Hi All,
If I have a data entry application and rather than create new windows for each data entry screen I want to do all the work in a single window, but swap out containers for each screen instead is there any practical limit to the number of containers with controls I can embed in that window?
Or is there a better way to manage something like this?
Thanks.
I have a window with 28 containers multiple levels deep. I don’t even swap out the containers.
I don’t know if it is necessarily better, but an alternative suggestion is the Page Panel Control.
It’s like the Tab Panel control (but without the visible tabs) where you can switch programmatically between panels (where each panel has different controls).
Two considerations here are
If it takes several seconds to display the window and the layout is overwhelming or confusing to the user, he’s gonna bug out.
I second the PagePanel tip. It allows you to have more than one set of controls in the same place on the dialog. I for example swap a panel for Code Lists (which only apply to one column type) and Filters which apply to all the other types. It is a lot easier than moving panels around at run time and showing / hiding them are required. You simply set the panel index and everything just works.
One tip though, don’t try and copy and paste into the panel. Drag the container off the area and then select the correct panel and drag it back. This will ensure that the parent is set correctly and that the container isn’t simply floating above the PagePanel.
Alternatively, what I do is have a folder called “Containers” (and another “Windows”). Once I embed the container in the window or page panel, I do all the IDE manipulation on the container itself as its own entity. This makes it super easy to get the parent set right, and not have what otherwise could be overlapping control visibility.
This is true, but my advise is for when you already have the controls on a window and are introducing a PagePanel. I should have made that more clear.
Thanks everyone for the info and the suggestions.
I will play with the page panel idea ~ I think I like the thought of being able to control things through that.
Annoying IDE bug with both PagePanel and TabPanel since forever. Not only does it not paste into the currently-selected tab, it changes the selected tab index (under 2021r2.1 anyway).
Oddly, a quick search doesn’t allow me to find a bug report for that?
I would be inclined to create a separate DesktopContainer, with its own set of controls, for each page of the DesktopPagePanel. That way all controls are insulated from the PagePanel.
Well I’ve never filed one for it, because I don’t expect Xojo to pay attention to reports on 2021r.2.1 and IDE bugs like this never get fixed anyway.