Comments on: Flex MXML Sample 3: Conditional dynamic UI elements http://www.waldosmeets.com/2004/07/20/546/ Sales Engineer from Adobe Benelux on Rich Internet Applications, Web 2.0 and Adobe Flex in the Benelux. Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:59:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7-RC1 hourly 1 By: Allen Manning http://www.waldosmeets.com/2004/07/20/546/comment-page-1/#comment-270 Allen Manning Thu, 26 Aug 2004 10:16:43 +0000 #comment-270 Oh I see. You have an 'uber-form' for lack of a better term that has all form items, and then you dynamicly configure it based on the user. Form personalisation it seems. Yes it makes good sense. Good food for thought! Best, Allen Oh I see. You have an ‘uber-form’ for lack of a better term that has all form items, and then you dynamicly configure it based on the user. Form personalisation it seems.

Yes it makes good sense. Good food for thought!

Best,
Allen

]]> By: Vinny Timmermans http://www.waldosmeets.com/2004/07/20/546/comment-page-1/#comment-269 Vinny Timmermans Wed, 25 Aug 2004 21:09:54 +0000 #comment-269 What I am doing is showing ALL the items in the form. So ALL users who are authorized to INSERTor UPDATE data will see ALL the fields and can fill them. Those users who are only authorized to VIEW data will see only the non-empty fields. Now the benefits. 1. Higher usability. How often do we let our eyes scan the screen only to find empty fields. Just take a look at your contacts application in Outlook and you know what I mean. This is tiring for users. If there are only six fields that contain data. The user will see only six fields. Not six useful fields and a lot useless fields. 2. One datamodel/multiple presentations without any additional coding. For example I have designed a CRM system that contains account profiles. An account profile consists of more than 40 general elements that are not useful for each and every account. When you use dynamic detail pages, it gives people the impression each account profile is not a general profile but a profile specifically created for this account. You can do this with OO as well, but in some situations it is not as flexible and pure overkill. 3. Open book management. This is a management practice introduced some years ago. The basics are to provide your employees with all the information they need. Be open. Show them your books. Most companies embracing this management practice introduce this system gradually. Dynamic details pages provide you with a good way to do so. Implement the final, most open information model, but let contentmanagers responsible for inserting and updating the information gradually fill more fields. So employees get more information over time without any additional coding or maintenance required. The perfect model has been implemented from the start. Make sense? Vinny What I am doing is showing ALL the items in the form. So ALL users who are authorized to INSERTor UPDATE data will see ALL the fields and can fill them. Those users who are only authorized to VIEW data will see only the non-empty fields. Now the benefits.
1. Higher usability. How often do we let our eyes scan the screen only to find empty fields. Just take a look at your contacts application in Outlook and you know what I mean. This is tiring for users. If there are only six fields that contain data. The user will see only six fields. Not six useful fields and a lot useless fields.
2. One datamodel/multiple presentations without any additional coding. For example I have designed a CRM system that contains account profiles. An account profile consists of more than 40 general elements that are not useful for each and every account. When you use dynamic detail pages, it gives people the impression each account profile is not a general profile but a profile specifically created for this account. You can do this with OO as well, but in some situations it is not as flexible and pure overkill.
3. Open book management. This is a management practice introduced some years ago. The basics are to provide your employees with all the information they need. Be open. Show them your books. Most companies embracing this management practice introduce this system gradually. Dynamic details pages provide you with a good way to do so. Implement the final, most open information model, but let contentmanagers responsible for inserting and updating the information gradually fill more fields. So employees get more information over time without any additional coding or maintenance required. The perfect model has been implemented from the start.

Make sense?

Vinny

]]> By: Waldo Smeets http://www.waldosmeets.com/2004/07/20/546/comment-page-1/#comment-268 Waldo Smeets Wed, 25 Aug 2004 15:46:57 +0000 #comment-268 Allen, the way I read Vinny his post is that he is hiding form items BEFORE the user enters the form. This means that a user only sees the fields that are relevant to him (instead of 'if you selected A in the previous question, fill in the textarea below') etc etc. Allen, the way I read Vinny his post is that he is hiding form items BEFORE the user enters the form. This means that a user only sees the fields that are relevant to him (instead of ‘if you selected A in the previous question, fill in the textarea below’) etc etc.

