Forward and Back buttons (like IE)

[Jay Talbott]

Has anyone ever created Forward and Back Buttons (like Internet Explorer uses) in an application?

My client wants to eliminate going back to the main menu each time he wants to change screens in the app I created for him. So that if he opens the Quote form, then goes to the Order form, then goes to the Purchase order form, he wants to hit the "Back" button once to go back to the Order form, and hit the "Back" button again to go back to the Quote form, then hit the "Forward" button to get to the Order form.

Any ideas how to set that up easily?

Thanks in advance.

Jay Talbott

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Forward and Back buttons (like IE)

Jay,

This will be sort of like maintaining a series of undo levels.

How many forms might be opened in succession before the user can go no further?

Maybe you could use a global array of character type variables to keep a scrolling list of form names. The array would be updated each time a new form is opened. This would permit the user to 'back' up to the main menu through each form previously opened.

The funcitonality of the 'next' button would depend on the context of the current form and would have to be programmed for each form, using a series of CASE statements tied to the current form name.

Jay, I'm not crazy about the user's request unless you also furnish a quick way to get back to the main menu from anywhere in the application.

-- tom

[CALocklin]

RE: Forward and Back buttons (like IE)

Jay,

I hesitated to answer this yesterday because, like Tom, I'm not crazy about this request as stated. I think it would be prone to far too many problems.

Instead, I'd suggest this:

First, closing a form will automatically take you back to the previous form unless the previous form was closed when the current form was opened. This is totally within the control of the programmer.

Second, rather than having a "Forward" button, I'd suggest to the user that specific buttons could be put on each form that would take them to other appropriate / related forms.

To see an example of this, go to my web page to view my Trak_It_SP Master_Order form. In the upper right quadrant you will see two buttons, "View Up List" and "View Client Details", that take you to another form. The "View Client Details" form is opened to the current client but can be navigated to other clients if desired. When "View Client Details" is closed, you are right back on the Master Order form in exactly the same state that you left it. The "View Up List" takes you to a list of current installations for that customer and, again, when the list is closed the user is right back where he started from.

You will also find a "View Other Orders" button in the lower left. This was added so the user could leave one order in the middle of data entry and view another order. This was primarily because of phone calls - the users did not like having to quit in the middle of data entry to answer questions about another order then start the new record all over again. (That's what they were doing with their previous program.) To emplement this, I simply made a copy of the Master Order form, put a different colored background on it for identification purposes, and restricted a few of the actions on this 'view/edit only' form.

I believe that a method such as this would be far less prone to problems than any attempt to track 'movement' so that a Forward button could be created. I've been doing this for over 10 years and have over a dozen regular customers and I would not even consider a 'Forward' button.

Cal Locklin
www.aimsdc.net

[Jay Talbott]

RE: Forward and Back buttons (like IE)

Tom,

I am not crazy about the request either. You know what they say, "The customer is not always right, but the customer is always the customer."

Since the app only has about 7 forms, perhaps a small navigation area could be added to each form, that way the customer could get from any form directly to any other form, without having to remember where he was previously.

Thanks for your reply. As always, I appreciate your thoughtful insight.

Regards,
Jay

[Jay Talbott]

RE: Forward and Back buttons (like IE)

Cal,

Thanks for your reply. I was composing my other comments while you wrote yours.

I will look into your app later.

I am going to try to dissuade the customer from this idea, and lean toward a more practical (and less costly) approach.

Jay

[whanigsberg]

RE: Forward and Back buttons (like IE)

Hi all,

I actually created a similar functionality but did not employ the browser-based forward-back metaphor and evaded its complexities and ambiguities.

I have an application which opens to a main menu. There are five main data entry screens. Users make frequent switches between two of these screens.

-Each of the two screens has a button allowing a quick jump to the other. (There's more; functionality to jump to a specific record in the other screen but that is outside the scope of this discussion. Think of it as a context sensitive zoom feature.)

-On every form, the right-click menu of the form (not any field) duplicates the main menu so that any jump between forms can be made in a single operation without traversing the real main menu.

I think this approach might addresse the substance of your user's request without getting mired in the literal terms in which it was expressed.

Bill

[Pat Bremkamp]

RE: Forward and Back buttons (like IE)

Jay,

I also built such a function into one of my apps using Tom's approach. I later abandoned it because it didn't really help anything. In fact, the users wanted to jump directly to a form, not move back one by one. (My app only moved back, not forward).

But if you must, here's what I did (this is from memory, so needs work)

I decided to allow up to 20 forms deep, so in autoexec:
Dim global vgReturn[20] as C
vgReturn[1]=":MainMenu"

Then in every form open statement:
Dim i as N
Dim frm as P
frm=form.load("form_name")
i=vgReturn.first_empty()
vgReturn[i]=frm.name_get() ' in case there are two instances of the same form open

Now comes the tricky part: In every form close statement:

thisfrm=topparent.name_get()
i=vgReturn.first_empty()
for x=i-1 to 1 step -1 'look back through the list
if vgReturn[i]=thisfrm
goto GotIt
end if
next x
frm=form.view('MainMenu") ' in case the previous was not found, have to go somewhere

GotIt:
if is_object(":"+vgReturn[x-1])
frm=obj(":"+vgReturn[x-1])
frm.restore()
else
frm=form.view(":"+vgReturn) 'in case the user closed it
end if

end

In my app, I would then delete vgReturn[x], but if you want to move froward, you'll need to add more complexity.

But my main point is, once the users got it, they actually didn't like it or use it.

Good Luck
Pat

[whanigsberg]

RE: Forward and Back buttons (like IE)

Hi Pat,

"But my main point is, once the users got it, they actually didn't like it or use it."

In one of my interface design books the author writes, "Always listen to your users but don't necessarily do what they say."

Seems like that advice kind of fits your experience in this one.

Bill

[Keith Hubert]

RE: Forward and Back buttons (like IE)

OK Guys,

This idea of mine will not go back an forward but.......

How about this dialog box? It is not quite finished but put it on a button in alphasports and see what you get. Maybe someone can just put in the last few lines to make it work completely.

DIM SHARED a_forms[100] as C
DIM SHARED varC_result as C

form_list = a5.form_Enum(2)
a_forms.initialize(form_list)
ok_button_label = "&OK"
cancel_button_label = "&Cancel"
varC_result = ui_dlg_box("Form Selector",
{frame=1,2:Select a Form}
{sp=.5}
{lf=1}
{region}
[.40,15form_list^#a_forms!select_form];
{endregion};
{region}
{lf}{justify=center}

{endregion};
%dlg%,
if a_dlg_button="select_form" then
a_dlg_button=""
end if
%code%)

Regards

Keith Hubert

Guild Member
London.