Learn WorkXpress
WorkXpress Link - Image Only Field
| This WorkXpress Link type appears as just an image. Upload any image you desire. WorkXpress Link Fields enable automation and navigation within WorkXpress (use a Hyperlink Field to launch a webpage outside of WorkXpress). Any combination of automation (Actions) and navigation (Page Layouts) is possible. Navigation can be either inline or in a popup. Automation options include the full capabilties of the Actions Manager. Through manipulating Context you can cause the pages you launch to display any sort of information you require. |
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Modes
Show Technical DetailsThe WorkXpress Link Field always looks and acts the same, regardless of the mode its Layout is in.
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Appearance in Layouts
Show Technical Details
Appearance in a Field GridCustomize the space your Field occupies using different sets of configuration options depending on which kind of Layout the Field appears in.
Customize the space your Field occupies in a Field Grid Layout. A Field Grid Layout is like a table with columns and rows. A Field can occupy more than one column and/or more than one row. This gives you the flexibility to arrange Fields in a grid as needed.
Settings:
- Column Span - Set the number of columns across which you'd like the Field to span in your Field Grid. By default, a Field Grid Layout has two columns, and a Field spans one of them, thereby taking up 1/2 the width of the page.
- Row Span - Set the number of rows across which you'd like the Field to span in your Field Grid. By default, Fields are set to span a single row.
Hints:
- "Columns" go across, and "Rows" go down.
- By default, Fields always occupy 1 column and 1 row. A Field Grid Layout by default is set to 2 columns wide, and will create as many rows as needed for the number of Fields it contains.
- You will commonly set "long text" fields to occupy 2 columns in a 2 column Field Grid Layout, so that it spans the full width of the page.
- Spans "move" with your Field, so if you drag and drop it to a different part of the Field Grid, it will retain the row and column spans entered here and apply them in the new location.
- In a typical Field Grid Layout with 2 columns, you can set a Row Span of >1 and a Column Span of 1 to get the effect of putting multiple Fields next to a single Field. For example, set the Row Span of an Address Field to 3, so that you can put 3 entire Fields next to it, creating a more efficient presentation.
Appearance in a ListCustomize the space your Field Label occupies as a column header in a List Layout. Also adjust the alignment of the data presented in each row. Adjust column size, text justfication and even sorting behavior.
Settings:
- Column Width - Enter the width of the column, in pixels, in which this Field appears in your List Layout.
- Align Header Text - Choose "Left", "Center", or "Right" from the selection box to align the Field header in your List Layout.
- Align Data (Horizontal) -Choose "Left", "Center", or "Right" from the selection box to align the data displayed under the Field header in your List Layout.
- Align Data (Vertical)* - (feature in progress)
- Default Sort - Check this box to set this Field to be the default sort Field for this List Layout. When checked, a select box will appear to the right of this setting that will allow you to choose "Ascending" or "Descending" for the sort order.
Hints:
- When thinking about pixel sizes, as a very rough rule of thumb to help you enter your first value, think of a letter as occupying 10 pixels.
- Remember, not all users have the same size screen. The WorkXpress workspace by default is set at 1024 pixels wide, but the space available to the builder is slightly less.
- By default, column widths are calculated automaticaly by your browser. When you begin fixing the widths of columns, the browser will assign that width, and then automatically calculate the remaining columns based on the remaining width available. By playing with columns widths and fixing the things that are important to you, you will arrive at a powerful combination of widths that are fixed and widths that scale based on the content of their Fields.
- Sort by a column if necessary, but generally you don't want to do it "just because". Sorting takes up processor power, and therefore consumes some performance.
- Sometimes the values in the rows of a column occupy little space, as is the case with an icon or a single letter or number. In these cases, it may be unsightly to have a long Field Label used as the column header; the columns will be very wide, but will contain narrow data. In this cases, simply use the "Field Label" feature and setup an "Alternate Field Label" to be used just for this column label.
Appearance in a TreeCustomize the space your Field occupies in a Tree Layout. Each level of the Tree is like a list column header, and gives control over column width and sorting.
Settings:
- Column Width - Enter the width of the column, in pixels, in which this Field appears in your Tree Layout.
- Default Sort - Check this box to set this Field to be the default sort Field for this Tree Layout. When checked, a select box will appear to the right of this setting that will allow you to choose "Ascending" or "Descending" for the sort order.
Hints:
- Each level of your Tree Layout is like an individual List Layout, so treat it as such!
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Field Label
Show Technical DetailsUse the default label or create a new one just for this location? Create a "global" Field Label to appear everywhere your Field does, but alternately, you can set a "local" Field Label to only appear in a specific place. The global Field Label also serves as the name of your Field throughout the tools.
