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UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

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    #16
    Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

    This is the quickest I could come up with.
    http://screencast.com/t/B9K8M1PoQovC

    It shows;
    7 questions within 1 subject area.
    If you client wants a scrolling string of all subject areas and all possible answers, it's doable but will kill the user and the application IMHO
    If you can show me a prototype in Alpha DT to show what you need is indeed possible, I'll try harder.
    See our Hybrid Option here;
    https://hybridapps.example-software.com/


    Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
    You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

    Comment


      #17
      Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

      Ted, your example looks awesome, but it still only demonstrates one question type - yes/no.

      Steve's questions have other questions types mixed in. So Question 2 might be a drop down list (Red/Green/Blue) and Question 5 might be a lookup field.

      And then for the next question set, the drop down list might be Question 4 instead of Question 2 - with a different set of possible answers.

      I would like to know, however, what you did that with. Is it a list control?

      Comment


        #18
        Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

        Steve,

        If your customer really wants a form that looks like his original spec, and if he wants it to be fast, friendly and EXACTLY how he wants it, you can provide that quite easily.

        You develop a different UX for each set of questions, each UX is built in exactly the way the customer wants it.

        It's a rather old fashion way to do it, but it might actually be EASIER to do it that way.

        Each UX would only have to worry about itself, so it would be much faster than trying to juggle all the different controls and data for each question set.

        In saying that, I have no idea how many we're talking about. It may be that some questions are similar enough between different sets of criteria that you can get away with 5 UX's to handle 20 different question sets.

        But I think you are going to spend the rest of your life tracking down speed or ease of use issues if you try to compact it all into a single UX.

        Just my two cents after thinking about it for a few days ....

        Comment


          #19
          Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

          Larry, put like that, I'm not sure what Steve's customer requires is possible on a smartphone, either web or native shell due to limitations of screen size and processing power.
          I asked Steve to do a mock up of the requirement in Alpha Desk Top just to establish if what is requested is indeed possible.
          I can do mixed options but they will need to be consistent, as in Question 1 = RGB, 2 = Yes/No, 3 = Value List from Lookup - all within the single primary question framework.
          Screen size and orientation is another issue, so do you think his customer would accept tablets?

          Nope, not a List Control.
          PM me if you wish to know or Lenny will get me. This was just a trial to see if it could be done.
          See our Hybrid Option here;
          https://hybridapps.example-software.com/


          Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
          You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

          Comment


            #20
            Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

            I have the same needs as Steve. Problem is, there are 200 to 300 questions per project out of a possible 1500 questions. Each project can have a different set of questions, so it is not practical to create separate components for each possibility. Here is a pic of our component
            questions.png
            Pat Bremkamp
            MindKicks Consulting

            Comment


              #21
              Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

              Does this float your boat?
              http://screencast.com/t/WplnypoQq7o
              Not pretty, but its a Proof of Concept and I'm doing it Pro Bono.
              The lookup fields can be based on selection criteria, so Pools will have one set, Furnaces another, and Electric Circuits a third. The logic is the difficult bit. LOL!
              I'm using SQL as a back end in this example, and as I said, it's a PoC.

              Pat, the challenge comes with screen sizes and processing power. I have tried using a straight web connection with tablets and it works - sort of. Not as good as a native app though.
              In addition it needs to be responsive and pick up the media platform and that's yet another hurdle.
              Last edited by Ted Giles; 12-10-2016, 01:03 PM.
              See our Hybrid Option here;
              https://hybridapps.example-software.com/


              Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
              You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

              Comment


                #22
                Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

                That second video certainly floats MY boat - I don't know about anyone else!

                Will PM you cause I'd like to know how to do that ...

                Comment


                  #23
                  Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

                  I had another thought about how to do this:

                  What if you created 7 different UX controls. Each one would be designed to pull up a single question with a single question type.

                  Then create your main UX. The purpose of the main UX, then, is to determine which of the "question ux's" it will need to load, in what order and with which questions.

                  So you would have one UX designed to be used for a drop down list and another UX to use for a Yes/No field and a third UX which is a text box control.

                  The task then becomes - get the list of questions. Loop through the questions to pull up the UX that will best allow an answer for each one and put the UX in it's appropriate container on the main UX.

                  The only downside I see to this (other than a possible speed issue) is that on each question you would likely have to submit the UX - so if you answer 3 out of 5 questions, for instance, you could not easily abandon the edit - those three would already be saved.

                  I have NO idea how easy this would be to implement, but it might help compartmentalize the problem or suggest another solution.

                  Comment


                    #24
                    Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

                    Ted - you have it here. Some immediate editors right in the List and some others will have to be on another panel card.

                    Did you do this with A5 or something else?

                    If you did it with A5, would you share even the basic building blocks and methodology?

                    BTW, this also needs to be mobile-device friendly, and while it doesn't have to be completely off-line, we're aiming for as much off-line capability as possible including an extensive use of the data cache.

                    Thanks.
                    -Steve
                    sigpic

                    Comment


                      #25
                      Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

                      Steve, I haven't actually tried it in Alpha, this has been done using something else which I am more used to.
                      I have an old version of V12, so I can try to replicate it.
                      In the meantime, I'll write up the logic and post it.
                      It's phone friendly, and off line can be built in.
                      See our Hybrid Option here;
                      https://hybridapps.example-software.com/


                      Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
                      You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

                      Comment


                        #26
                        Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

                        Thanks. There are several controls that should be immediate:

                        Short Text input (lots of numbers - such as chemical readings)
                        Yes/No button pair
                        Switch
                        Checkbox (Logical)

                        Others, such as choice lists and long text can/should be on the next panel.
                        -Steve
                        sigpic

                        Comment


                          #27
                          Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

                          Like this?

                          http://screencast.com/t/iSJRUzMkoGn3

                          Shown in a small smartphone. Scrollable but in demo mode, Virtual keyboard not shown.
                          See our Hybrid Option here;
                          https://hybridapps.example-software.com/


                          Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
                          You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

                          Comment


                            #28
                            Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

                            Ted, This being written in c# and JS should be usable about anywhere in any application.
                            Dave Mason
                            [email protected]
                            Skype is dave.mason46

                            Comment


                              #29
                              Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

                              True Dave.
                              See our Hybrid Option here;
                              https://hybridapps.example-software.com/


                              Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
                              You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

                              Comment


                                #30
                                Re: UI suggestions for dynamic lists, dynamic controls and immediate editing.

                                steve,
                                these are just form inputs.
                                if you read your first post
                                The response controls are variable - they can be RadioButton, Choice List, Checkbox, Switch and a couple others. All of this is data-driven, from the question to the type of control that is needed.
                                it looks more like templating than input form. however if that is an input form, is that a requirement that you need to use alpha built components as lists, ux, viewbox etc., or you can just use html page or a5w page with your form and just deposit the data into a backend db. and then the data is available to all the alpha five components in the desktop or browser interface.
                                thanks for reading

                                gandhi

                                version 11 3381 - 4096
                                mysql backend
                                http://www.alphawebprogramming.blogspot.com
                                [email protected]
                                Skype:[email protected]
                                1 914 924 5171

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