Four Js Development Tools Forum

Hi Folks,

Has anyone done anything in Genero that could be considered a reasonably attractive and compact version of Progressive Disclosure? (For anyone who thinks they don't know what that is, you actually do, see this link) (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511487.aspx)

The best I can achieve is quite clunky with too much space around it

Hi Andrew,

If you're using GDC, have you looked at this experimental features:

https://4js.com/techdocs/genero/gdc/devel/DocRoot/User/NewFeatures221.html#221SaveRestoreSize

The front call allows you to store a size and restore it afterwards.

Attached is the test case used for the screenshot. Please note that the naming convention was not respected and that in the coming 2.30 the name of the frontcall changed to lowercase to fix this issue (therefore the version test).

Any feedback is welcome, if the feature seem usable and get a nice feedback, it could be fully supported.

Regards,
Pierre-Nicolas

BTW, the coming 2.30 has maybe something that could also help:

https://4js.com/techdocs/genero/gdc/devel/DocRoot/User/NewFeatures230.html#230ResetFormSize

<Style name="Form.f1">
  <StyleAttribute name="resetFormSize" value="1" />
</Style>

When this style is set, the next DISPLAY FORM shrinks the window to the initial size of the new form if this one is smaller than the current window.

Regards,
Pierre-Nicolas

Thanks, that looks very promising. Since it's only available from 2.21 that gives me some breathing room to experiment - we're sticking with 2.20 for an October release due to logistical issues.

I think it will be important to be able to compact the form again to it's smaller size, so the resetFormSize could be very helpful. Would it be possible to get a frontcall that tells the client to re-do the layout on command? Of course it would take over the user's stored size.

I've also had a quick browse of the 2.20 experimentals, and I really like the

<Style name="Grid.flayout">
  <StyleAttribute name="layoutType" value="form" />
</Style>

This will be a great help for something we want to do. We want to automagically mark mandatory fields in some way, and the commonest way on the internets is to put a * on the end of the label. However discovering the label for each field using DOM calls is not reliable; for a start, the field may not even have a label! A node with the text bound into it would make it trivial to find. If the rewrites are not too expensive this could be a very good solution.

Even if we don't use that, just having & accelerators for dialogs will be very nice.

Thanks for the ideas!