Pseudo List View on Tabbed layout

[Mandu]

Hi,

I'd appreciate some advice on how much effort to expend trying to fake a List view using a portal. Perhaps this topic belongs in Portals forum, but the only reason I'm trying to use a portal in this manner is that a tabbed layout doesn't accomodate multiple View types, and other tabs require Form view.

The app (I mean, solution) is a simple Contacts db. Two tabs are Edit and Add, for working with an individual contact. Another tab is Find, for searching for contacts. And the last tab is List, which shows a "list" of summary lines for each record in the found set. You click on a summary line and auto-navigate to the Edit tab.

I want the niceties that are so easy in List view: column headers that double as sort buttons, mainly. And I want performance. Using a portal and a self-join relationship based on a multi-key formed from the primary keys of records in the found set is proving to be a MAJOR headache for this novice. Sorting a portal according to different criteria is tough; maintaining synchronicity between the actual found set and the multi-keyed global that defines what shows up in the portal is also a concern, returning to the List view is always slow (I guess because the self-join is being recomputed?), and sometimes clicking on a row to edit it results in a Go To Related Record that puts up a barber pole that rotates endlessly.

The only alternative I know is to use a real List view and a different layout, and do some graphic fakery to make it look like just another tab.

I know that I'm misusing the original intent of tabbed layouts by trying to combine views like this, but I'm sure many have tried. Should I persevere, or just bite the bullet and use a real List view?

Thanks,

Chap

[John Mark Osborne]

Maybe some day the Tab Control feature will support list view. Until then, I always uses the old-fashioned method for creating tabs with multiple layouts. It gives you advantages of being able to run scripts on the tabs, use custom graphics, create a real list view and display a variety of tables under different tabs without using a relationship.

[Mandu]

Those are good advantages!

I'm sold. Thanks.

[gradiva]

I came into the forum today with the same question. What a headache!

The next question is, assuming I decide to go with the 'old fashioned' multiple-layout system, is there a way to still use the tabs for the rest of the layouts, and just create ONE extra layout? (ie, can I set a script on the single tab that needs to go to the list view?).

thanks~!

[Ward]

I had the same need when tabs first appeared in FMP 8.

See this thread about using real FMP tabs to switch between form and list layouts:

Tab Control with Form & List layouts