Go back to previous display in ActiveView

Discussion created by gpriyanka on Nov 30, 2009
Latest reply on Dec 10, 2009 by cescamilla

Like • Show 0 Likes0
Comment • 16

Hi,

How can I go back to the previous display in ActiveView?

Currently I have a set of diplays in ProcessBook and I want them to work in ActiveView as well.

In ProcessBook a new display is opened by using a box with VB code Application.Displays.Open("path", True). This new display is opened in a new window. To close this new display an exit box is created with the VB code ThisDisplay.Close(False).

This setup works fine in process book but not in ActiveView. The new display opens in the same window but it cannot go back to the previous page. Any suggessions?

Outcomes

16 Replies

hanyong Nov 30, 2009 11:18 PM
Hi,

May I know why you are using VBA to open a new display programmatically instead of using buttons to link up the displays?

I believe that using buttons in Processbook should work when you open the pdi in ActiveView. So we can use buttons to link different displays (remember to set it to check relative path and not open the display in new window).

If you want to configure it such that instead of clicking on another object/symbol other than buttons to open up another display, we can always put the button on the foreground but making the button invisible so that the same effect can be created.

Otherwise i think the other options would be to go down to including codes in the html(javascript or vbscript) to link up different displays.
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
- gpriyanka @ hanyong on Dec 1, 2009 1:41 PM
  Hi Han,
  
  I am using rectangles instead of buttons to go to a new page because they server other purposes as well (multistate).
  
  I could put in an invisible button for the boxes and open the secondary display. If so, How would I go back to the previous display? I have different displays that link to the same secondary display and I want the users to go back to their own primary display. Is there some function/sub that has a back functionality?
  Like • Show 0 Likes0
  Actions
  - cescamilla @ gpriyanka on Dec 1, 2009 3:41 PM
    I seem to remember that the way PI ActiveView works it allows you to have one Display open per control, so as you have only one control you can only see one screen. You can't open a secondary display if you do not replace the previous one. The way this works when you have a "Open in new window" configuration is: the ActiveView ignores that command and opesn the display with "Replace" instead.
    
    Maybe what you want to do is to get to a particular secondary display and have the ability of going back (automatically) to whatever the previous display was, but it may not be the same previous one for a secondary screen.
    
    If that is the case I think there is a workaround to achieve that without having multiple displays.
    Like • Show 0 Likes0
    Actions
  - hanyong @ gpriyanka on Dec 1, 2009 4:38 PM
    I don't think there is a native back functionality that links back to another Processbook display. I heard of an alternative in Processbook from Cristobal to link back to the previous pdi using vba, but that is opening a new window for the secondary display and closing that to bring the user back to the primary display. This would not work given that we using ActiveView.
    
    What I can think of is like my last suggestion in the previous post, instead of linking the displays within the pdi, we can use javascript or html form to link to another webpage that displays the secondary display, that way the back button in IE should work.
    
    If we really need to allow user to click on an element in the pdi to do that, I think we can create a Windows Script Component that includes a javascript to link to another webpage that shows the secondary display.
    
    I have not tried that yet to know exactly how it works, if you can try that, it would be great. I'll try to do that later in the day and let you know my findings.
    Like • Show 0 Likes0
    Actions
    - hanyong @ hanyong on Dec 2, 2009 6:29 AM
      I've realised that there is a easier way to do this. In Processbook buttons, we can write a URL directly as the action. What happens in Processbook is that it will open the URL in your internet browser. If we use that PDI with ActiveView, the button will bring you to the URL in the same browser window. That way the back button of the browser will automatically bring the user back to the previous page.
      
      So assuming I have a primary PDI in the primary page (mainpage.html), and I insert a button that points to the secondary page (page2.html) with the second PDI. I can configure the action as a URL like "http://hytinad.haydd.com/page2.html".
      
      Perhaps you can try this and see if it works for you?
      Like • Show 0 Likes0
      Actions
      - hanyong @ hanyong on Dec 2, 2009 7:23 AM
        I'm sorry Priyanka, I think i lost track of parts of your requirement along the way.
        
        If you want to keep the same behaviour as in processbook, to open the other displays in new window, buttons can still be used. I am assuming that all displays are seperate html files here. We can configure action to open up IE (or any other browser you are using), passing the new page as a parameter for example,
        
        action="C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" "hytinad.haydd.com/page2.html"
        
        1st part points to the application executable (which is IE) and 2nd part is the URL passed to IE to be opened when IE runs.
        
