Opinions and suggestions on popup modal layouts?

[J__]

Hi

A user insists that they be able to pick a contact using a small popup layout. I have looked at the Business_Tracker solution from fm7 and it uses popups. However, they are not modal and I see my user clicking on the main layout (unintentionally of course) and then going "hmm, the popup window disappeared, let me click the button again"... resulting (potentially) in a number of popup windows all behind the main layout.

Is there a way to do this modally? or will 'bad things' happen?

what's the forum members opinion on usage of this? .. and how have you dealt with it?

thanks for your input on this in advance,

sincerely,

J__

[RalphL]

Look at the dialog plug-ins from Troi & 24U. These have feaures not found in the Cusom Dialog script step.

http://www.troi.com

http://www.24usoftware.com

[J__]

Ralph,

thanks for the suggestions.

sincerely,

J__

[Vaughan]

You can prevent multiple popup windows being created by uniquely naming the window, then checking for a window with the same name. If there isn't one the draw the new window. If there is the bring the window to the front.

Mac OS X Panther's Expose is a challenge for multiple window solutions.

[J__]

how do you check for the windows existence?

IsWindowVisible() ??

thanks,

J__

[-Queue-]

If [Position(

[J__]

Queue,

Thanks. I was going to ask 'why' the carriage returns, but looked up WindowNames and saw it's specified. Very cool... really cool.

I also looked at select window - great way to bring the window to the foreground.

is there any way to detect if a record has been changed? i'd like to pop this up in response to it?

I know I could use auto save of forms, but I'd like to perform my own validation.. hope that makes sense.

thanks again,

sincerely,

J__

[Vaughan]

The purpose of the carriage returns is to force matches on whole window names, not partial.

You want to distinguish between a window named "People" and "People's Details" and "Other People's Details".

[MoonShadow]

I've been using:

If [ PatternCount (WindowNames; "YourWindowName") ]

Select Window [Name: YourWindowName ]

Exit Script

End If

New Window [Name: YourWindowName ...

... which produces true if the window is already open. Can I get your comparison between the two, JT? Efficiency? Potential problems? It seems much easier to remember and to write.

[-Queue-]

Somehow my carriage returns disappeared from the text portion. It should have read

If [Position(

[J__]

thanks guys.

i did have this follow up question maybe someone could answer??

is there any way to detect if a record has been changed? i'd like to pop this up in response to it? I know I could use auto save of forms, but I'd like to perform my own validation.. hope that makes sense.

thanks,

J__

[-Queue-]

Do you mean changed since the last login, changed today, or something else?

[J__]

Queue:

thanks for the response.

Sorry I wasn't clear there.

When I set validation in my Field definitions, sometimes validation occurs while my user is in another field. For example, my user is in the Name field and the Date Due validation kicks off and says "you don't have a Date entered"

My approach around this was to put my validations for all fields in a script, which is triggered when they click the 'Save' Button. Well, there was a request just be able to go to another layout - like maybe picking a layout from the list and then if some fields weren't entered right, then popup a validation dialog, otherwsie just save the record quietly and go the next view.

so, i'm looking for a way to know when you leave a layout whether the record has changed - if it has, then call validate routine, otherwise, just let them go to the next layout.

hope that makes a little more sense,

thanks,

sincerely,

J__