Copyright © TIBCO Software Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright © TIBCO Software Inc. All Rights Reserved


Chapter 8 Tips and Tricks : Recommendations for Forms Modeling

Recommendations for Forms Modeling
The following recommendations generally give the best results when modeling large and complex forms. Procedures are presented in the order they would normally be performed.
Group Related Controls Together in Vertical Panes
When a form is first generated, it contains one large pane with all the controls for the selected user task parameters.
In addition, the form contains a message pane (for error messages) and a navigation pane (for the Cancel, Close, and Submit buttons). These objects are created with default settings that do not normally need to be modified.
Begin by organizing large areas. Don’t worry initially about configuring individual panes and controls. Concentrate on putting controls into panes with other, related controls. The positioning of the panes can best be done after this step is accomplished.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Use the Visibility Property to Simplify User Experience
If you expect to have a number of controls that are irrelevant to certain users or not applicable in certain situations, group these fields together in a vertical pane. You can set the visibility property of this pane to false conditionally. The condition could be determined by another control. For example, a pane containing a set of controls for previous order information could be made visible or invisible depending on the runtime value of a radio control.
If “Ongoing Customer” is selected, the pane labeled Previous Orders, and all of its controls, would be visible, but that pane would be invisible if “New Customer” were selected.
Configure the Pane Type Property (optional)
If desired, change vertical panes to horizontal or tabbed panes by configuring the Pane Type property on the General tab of the pane’s Properties View.
Modify Excessively Long Forms
An extremely long form requires unwanted scrolling to be viewed or filled in and adversely affects the user’s experience. To minimize the length of a form:
1.
a.
b.
c.
You can create, for instance, two columns out of four modules by first creating two horizontal panes, one above the other, and placing two vertical panes inside each of them. Your controls would be place within the four vertical panes.
In this way, the default tab sequence will be left-to-right, and then top-to-bottom, the way you read a book, which is the tabbing behavior expected by most users.
2.
Expand Narrow Panes to Avoid Wrong Placement at Run Time
When there are two or more narrow root-level panes with a combined fixed width that is less than the available space into they are rendered, at runtime such panes may be rendered next to each other instead of on top of each other.
To avoid improper pane placement in this case, you can do one of the following:
Set the overflow attribute for the panes to expand, so that the panes expand and fill the available space.
Create Tabbed Panes
Use tabbed panes only when there is information that is seldom used. Because they are partially hidden and can be hard to find, user interface specialists often recommend that they be avoided or used cautiously.
Add a Tab to an Existing Tabbed Pane
If you want to add a tab to an existing tabbed pane, click the button for adding a new child pane. This button is circled in the diagram below:
 
Additional Recommendations
Better advice is to leave the panes to size themselves automatically. Only set an explicit size if there is a compelling reason to do so.

Copyright © TIBCO Software Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright © TIBCO Software Inc. All Rights Reserved