Switch layouts with a radio button

[daddioja]

I have a set of three radio buttons I am working with. I would like the database to switch to a different layout when one of the three buttons is selected. Each button needs to go to a different layout. Is this possible? How can I make the magic happen?

[fourier48]

you could trigger the field with an event plugin; e.g. EventScript

from http://www.softs4humans.com

Regards

Bill

[CobaltSky]

Hi daddioja,

You might consider turning off the 'allow entry into field' option for the radio button field, then placing several transparent buttons over the field which are attached to scripts which set the appropriate value into the field and then take the user to the corresponding layout.

It's likely to be a little simpler than implementing an events plug-in - not to mention the fact that the link that Bill provided is to a plug-in that only works with FileMaker 7, whereas it appears that you are using v6.

[Ender]

I think you should reconsider this method of navigation. It is not typical that clicking into a field will make the layout change, and using this may be confusing to users.

Better to use a separate button to test the field data and jump to the correct layout, or have three buttons that set the field and then go to the layout.

[CobaltSky]

Respectfully, Ender, I disagree.

Over at the Databasepros site, as I'm sure you're aware, there are a bunch of demos of the 'visability' technique which is widely used to make the layout 'appear' to change according to the values the user enters into a field.

Developers have been looking for (and finding) ways of doing this kind of thing for years - and users, on the whole appreciate the fact that the layout adjusts to appropriately reflect their selection in a field, rather than presenting them with a bunch of irrelevant questions while leaving out other pertinent details. Indeed there are situations when to *not* do this would be confusing to users.

The reason that many developers have taken the time to come up with so many clever ways to have layouts change (or swap or adjust) based on data selections is because users expect and even demand it.

By contrast, if the information that is to be input is legitimately part of the data, users will hardly expect this one element to be differentiated and represented as a bunch of fancy buttons when all the rest of the data goes into a field.

But all that aside, the fact is that neither of us is in a position to know why daddioja needs or wants to do this, nor how appropriate or otherwise it may be to the solution he has in mind - so, I'll venture, neither of us is in a position to be advising him against it.

[Ender]

Thanks for pointing out this out Ray.

I just don't want users to be forced onto a different layout if they are not expecting it. If the interface is done in such a way that users know what's happening, and there is an obvious way back to the previous layout (maybe having the same button choices,) then this would work.

This might behave something like a tabbed interface, where part of the layout is the same for each button choice. I had not considered using radio buttons like this. But I can see from this discussion how this could work.

Thanks Ray.

Making the interface intuitive is something I am always striving for.

[daddioja]

Thank you both for your input. I actually did use your suggestion Ray, and it worked perfectly. Thanks for raising the concern Ender; this strategy actually does make the database more intiutive for the user. The visual format is identical on all layouts, so the user can go back as you suggest. I hadn't seen it as a tabbed layout, but that is how it is functioning. Thanks to both of you for your help.

Jason