change the control position

[arkeshtk]

hi all,

is it possible to change control position runtime?.
its web application.


thanks...

[Steve Workings]

Re: change the control position

Control position? Don't understand what you want. 'splain more.

[arkeshtk]

Re: change the control position

for example

if the textbox1 is at the left corner of the webpage, is it possible to allow end user to change the location of textbox1 from left corner to right corner on runtime. (change the position of the textbox1)

[Steve Wood]

Re: change the control position

You mean drag it, or click a button to move it? By run time do you mean when the user is looking at the screen? "Run time" generally means as the screen is bring rendered by the server. Anyway, yes IF you use CSS and make use of absolute positioning, and a lot of patience. Then you have to find a JavaScript based "CSS Switcher" that will toggle between your CSS files. One CSS file puts the box here, one puts the box there. The other way is to have your field in a popup box, and they can move the box around. Probably not what you want.

[arkeshtk]

Re: change the control position

hi Steve Wood.

one more clarification, after end user changes the position of the controls can we save the web page with the same position.
(i.e when user open next time he has to see what positioning he has made)..

thanks

[Steve Workings]

Re: change the control position

You are not going to be able to achieve what you're asking.

I suppose some geeky technohead might be able to prove me wrong, but it would take that kind of solution.

[NoeticCC]

Re: change the control position

You are not going to be able to achieve what you're asking.

I suppose some geeky technohead might be able to prove me wrong, but it would take that kind of solution.

Not that good with JavaScript myself, certainly a tad rusty, but I had in the past managed something pretty nifty and a bit similar to what the original poster is after, using this library: http://www.walterzorn.com/dragdrop/dragdrop_e.htm

You could to some degree achieve what is needed, if you are willing to compromise, e.g. divide the screen into a set number of invisible grid areas, place the components inside containers/divs and use the above drag and drop library to allow users to move specific components around the page, then use AJAX to store the new grid position/area of the component in a text file for each user, or in a table that holds each user's settings for each specific page.

PS: Attached a shot of how it looks on iGoogle with the movable "gadgets"

[Steve Wood]

Re: change the control position

You can do it all with CSS and JavaScript. Create or open your iGoogle page. All of those widgets can be dragged around and the position sticks next time you visit. Google does it with CSS and JavaScript (but you will have to search for an explanation of how they do it.)

I know they use CSS because if I look at the CSS for the top-left most widget the in-line CSS is:

element.style {
left:0px;
top:0px;
}

If I drag that same object to the right and drop it in, the in-line CSS dynamically changes to:

element.style {
left:479px;
top:164px;
}

And next time I visit, that is where the object is positioned.

If you do look for how to do this, the JavaScript will be able to move properly named DIV sections around. It looks like on the iGoogle page, all of the DIV's with class="yui-u" can be moved.

Ultimately you will have to measure how important this is versus the development cost. You have to use AJAX because you have to write the new CSS position values to a database without disturbing the user.

[StephenP]

Re: change the control position

I don't know much about iframes, but it looks like they may be able to achieve what you want here. Check out Matt Kruse's Draggable IFRAME Windows (http://www.javascripttoolbox.com/lib/dragiframe/).

If you wrap a field in an iframe object, the user can move it about. If you build in a bit of code, you can capture the current location and write it to a table, then open it in the same location the next time. It doesn't look like iframe's accept event functions, but you may be able to capture the coordinates some other way.

--Stephen

[arkeshtk]

Re: change the control position

Thanks all,

i will start working on that keep all the inputs..(since i am not much familiar with CSS,i will just have a look over it first)

[arkeshtk]

Re: change the control position

thanks all,

i am able to get my results..

[NoeticCC]

Re: change the control position

thanks all,

i am able to get my results..

Great :)