]]> By: Allen Manning http://www.waldosmeets.com/2004/07/20/546/comment-page-1/#comment-267 Allen Manning Wed, 25 Aug 2004 14:45:53 +0000 #comment-267 Vinny, Are you sure that conditonally hiding the form elements that didn't get filled in is more usable? Shouldn't there be a visual inidcation of what isn't filled in, rather than nothing at all. Best, Allen Vinny,

Are you sure that conditonally hiding the form elements that didn’t get filled in is more usable? Shouldn’t there be a visual inidcation of what isn’t filled in, rather than nothing at all.

Best,
Allen

]]> By: Waldo Smeets http://www.waldosmeets.com/2004/07/20/546/comment-page-1/#comment-263 Waldo Smeets Tue, 17 Aug 2004 09:11:05 +0000 #comment-263 Hi Marco, thanks for the note! I was not aware of it. I've fixed the link now so you should be fine to download the ZIP. Have fun with it :) Hi Marco, thanks for the note! I was not aware of it. I’ve fixed the link now so you should be fine to download the ZIP. Have fun with it :)

]]> By: Vinny Timmermans http://www.waldosmeets.com/2004/07/20/546/comment-page-1/#comment-228 Vinny Timmermans Wed, 04 Aug 2004 08:23:56 +0000 #comment-228 Good work. I have implemented the same idea in the system (MS technologies) I have shown you recently. It will become really powerfull when you go one step further: dynamic detail pages. This allows you to set up an ideal information model and let the detailspage vary according to the information provided by the user. For example: a CRM system. Suppose you have created a comprehensive information model which defines every aspect of a customer. Because this model will not apply to every customer, some items will stay blank when the form is filled. By dynamically generating the detailspage and showing only those fields that were filled, The information shown on the detailspage is different for each and every customer. It increases the usability of your application (no blank fields anymore on the detailspage) and it makes it far more effective ans usefull. I have used this concept on a range of projects for different purposes. It has become one of those elements I use for every application I design. Good to see a Flex implementation. Good work. I have implemented the same idea in the system (MS technologies) I have shown you recently. It will become really powerfull when you go one step further: dynamic detail pages. This allows you to set up an ideal information model and let the detailspage vary according to the information provided by the user. For example: a CRM system. Suppose you have created a comprehensive information model which defines every aspect of a customer. Because this model will not apply to every customer, some items will stay blank when the form is filled. By dynamically generating the detailspage and showing only those fields that were filled, The information shown on the detailspage is different for each and every customer. It increases the usability of your application (no blank fields anymore on the detailspage) and it makes it far more effective ans usefull. I have used this concept on a range of projects for different purposes. It has become one of those elements I use for every application I design. Good to see a Flex implementation.

]]> By: Waldo Smeets http://www.waldosmeets.com/2004/07/20/546/comment-page-1/#comment-210 Waldo Smeets Wed, 21 Jul 2004 20:21:34 +0000 #comment-210 Hi Marco, thanks for the note! I was not aware of it. I've fixed the link now so you should be fine to download the ZIP. Have fun with it :) Hi Marco, thanks for the note! I was not aware of it. I’ve fixed the link now so you should be fine to download the ZIP. Have fun with it :)

]]> By: Marco Casario http://www.waldosmeets.com/2004/07/20/546/comment-page-1/#comment-209 Marco Casario Wed, 21 Jul 2004 19:59:37 +0000 #comment-209 Hi Waldo, very cool stuff..i was very enthusiastic to test your code, but i was not able to download the zip. Could you checl if it's all ok ? thanks a lot, Hi Waldo,
very cool stuff..i was very enthusiastic to test your code, but i was not able to download the zip.
Could you checl if it’s all ok ?
thanks a lot,

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