List control "Next" Record

[lgrupido]

I have a list control which will have a variable number of records in it.

I want to be able to start at the top of the list and programmatically scroll through it.

This is for an online evaluation. I want the user to be able to answer the first question, press the next button and be taken automatically to the next question.

But the questions will not always be the same, so I can't hard code a set of panel controls.

My idea was to put all the questions in a list and then scroll through the list. I just don't know how to do a "next" programmatically.

I can do this other ways, but I want to minimize the number of ajax callbacks I need to make and I think a list would be ideal.

Any suggestions or am I going about this all wrong?

[Davidk]

Re: List control "Next" Record

How are the answers entered? Detail view? Inline List controls?

There is this List method available...

{dialog.object}._listNavigateRecord('listCust','next');

[lgrupido]

Re: List control "Next" Record

I believe that is just what the doctor ordered!

My plan is to hide the list and put one set of controls in a container.

Each time they press next, i will use the listnavigate until I get to the end of the list.

I can keep track of how many total records there are so I will know when I get to the end of the list.

I'll try to remember to shout back when I get it working.

[dbinns]

Re: List control "Next" Record

You don't even need to track records. I use a db column 'last_question' and use that field as a show/hide condition.

You can then show a complete button rather than a next button, and whatever message you want when the last_question field is '1'

Doing this you can load an infinite number of evaluations in one table.

eval_name | question | last_question

Filter to eval name and it will load the questions sequentially with the listnavigate next

[lgrupido]

Re: List control "Next" Record

I wanted to show "Question X of Y" at the top of the screen so they could see how many questions there were and what question they were on, so I had to keep track anyway.

I basically increment X by 1 each time they click next. (Or decrement if they click Prev)

And when X = Y I display a finish button instead of a next button - same thing.

But the listnavigate is a seriously sweet function that works great for an application like this.

[dbinns]

Re: List control "Next" Record

ah cool. Yeah that makes sense but you may want to put those in your db too so you can use them for something else

question_number and _number_of_questions

and when they = you can do something (show a complete button).

What's cool is you can even have different question types and only show one at a time by having a type column and for example

type
yn
abc
comment

and then based on the value of the type field show the correct control to answer your question, and set the value from that control on next to the answer field.

I've been doing something with this recently, makes for a super clean ux with minimal controls (only one of each type).

[Davidk]

Re: List control "Next" Record

The List Control objects, properties, and methods should be used for question count, position and looping. I'm not sure that external data is required... given that the List itself has everything needed.

[dbinns]

Re: List control "Next" Record

the data im referring to would be in the list or in the table anyway. i use detail view fields to display those values and show hide based on them.