Settings:
- Field Label - Choose a name for your Field and enter it here. The name will appear as the Field Label any time you use it in a Layout.
- Display Alternate Label - If you want a Field that you've labeled to have a different name for one particular appearance in a Layout, check this box and choose a different name for the Field. The "Field Label" will be replaced by the alternate label in this instance only.
Hints:
- Think of your Field Labels as "global" and "local". The Field Label itself is the global label, and will by default appear everwhere that the Field does. If you change it in one place, it will be changed in all places.
- Setting an alternate label is akin to creating a "local" label just for this location only. It will not carry over to any other location.
- The global Field Label is also used through the tools as the name for your Field. If you see your Field in a list of Fields, the name of the Field in that list will be identical to its global Field Label.
- Use the local Field Label often in lists to make its column header shorter.
- Use a local Field Label to add help text right into the label itself.
- Set the local Field Label to be empty when you don't want to display any label at all!
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Tooltip
Show Technical DetailsA Tooltip provides helpful text when your User mouses over the field label. This Tooltip feature lets you create the Help Text you want your Users to see.
Settings:
- Tooltip - Enter text to create a tooltip that will display when a user hovers his mouse over this Field's Label.
Hints:
- You can never go wrong by adding tooltips!
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WorkXpress Link Appearance
Show Technical DetailsCombine text and/or images, or use a browser-standard HTML button to give your link the proper character.
Settings:
- Link Type (required) - Choose Text Only, Image Only, Text and Image, or HTML Button. The settings available for each kind of WorkXpress Link Field will vary based on your selection here.
If WorkXpress Text Only Link Field:
- Link Text (required) - Use the Expression Builder to configure the text to display in your Link Field.
If WorkXpress Image Only Link Field:
- Link Icon (required) - Choose an icon (or other image) to display as your link.
If WorkXpress Text and Image Link Field:
- Link Text (required) - Use the Expression Builder to configure the text to display in your Link Field.
- Link Icon (required) - Choose an icon to display in your link.
- Icon
Alignment (required) - Select left or right alignment for your Link
Icon; the text will then be placed right or left, respectively.
If WorkXpress HTML Button Link:
- Link Text (required) - Use the Expression Builder to configure the text to display in your HTML button.
- Background Color - If desired, choose a background color for the HTML Button.
- Border Color - If desired, choose a border color for the HTML Button.
- Link Text (required) - Use the Expression Builder to configure the text to display in your Link Field.
Hints:
- The above Link Styles are interchangeable! Feel free to test out other possibilities, you can always change it back.
- Create easy to use interfaces using Image-only links. Use only two or three larger size image links on a page to create an obvious decision path for a novice User.
- Set a row of medium or large icons at the top of a page. Use Actions to have these "buttons" launch flyout menu's.
- A medium or large application can find uses for all of the WorkXpress Link Appearance Options. Some possibilities include:
- Using text only links for a quick launch of a page or queue.
- Using image and text links to load a "home page" for an item, where the icon is representative of the Item Type.
- Using image only links to create buttons in page headers, layout headers and list columns
- Using HTML buttons when you want a consistent look and feel with other browser based applications.
- Link Type (required) - Choose Text Only, Image Only, Text and Image, or HTML Button. The settings available for each kind of WorkXpress Link Field will vary based on your selection here.
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Block Association
Show Technical DetailsBlock Association is the tie that binds all WorkXpress Blocks to each other and enables them to work together. There are permanent, global Block Associations and temporary, local ones. First, all Blocks are permanently associated with either an Item Type or Relationship--this defines an application's structure. Second, Layouts and Fields can permanently nest inside of Layouts to create your interface. Third, Actions can permanently nest inside of Actions to create logic. Finally, at any point in time, a Layout, Field, or Action will temporarily be "about" a particular Item in the database, to give context.
Introduction:
- Block Association makes WorkXpress unique and powerful as an application development tool. It's the glue that connects all WorkXpress Blocks to each other.
- Permanent Block Associations define the application's structure.
- Temporary Block Associations give the interface and logic "context", which helps the application to interact with the database at a point in time.
Permanent (Global) Block Associations
Item Type or Relationship Type AssociationThe most basic type of all Associations, this defines your application structure. At the topmost level, an application is a group of Item Types. These Item Types may have associated Relationship Types. Collectively, all other Blocks in WorkXpress then are associated ultimately with an Item Type. Therefore, an "application" is defined as a set of Item Types and all their associated Blocks.
When searching for Blocks in the build tools, you will tend to find them by first beginning your search on a particular Item Type or Relationship Type, and viewing their associated Blocks.
