part of his Bag-O-Tricks is the kind of thing I was looking for, almost exactly. This is also the 'watermark' (great name - I would have found this sooner if I had known that) text box from another post.
I'm developing a Winforms application which has been running for years with an explorer view (TreeView left, screen right). I means that:
All the screens have an hierarchy organization
All the nodes on TreeView have one and only one screen related.
A screen gets activated when a node on treeview gets selected.
One of the advantages is that the user has an ordered stucture and one of the inconveniencies is that with hundreds of screens the user gets confused.
I see other options: use classical menus, use tabs or a mix of everything.
Any advice for a good way to show a lot of screens to user in a user-friendly way?
Update: I'm changed "hundreds screens" by "a lot of screens". The most important thing is not show all at time but that the user can find what they need easily.
Update2: In this proposal, the user only see one screen at time.
Update3: I'm talking about handling multiple screens not showing multiple screens. No MDI, only one ontime.
I have used other applications similar to this is the past, and the major problem is trying to find the exact screen you want. There are two common solutions to this problem, shortcut codes and favorites menu.
With the shortcut codes, allocate a short code (5 or 6 characters) to each screen. The user then inputs this shortcut code into a text box which will then jump to the correct screen. Users will create their own list of often used codes.
For the favorites menu, allow users the ability to be able to create their own menu list in the structure they want. They will find things easier, if they organize it themselves.
Why do you need to show so many seprate screens at once? Why not just show the screen for the currnetly selected node, why are all needed at once?
If it is all tabular data is is probably too much to be consumed all at once, if it is graphical data, could it not be combined?
There may be a valid reason to show all the data at once or there may not, hard to tell from what is provided in your question. With that said, better to keep it simple than overload the user. MDI apps are never easy to use.
Tabs may work for a small set of items but still is not a good UI for hundreds of items.
If you are only showing one element at a time, out of hundreds possible on the tree nodes, then that is fine. The one screen showing at a time would be contextual to the item selected as the user moves through the nodes. Think of the Outlook approach where what is selected in the left pane is displayed in the right pane in whatever form fits the data being displayed.
Have you considered the Office Ribbon?
The Ribbon gives you a lot of flexibility on how to show and
organize functions and it's highly visual.
Here is a good link about the Ribbon and also here
To use the Ribbon you have to license it from Microsoft. You can do that online.
Providing the user with ketboard shotcuts is usually a good thing too.
I also like to provide the user with an "autocomplete" field on the menu
so that they can can find the function by name (or part of it) and be
able to navigate directly to where they want to go.
I general I find trees to be a bad idea, especially if your "hierarchy" is of a small fixed depth.
If you have a small fixed depth, consider replacing the tree with a list. At the top of the list can be drop-downs for filtering based on the node-level properties. It will use up less screen real-estate because it is vertical-only, with no horizontal component.
Clicking on an item can display it in the view (like currently), but it may be a good idea to allow a user to double-click on more than one item which could launch more windows, or tile with the existing displayed items. (I am assuming that currently, the user only sees a single detailed view at once in any given window.)
Actually, it’s hard to beat a hierarchy for organizing large numbers of items. I wouldn’t favor a classical pulldown menu for vast numbers of windows because it would be even harder to keep track of where you are than in a tree (e.g., a tree lets you look in multiple branches at once). But here’s a few alternatives:
I’m not clear how you ended up with so many windows, but maybe it comes from combinations of classes, views, content, and detail, or maybe it comes from using a task-centered UI structure for something far too complex (I’ve more on that at http://www.zuschlogin.com/?p=3). For complex apps, you want a different primary window for each significant class of data object (e.g., invoices, employees). These are listed on one menu, and typically there’s few enough (15 or less) that it can be single non-cascading pulldown menu. The content of each window is set by a separate menu, perhaps by a menu item that opens a dialog that may include a list box (like an Open dialog) or other controls for querying/searching. The “view” of each window (how the data objects are shown, e.g., table versus form) is set by menu items in the View menu. Details for any given object in a window can be shown in a separate pane within the window in a master-detail relation, essentially turning you data objects into a menu for details. A single window can have multiple detail panes for the user to open and close to select the specific detail to show. Tabs may also be used within a single pane to fit subdivisions of content.
You say it’s not important to show all window options at once, but often showing all options at once makes it easiest for users to find what they need. Maybe you need a “home” window that lists all the other windows in organized, labeled, and separated categories. This is will be easier to use than the tree if your users select a window then stick with it for most of the session. Your tree is better if there's frequently selection of windows throughout the session, owing to the overhead of getting to the home window. If all windows/options don’t fit on a single home window, then show only selected common windows for each category on the home window and provide a button or link to show an exhaustive list.
If you’re talking 100’s of windows, maybe you should have Search, perhaps in addition to a menu-based browse approach to getting to a window.
In any case, providing easy access to the few most commonly used windows is a good idea. Such windows can be explicitly selected by the designer, based on user research, or selected by the the user (favorites), but it also typically works well to make it automatic with an algorithm that uses some combination of frequency and recency of use.