Re: Simple backend UI enhancement proposition

Posted by flj on Jan 22, 2007; 12:20pm
URL: http://ofbiz.116.s1.nabble.com/Simple-backend-UI-enhancement-proposition-tp143920p143936.html

Hello.

Not in ofbiz, but in some Domino-backed web frontend we use tabs without  
Ajax and without any overload for the server. I don't rea''y know what I'm  
talking about, but I suppose it should be easy to add tabs in ofbiz based  
on a similar mechanism.

Just enclose what needs to be placed on one tab in a <div></div>, then add  
some simple JS and some hotspots which show/hide only one of the divs  
(i.e. tabs) at a time. This way, the rendering and the functionality  
associated to whatever other form elements are there is not affected, and  
you don't need Ajax to re-render/re-fill/re-compute/re-whatever fields on  
tab changes.

Tooltips: maybe use the browser's status bar?

br,

--
Florin Jurcovici
------------------
Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?

On Mon, 22 Jan 2007 13:41:50 +0200, Jacques Le Roux  
<[hidden email]> wrote:

> Ok, it seems that it's not the great idea that everybody was waiting for  
> ;o)
>
> Though we may keep 2 ideas from this thread :
>
> Using tabs to hide unnecessary complexity and break overload of  
> information in some screens. Is it desirable/possible to create a
> tabs artifact in form widget ? Else I guess we have to use Ajax, but is  
> that desirable in backend ?
>
> Using tooltips to better explain non obvious fields. By real tooltips I  
> mean using the html title attribute. This is already done
> for explaining format of date fields for instance and IMO should be  
> generalized for non obvious fields. It's easily done, don't
> clutter the UI but can't be used for option tag (title attribute is  
> accepted but browser do not render it).  Anyway in this case the
> widgets take care of the problem by adding a plain text after the select  
> field.
>
> Jacques
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David E. Jones" <[hidden email]>
> To: <[hidden email]>
> Cc: "Tom Anderson" <[hidden email]>; "Ian McNulty"  
> <[hidden email]>
> Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 8:53 AM
> Subject: Re: Simple backend UI enhancement proposition
>
>
>>
>> On Jan 22, 2007, at 12:03 AM, Jonathon -- Improov wrote:
>>
>> > > It could be very useful for new users to have a help icon link
>> > next to
>> > > each field or for each form with a full explanation of each field
>> > and
>> > > examples.
>> >
>> > THAT is what I've been pushing for too! Anyway, I'm also happy that
>> > the OFBiz community is focusing more time on improving/debugging
>> > OFBiz (and neglecting docs aspect).
>> >
>> > But your suggestion won't even see light of day, at least not until
>> > someone DOES do a proper comprehensive doc of OFBiz (ERP aspect,
>> > not framework). As it is now, I often ask questions about OFBiz-ERP
>> > that even veterans don't know how to answer offhand (what with
>> > 600,000++ lines of codes and 700+ database tables!).
>>
>> There is a lot of work to be done here, and lot left to do, but it
>> _has_ already been started and there is a pretty good bit of
>> information that mostly needs to be restructured but of course could
>> also use some editing and fleshing out. Check out these links:
>>
>> http://docs.ofbiz.org/x/Bw
>> http://docs.ofbiz.org/x/Y
>> http://docs.ofbiz.org/x/5gI
>>
>> Once there are more fleshed out and structured it will be easy to add
>> links to them in the applications.
>>
>> -David
>>
>>
>