        I hope this one would be more helpful to you.
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
        gpriyanka @ hanyong on Dec 2, 2009 4:11 PM
        Han.
        
        I am a little confused. How do I turn the PDI file into html? How will that affect viewing files in processbook.
        
        One thing that I did not mention before was that I want to use the same set of files for both processbook and ActiveView because they are routinely updated and I don't want to update two sets of files.
        
        I was hoping for a simple solution because I will have to edit about 500 displays to make this work.
        
        Priyanka
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
        cescamilla @ gpriyanka on Dec 2, 2009 4:29 PM
        You don't convert the .pdi's to .html's
        
        The main thing is, you use an html file and the ActiveX control is embedded, this control can access pdi files with relative addresses and I'm guessing you have no issues with that.
        
        There is no easy way to make ProcessBook know what the previous display is, however it can be worked out with having a new window open so when you close the new window you get to the preovious one. But this won't work on active view.
        
        There is another solution, but it involves creating a menu in the pdi files. so you have pre-defined functions for forward and backward, notice that clicking Back on the broswer or refreshing the current page will efectively reset the menu navigation and will send you to the main .pdi file.
        
        So, what Han Yong proposed is to create a different html file for some of the pdi's (reference on how to create those below) so when you click refresh it won't sent you away, and when you press back it will send you to the previous .pdi
        
        The way you do this is the same way you created the main html file. The one you land on when you request the server you have right now. you just copy that, rename it, and edit the source pdi line inside the html code.
        
        Is there a reason not to add a "return" button in the .pdi? does the .pdi file you go back to change dynamically?
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
        hanyong @ cescamilla on Dec 3, 2009 5:36 AM
        Hi Priyanka
        
        Cristobal is right that I am assuming that you have embedded the displays in html. If we want to open up another display in a new IE window using ActiveView, we have to view the displays embedded into seperate webpage and opening the webpage in seperate IE window.
        
        Cristobal's suggestions are good. You can play around with all these and see which one suits the effect you want to create the best. =)
        
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
        u13018 @ hanyong on Dec 3, 2009 2:51 PM
        Hi,
        
        I am working with Priyanka. We are using RtActiveView in Sharepoint. So, by my understanding we have to create seperate html file for each display right? if is not so how do i do that?
        
        I talk with OSitech support, he told me that only way it can be done is by using button on each pdi file that will link back to main display.
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
        cescamilla @ u13018 on Dec 3, 2009 8:07 PM
        You may not be so out of luck!
        
        I was shown by another vCampus member (I'll track him down and request his comment on this) how to pass a parameter to the active view.
        
        So it is a bit different and the workaround could fix your issue.
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
        cescamilla @ cescamilla on Dec 9, 2009 7:53 PM
        Hey there, I did found the guy and asked him about that but he seems to have forgotten about it, so I'm investigating it and working on that.
        
        I'll keep you updated.
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
        pkaiser @ cescamilla on Dec 10, 2009 12:06 AM
        As noted, ProcessBook is a multi-document application, where you can have several displays open at once, whereas ActiveView only has one PDI open at a time. I discussed this issue with the ProcessBook/ActiveView Dev Lead, and the idea he suggested was to write the original display name and path to a file, before navigating to the next display. Then, when you take the "Back" action in the resulting display, to go back to the previous display, read the name and path of the previous display from the file. This has security implications on the client -- the RtActiveView web part user must be able to read from and write to the file -- but it should work in both ProcessBook and ActiveView.
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
        cescamilla @ pkaiser on Dec 10, 2009 6:15 PM
        Thanks for the post Paul! :)
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
        gpriyanka @ cescamilla on Dec 10, 2009 6:25 PM
        Thanks everyone, we have found a work around to our problem. We wanted to keep things simple so we simply put buttons to go back to multiple displays which are the possbile origins. This works in both ProcessBook and ActiveView.
        
        -Priyanka
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
        cescamilla @ gpriyanka on Dec 10, 2009 6:35 PM
        I'm gald you opted to follow creating a menu to go back to all possible origin display. :)
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions

Go back to previous display in ActiveView

Outcomes

Related Content

Recommended Content