DISPLAY LAYOUT - LEFT MENU FROM VP........

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hpl123
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Re: DISPLAY LAYOUT - LEFT MENU FROM VP........

Post by hpl123 »

ACDC wrote: Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:45 am
f you want a real nice design etc. I can help doing something like what you see here: https://www.awareim.com/forum/viewtopic ... 238#p47238 and also the latest SaaS app I did (this is a bigger project though and involves integrating a HTML admin template into AwareIM):
Thanks for the offer. One of the things that concerns me, a non standard menu with custom html and JS doesnt play nicely within the Aware setup, like directing output to New Tab or designated panels. In the past i have wasted many hours on trying this route and failed. Over the years I have learnt to keep things simple and stay within constraints of the configurator and its features.

Here is a perfect example of what I am looking to do with DISPLAY LAYOUT LEFT... .etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES8vJcUqE7s

From a custom JS and Html perspective, would you be able to implement this code with extra embedding of the target output
The example comes with downloadable code required to make it happen
You are right, going the custom menu (etc.) route has its challenges and requires doing some things differently. I banged my head against the wall for years trying to work within the constraints of Aware (don't get me wrong, Aware out of the box is great and sufficient for most developers) and trying to create a great UI/UX but I realised that, if you want really good UI/UX and/or more control over UI/UX, you have to work and design in Aware in a certain way. I have found a way / process of doing that and is what I do for all my apps and also for other developers I help with a complete overhaul of UI/UX. I would say the results speak for themselves (if you look at the showcase) and I gladly work a bit differently to get my apps looking like that.

When it comes to the video you posted, I only looked at the actual menu i.e the 3 "modes" of the menu (collapsed with icons, collapsed with icons and hoover menu, expanded with text/icons) and this is EXACTLY the type of menu I have in the Fokalpoint app you see in the showcase images i.e it is possible to do this type of menu in Aware. The fact that it's possible doesn't make it easy though and the "problem" with a menu like that in Aware is that you have to change the width (and other CSS) of both the menu (left frame) and the main frame (and same goes for all panels in the main frame i.e if their width don't adapt to the width change of the parent main frame automatically, you have to do it programmatically i.e via JS and same thing if you need to refresh a panel due to a new width that makes some queries look no good etc. you have to do it programmatically). As you can see, doing this can easily turn into a can of worms lol and this ties to the certain way of doing things explained above, to get a menu like that working in Aware you have to design the app in a certain way. To give you an idea/example of what I mean by designing in a certain way, for me to get a menu like that working in the Fokalpoint app, I had to put the menu (HTML etc.) in the main frame together with the rest of the panels in the main frame i.e I didn't even use the left frame.

When it comes to directing output, tabs etc., this, for me, again relates a bit to the designing/working differently part I explained above. Yes, this becomes more of a problem but I THINK Awaresoft has provided the custom JS functions for most if not all of this i.e it should be possible via JS to do all of that i.e open in new tab, directing output to panel x etc. and if not, Vlad can most likely share this code (for a fee) as the code is already written and used by Aware. I usually don't do tabs any more and if I do, I do a custom tab solution i.e I don't use the Aware tabs (difficult to explain why but has to do with the way I design the app). Directing output to panels same thing, I do custom things here as well.

As you can see, I do most things in the certain custom way today and again I got to this point banging my head against the constraints of Aware for a lot of years. If you or other developers, now or in the future, are interested in hearing more or talking to me about a UI/UX overhaul of your app, let me know.
Henrik (V8 Developer Ed. - Windows)
hpl123
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Re: DISPLAY LAYOUT - LEFT MENU FROM VP........

Post by hpl123 »

Btw, I didn't mean to change the actual topic / feature request discussion here i.e the proposed DISPLAY LAYOUT addons. Again, I think new additions to this functionality would be great and it would be interesting to hear Vlads/Awaresofts thoughts.
Henrik (V8 Developer Ed. - Windows)
ACDC
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Re: DISPLAY LAYOUT - LEFT MENU FROM VP........

Post by ACDC »

hpl123 wrote: Sat Jan 28, 2023 1:54 pm Btw, I didn't mean to change the actual topic / feature request discussion here i.e the proposed DISPLAY LAYOUT addons. Again, I think new additions to this functionality would be great and it would be interesting to hear Vlads/Awaresofts thoughts.
no problem , your responses are always very detailed, informative and interesting, thank you
aware_support
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Re: DISPLAY LAYOUT - LEFT MENU FROM VP........

Post by aware_support »

At the moment there is no intention to support something like DISPLAY LEFT MENU.

As I can see there are several reasons why you would like to change menu dynamically:
1) To save real estate
2) Some menu items need to be hidden/shown dynamically
3) You don't like look and feel of default menus.

I think functionality exists to more or less handle all three:
1) Kendo UI drawer widget is, in fact, used in Aware IM. Take a look at the Mobile perspective in the CRM sample application (Slide-In left frame and right frame commands defined in the top bar).
The same idea can be used in any desktop application as well.
2) It is easy to turn items on/off using a Javascript (the actual script depends on the type of the menu used). Invoking this script can be performed in a process if need be, using the EXEC_SCRIPT action.
(we can probably publish the required JS if you tell us what menu type you are using)
3) It is quite easy to support custom HTML menu (take a look at the Library sample application - Member perspective). All required JS functions to start processes, run queries etc are available.
Aware IM Support Team
customaware
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Re: DISPLAY LAYOUT - LEFT MENU FROM VP........

Post by customaware »

Not sure if we are talking about the same thing but demonstrated The Perfect Menu at the last conference which might be of some help.

Send me a PM if you are interested to have a look.
Cheers,
Mark
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hpl123
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Re: DISPLAY LAYOUT - LEFT MENU FROM VP........

Post by hpl123 »

eagles9999 wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 1:27 pm Not sure if we are talking about the same thing but demonstrated The Perfect Menu at the last conference which might be of some help.

Send me a PM if you are interested to have a look.
I didn´t attend the last conference so haven´t heard about this, can you share some about it here in the forum instead?
Henrik (V8 Developer Ed. - Windows)
ACDC
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Re: DISPLAY LAYOUT - LEFT MENU FROM VP........

Post by ACDC »

aware_support wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 7:24 am
The same idea can be used in any desktop application as well.
2) It is easy to turn items on/off using a Javascript (the actual script depends on the type of the menu used). Invoking this script can be performed in a process if need be, using the EXEC_SCRIPT action.
(we can probably publish the required JS if you tell us what menu type you are using)
Yes, please can you publish the required JS for the Standard Menu :D
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