- Introduction to WorkXpress
- Building Your Application
- Examples and Best Practices
- Technical Manual
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Layouts serve the function of organizing Fields. They may commonly be thought of as windows, displays, or, more generally, as a type of interface.
Most human interaction with a business software application to view, edit, or add data occurs through a familiar set of interface styles utilized by most software vendors. For example, people work with form fields, lists, calendars, trees, etc. Similarly, people navigate to different pages using tabs, select choosers, and links. WorkXpress uses Layouts to provide these common interface and navigation capabilities to application builders. Non-traditional navigational functionality may also be achieved.
Layouts are always placed on a page (which is itself merely a Layout Type), and can be placed inside another Layout. Fields are always placed inside of a Layout and give the Layout its usefulness.
Layouts always appear in one and only one location. Layouts are not reused (post here, however, if you feel this feature is important!)
“Layouts” refers to one of the five fundamental Building Blocks. “Layout Type” refers to a specific style of Layout, for example “List”, “Calendar”, “Tab”, “Page” Layout“ refers to a specific Layout Type that was placed somewhere on a page, or inside of a Layout - Parent, and is now a part of the application.
“Creating a Layout” refers to the act of adding a Layout of some Type into an application.
There is only one way to create a non-page Layout: Using the Block Creator tool's Create tab, drag a Layout Type onto a page. There are two ways to create a Layout Type - Page; through the “Action Type - Layout - Open a Page” action, or from within an “Add Page Wizard” (see Application Workspace, or see Layout Type - Page).
Wizard Questions vary by Layout Type. Please see the individual Layout Types for details.
Automations vary by Layout Type. Please see the individual Layout Types for details.
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A Layout is always associated with an Item Type. For example, a Layout may be “associated with” the Contacts Item Type. A Layout not otherwise about anything else will always, by default, be associated with the “Application” Item Type. For example, in a brand new Project, the “Starting Page” is associated with the “Application” Item Type.
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Context is critically important for the proper functioning of most Layouts. However, WorkXpress is usually able to discern the context for a new Layout based on the context of the parent Layout it is being placed into and assigns context automatically.
Some Layouts are inherently intended to alter context. Lists are good examples; a page about an Account needs a list of Employees. Therefore, the Layout Type - List uses the context it is given (Account) but defines a new context for how it is populated.
Some Layouts may not require context. For example, a Layout Type - List intended to search all Accounts can be placed on any page, in any context, because it completely severs that context in order to display the list of all Accounts.
The builder has complete flexibility to alter context for any Layout.
Certain aspects of Layout Types remain common between them. For example, any Layout has a “header”, although it may not be displayed to the user. Headers are largely similar between Layout Types, and may include an icon, a title, a collapse/expand button, an area for dropping Field Type - Links, and a background. Layouts have an outside boundary that inclues their header and their body.
Beneath the header area, and within the oustide boundary, most Layout Types are very different. These differences are described separately for each Layout Type.
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Often referred to as “Behaviors”. A Layout may operate in one or more of three possible modes. However, the Layout mode exists primarily to instruct each Field as to the mode/behavior it is expected or allowed to take:
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Layouts have sophisticated capabilities for security. By default, a Layout will inherit the behavior (or “mode”) of its parent, and therefore the behavioral security settings of its parent. In this case, it will not have its own independent behavior controls but instead will change behavior according to the first parent that does have indpendent behavior controls.
Independent behavior controls can be enabled for any Layout Type that is allowed behavior. In this case, the builder has the capabiltity of using the Query Builder to define or point to Items and assign allowed behaviors to those Items. Typically, the Items pointed to would be users or groups, although that is not a requirement; it is merely an artifact of common concepts of application “security”.
Additionally, Layout Type - Lists, or any layout with traversal controls activated, may control the Items that Layout is able to display. This is commonly referred to as Item security. In the case of lists, this control is exercised in the “list of” setting, by launching the Query Builder and restricting the Items displayed in the list according to an “evaluated filter” (see Query Builder, “filtering”). For Item Security on Layouts with traversal controls, this control is exercised on the “About Me” settings tab, by restricting the context provided to the Layout, also using an “evaluated filter”.
Traversal controls are not yet implemented for all Layout Types. (complain loudly!)
In practical business applications, there are myriad possibilities for desired page behavior when it has been saved. Some examples include:
In WorkXpress, anything the “computer does for you automatically” is an Action, one of the 5 fundamental Building Blocks. WorkXpress handles a practically limitless combination of possible “Save and…” automations.
WorkXpress allows the builder to create different “Save and…” choices for any Layout (see Layout Settings: Save and Add Behavior Tab) to present to the user, each of which may initiate a separate chain of Actions. In the Action Manager, one simply creates an evaluation that checks for the “Save and…” choice to have been made by the user, and if it has, one then sets up the Action chain of events required. A string of evaluations can check for a range of “Save and” choices and provide a range of ensuing Actions accordingly.
All Layout Settings are accessed from the Block Editor. For any Layout, this Tool is accessed in context by navigating to the Layout in question and clicking on the blue Layouts cube on the left side of that Layout. Layouts have two classes of settings: common settings and Layout Type Specific settings. All Layout settings are local, because at the present time, Layouts are not reused (discuss).
Most Layout Types share the following common tabs:
Some of the most interesting settings are specific to the type of Layout that they are associated with:
