Feature request: a!sectionLink

Peter Lewis any thoughts about it? 

It's an interesting thought - do you think this is something that is more common because of the release of Portals? I say this because most of the time I see this kind of paradigm, it's on a read-only page, and historically forms are much more common that read-only pages within Appian. Or is there an example you're thinking of with a long form where you'd rather have this navigation paradigm than a wizard?

One example I could see using this is for Record Summary interfaces.  Often there, I'll have one longer read-only page of all data entered in the request, approval history, related employee information, etc.  Sort of the single place for all with access to review anything and everything that occurred with the request, which can get long.  As we don't want to 'wizard' them through a review, only scroll, to be able to create sort of a table of contents with bookmarks/anchor links at the top would be nifty. 

On a related note, this reminds me of a feature request (that I'm not sure has been submitted?), where we could dynamically collapse/open section layouts on an interface.  It is not possible now, but could solve a similar use case in a different way, with dynamic links that open/close sections on the form below.  Would also be nice!  Then we could avoid the scroll, scroll, collapse, scroll, scroll, collapse, scroll, finally arrive at your section.

a!localVariables(
  local!sectionCollapsed: false,

  {
    a!linkField(
      links: a!dynamicLink(
        label: concat(if(local!sectionCollapsed,"Show","Hide")," the section below"),
        value: not(local!sectionCollapsed),
        saveInto: local!sectionCollapsed
      )
    ),
    a!sectionLayout(
      label: "This is a Section",
      isCollapsible: true,
      isInitiallyCollapsed: local!sectionCollapsed /* Does not work dynamically :( */
    )
  }
)

One example I could see using this is for Record Summary interfaces.  Often there, I'll have one longer read-only page of all data entered in the request, approval history, related employee information, etc.  Sort of the single place for all with access to review anything and everything that occurred with the request, which can get long.  As we don't want to 'wizard' them through a review, only scroll, to be able to create sort of a table of contents with bookmarks/anchor links at the top would be nifty. 

On a related note, this reminds me of a feature request (that I'm not sure has been submitted?), where we could dynamically collapse/open section layouts on an interface.  It is not possible now, but could solve a similar use case in a different way, with dynamic links that open/close sections on the form below.  Would also be nice!  Then we could avoid the scroll, scroll, collapse, scroll, scroll, collapse, scroll, finally arrive at your section.

a!localVariables(
  local!sectionCollapsed: false,

  {
    a!linkField(
      links: a!dynamicLink(
        label: concat(if(local!sectionCollapsed,"Show","Hide")," the section below"),
        value: not(local!sectionCollapsed),
        saveInto: local!sectionCollapsed
      )
    ),
    a!sectionLayout(
      label: "This is a Section",
      isCollapsible: true,
      isInitiallyCollapsed: local!sectionCollapsed /* Does not work dynamically :( */
    )
  }
)

Chris said:

where we could dynamically collapse/open section layouts on an interface

I've had times where I really want this too.  The way I'd phrase it is, section layouts should be given a way to have their "collapsed state" controlled from externally (and, preferably, a way to save their current collapsedness status for external monitoring as well).  Picture, perhaps, a parameter called "isCollapsed" which can read/write into a local variable (etc), and would both cause the section's collapsedness to change if it's changed externally, and change the value of the variable it targets (when applicable) when collapsed/uncollapsed internally.

Yes good point that the section would need something like a "saveInto" for it's collapsed status as well.  Also would need to apply to Box Layouts, which I use much more often than the Section Layouts actually.

..But not to hijack the thread with the collapsibility feature request.  Probably should have its own thread on that

Makes sense, but it almost sounds like some kind of table of contents view would meet both cases. I can submit product use cases internally for both improved navigation for large pages and for the expandable / collapsible boxes.

Peter Lewis said:

almost sounds like some kind of table of contents view would meet both cases

I think the main requested item here, i.e. a new type of link which references/focuses an on-form section (or preferably any component if possible) has quite a bit broader of a potential use case set than just a TOC (that is, if i'm understanding you right).

Alright sorry for the delay all, but we have two product use cases to track these:

• #401 - Allow sections and boxes to be collapsed automatically using business logic
• #5230 - Provide an easy way to scroll to the relevant part of the screen

Peter Lewis said:

Alright sorry for the delay all, but we have two product use cases to track these:

• #401 - Allow sections and boxes to be collapsed automatically using business logic
• #5230 - Provide an easy way to scroll to the relevant part of the screen

Awesome!