Inline Card Windows

FileMaker 16 introduced a new and very powerful feature. Its called Card Windows and they allow you to access a totally different context than what is currently being viewed.

If you're unfamiliar with what context is in FileMaker, then to put it plainly, it's the layout being viewed, its own associated table plus all related tables connected to that layout's table occurrence. It's what the current layout can "see" in terms of accessible data. Yep, that's a bit confusing if you're not super familiar with FileMaker. But, if you are, then congratulations, you should be able to see how powerful this new feature is.

The way FileMaker, Inc. has implemented Card Windows is a nice start. The Card Window is truly another window being drawn on the screen with the exception of being able to drag it around. It's a modal window which is typically presented within the parent of where it was created. In order to continue working in the user interface it must be dismissed. It's not quite like dynamic or context independent layout parts, but it's getting closer to the ultimate feature.

When you take the results you can get from a layout object's bounds ( its location and relative size ), using FileMaker's GetLayoutObjectAttribute function, you can put a few pieces together to make for a great windowing feature which allows you to draw a window wherever you want. This is enhanced by using the info supplied by a target layout object. It's a great feature for any solution where progressive disclosure is a desirable feature. Have too many elements and info on the screen? Use an Inline Card Window!

AttachmentSize
InlineCardWindows.zip1.53 MB
Tags:
UI

Comments

great stuff Matt... particularly like the anchoring on the card window. Will be helpful for UK devcon next month where I am presenting on Card Windows...
So, given that this is a 16 technique, what about moving to JSON for the parameter passing??

Hey John, I've not yet moved to JSON for parameters myself. Most of my personal stuff is so simple that ordinal parameters seem to work just fine.

Also, for showcasing techniques on the magazine site I feel that keeping things simple and straightforward is the most helpful for new learners.

I'm all ears for those who are using various wrapper custom functions for JSON parameters! Point me to them.

Thanks, Matt,

the pace, clarity and depth, and the new length generally of your videos keeps me coming back for more.

I love the new card window option, game changer, long overdue. But as usual, you bring things to a new lever in terms of clean UI.

Thanks!

Great Script! PopOver and "conditional Hide" let you do something similar; but it's a little bit laborious;
From the other side, with cards you must have a lot of layouts...

Why you are NOT using the List() function in order to pass the list of parameter?
It's more readable and simple, doesn't it?

I Layout_ID is LayoutNumber; and the number changes if reordering...

I frequently reorder my layout and I hate that filemaker doesn’t have a REAL layoutID

I prefere use layout naming rules and switch to layout by calculated name

Since this is a FM16 Technique you can also remove the gtl script step that now is an option of the new window script step.
Am i right?