This choice of Association also effects data backup and restoration.
Blocks with permanent Item Type Association only: Relationships
Blocks with permanent Item Type or Relationship Type Association: Layouts, Fields, Actions
Layout AssociationTo build an interface you must nest Layouts and Fields inside of other Layouts. This nesting generates Layout Association.
Blocks with permanent Layout Association: Layouts, Fields
Action AssociationTo build a logic model (aka business rules, scripting, etc.) you must nest Actions inside of other Actions within a procedure.
Blocks with permanent Action Assocation: Actions
Global and Local Actions
Actions may be associated with an event and block globally, or they may be associated locally. A "Global Action" exists everywhere and every time the Action's parent Block undergoes that same event. A "Local Action", however, only exists when the Action's parent block undergoes this specific event, in this context. In this case though, context refers to the context of the triggering Block within the interface, not the Item context. This is a unique kind of context.
In other words, although a Field may trigger a local Action when it is saved from within one Layout, it will not trigger that same local Action when it is saved from within a different Layout. In both cases, however, its global save Actions will be triggered from either Layout.
For example, for a certain Field, Action A is global to its "Field Save" event for all pages and Action B is local to its "Field Save" event for a specific page. Later, that same Field is added to a new page. When that new page is saved, Action A will fire, but Action B will not exist at all on that page (in that unique context).
Item Association and Context
An Action is always associated with the building block for whom it is a "local" or "global" action (see below). Placing an Action in the Action Manager will result in that Action being associated with an Item Type based on where it is placed. Actions may be associated with Layouts, Fields, Items, or Relationships.
Similarly, an Action typically requires context to function properly. That context comes from the Block for whom this Action Manager Tool was opened and may not be the same Block for which this Action is a local or global Action. Context and Item Association for an Action may be different.
Further, some Actions can change the context. For example, when a list of Items is passed into an Action Manager from a "Mass Action" button in Layout Type - List, the context is each of the Items passed. However if they pass through a "foreach" control structure, the subsequent context passed to subordinate action is that of a single one of the Items in the list, changing each time the loop is repeated.
Temporary (Local) Block Association
Temporary Item Association (Context)At any given time, what is the page you are on "about"? If the page is about a company, then the context of that page is the specific company it is displaying (e.g. "Acme Company", where Acme Company is an "Item" in the database of "Type" Company). Any Fields or Actions need to be about that specific item and not some other item (i.e. about "Acme company and not some other company), so those Fields or Actions need to be provided with this context. For a much more detailed examination of this concept, which is critical to successfully building applications with WorkXpress, please see our lesson about Context.
If the page is about a specific Item of Type: User...for example the "current user"...then perhaps it is about you? When the page displays data, it needs to display that data about you. When Actions on the page shoot off an email notifying of a change to username, it needs to shoot that email to you, not to some other User. YOU are an Item in the database of Type User, and are also the context in this second example.
Context then is the specific Item (Not Item Type) in the database which the current Layout, Field or Action is displaying data about.
Blocks with temporary Item Association: Layouts, Fields, Actions
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Configuration
Show Technical DetailsHow to Create
There are three ways to create a Field:
- Using the Block Creator Tool's Create tab to drag a Field Type onto a Layout
- Using the Block Creator Tool's Reuse tab to choose an Item Type or Relationship Type whose Field you want to reuse. Then, drag that Field onto a Layout. (note: you havn't actually created a new Field in this case, you've simply reused an existing Field. This Field could display the same or different data than elsewhere, entirely dependent upon its context).
- Using the Block Editor Tool for either an Item Type or Relationship Type. We will be adding a mechanism (2010) to add Fields to an Item Type or Relationship without having to place that Field into a Layout.
Note: Methods 1 and 2 above require the Field to be placed into a Layout. Method 3 will allow the creation of Fields that aren't nested in a Layout.
Wizard Questions
Wizard Questions vary by Field Type. Please see the individual Field Type for details.
How to Edit
All Field settings are accessed from the Block Editor Tool. There are two ways to access this Tool for a given Field;
- Navigate in context to the Field in the application, by finding its page and Layout. Click on the orange Fields Block next to the Field you wish to edit. Using this method, all Field settings will be "in context", meaning that the settings will contain values true and accurate to the point in the application you are currently at.
- In the Block Creator Tool's Reuse tab, choose the Item Type or Relationship Type with which your Field is associated, find the Field in the ensuing results list, and then click the edit wrench next to the Field. In this case, the Field may not be "in context", meaning that the settings may contain nonsensical values or, in some cases, no values at all.



