Portal Flash

[Dr. Evil]

Can portal flash be prevented when flipping from record to record?

I have built a self relation portal that I'm calling overview. This relationship basically displays any records without a close date, also has some on the fly portal filters such as status, lead artist, etc...

The filters are global, records displayed in the overview portal are the same for ea. record. So when you flip from one record to the next, there is no reason for the portal to check it's self.

But currently when you flip to next record, the portal clears it's self, then re populates the records, so this creates an annoying flash!

Is there no solution to this? Please help. THANK YOU!

[bruceR]

Part of the answer is that, even without making the flash go away, there are things you can do with matching fill colors, etc, that will make the flash less apparent.

[LaRetta]

Are you still on vs. 9?

There are many techniques which will help. Here are a few which seem to work x-plat:

1) Your fields shouldn't be transparent.

2) Stacking order is important on how much flash is produced. Use Arrange to send portal to the back.

3) Keep aggregate fields to a minimum.

4) Make sure nothing is touching the portal borders (inside and out).

5) Portal line width makes a difference - use hairline.

Search here for 'flash arrest' and 'eliminating the flash effect' for long discussions about it. Most items discussed hold true today although some issues have been diminished on some platforms and new flash issues have been introduced since vs. 9. In addition, Refesh Window [Flush Cached join results ] produces flash as well as conditional formatting at times.

[Dr. Evil]

Thank you for the tips.

I think I used the wrong terminology. I'm not getting the "flash" of white or anything like that. It is all the data for records disappears for a second and then reappears.

Just to test, I made a simple script to nav. from record to record that simply freezes window, this worked to stop the disappear/reappear of data. But this will NOT work for my solution as I have chose to use the FMP native status bar for navigation and cannot travel via script.

I am using FMP 10.

The only solution I can think of is to create a floating window that display Overview. But I don't like the idea of multi. windows.

This portal data reload is just really annoying.

[LaRetta]

Try selecting the portal and Arrange > Send To Back. Also, are you using conditional formatting on that portal? On the portal - is its table on a different server? Is it ESS? Are there many aggregates being displayed within the portal?

If it is redrawing every row then something is wrong. Are you sure the fields within the portal are based upon the same relationship as the portal? How many records are we talking about? It would help to see your file.

[RodSierra]

Also check sorting, about the only thing that has not been mentioned. Could be sorting to a different related record if you copied the portal.

[Dr. Evil]

I have pulled a demo from the main file for review, file includes some notes. Let me know if you have any issues viewing.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

The portal re-draw is annoying enough for me to once again ditch the native FMP status area. So sad considering FMP 11 now has an AWESOME search tool!

portal_nav_redraw_demo.fp7.zip