The Layout Designer Tool Window view allows you to create, design and modify any layout in the system. You can add views, reports, graphs, pivots, custom views, etc by dragging and dropping them around. These layouts can then be assigned to roles determine what people see when they are editing certain entity types.
Layout Designer Properties
The Layout Designer is a Tool Window that works against the currently active layout only.
The Layout Designer shows the following information for a given layout it is active against:
The unique name for this layout.
The current active tab name
A tree view of all views (visible in the layout currently or not) in the selected tab which takes account of their hierarchical child/parent relationship.
You can alter the name of the layout simply by changing it.
You are also able to resize all the views in the current active layout.
In order to edit the layout itself you need to Unlock it (see commands below). Once unlocked you can drag+drop views around to rearrange them however you see fit. A view when dragged over the layout displays a preview of how it will look when dropped there, for instance:
Highlighted in yellow is the anchors that illustrate places you can move the view that will anchor it to that position. When you drag the view over any anchor the system highlights in light blue (or whatever your system/theme colour is) how the view will look placed there. In this instance when we let go of the "Role" view it snaps into place like so:
You can then resize it from here by dragging the edges. You can also grab the title bar of any view and drag it out of the layout to place it somewhere else. If you place it directly over an existing view they will tab together.
In the example above we're editing a layout itself from the Layouts grid. When you are editing a layout it is not active against real data (In the example above it isn't displaying any Role information) as such all the views are blank, but when you start using your layout they will populate with the real data.
Commands
Changes can not be made to a layout until you unlock it. Your changes aren't properly captured until you lock the layout again. As with all tool windows, the changes you make exist as pending changes within the context of the active tab you are making them against. You can't save changes from tool windows them selves. To commit your changes you'll need to click save for the layout (which will be indicating there are unsaved changes anyway).
In order to edit the layout itself there are several custom commands:
Lock Layout Design: This is a toggle command. By default Layouts are locked and can't be edited. Until you unlock the layout you can't change anything or use any of the commands below. When you've finished making your changes to a layout click Lock again. Doing so ensures all your changes to the layout are accurately captured. When you click save any changes will be committed.
Add New Tab: Only accessible when the layout is unlocked. Adds a new tab to the layout, and selects it.
Delete Current Tab: Only accessible when the layout is unlocked. Deletes the currently selected tab, and all views within it, from the layout.
Tab Properties: Only accessible when the layout is unlocked. Provides a popup with all the parameters for a tab. These include:
Selecting which roles can see this tab (defaults to all)
Adding a visibility formula to determine if the tab should be visible or not at runtime and can react live to changes made to the item. See our Formula Engine for more info.
The name of the tab
Move Tab Left/Right: Only accessible when the layout is unlocked. Moves the selected tab to the left or right of its current position.
Clear View Selection: Only accessible when the layout is unlocked. Clears the selection of the current view from the tree view. When you click "Add New View" the button is context sensitive to the current selected view. If you have a view selected it will only display views that can be children of the selected view. To get a list of all valid views for the actual layout you need to clear the view selection so none are currently selected.
Add New View: Only accessible when the layout is unlocked. Provides a list of all views that are valid to be displayed against the layout, or if a view is selected then all views that are valid as child views of the selected view. You can clear the selection if you don't want to add a child view. The list of views includes views that work against all items (such as buttons, audit history, workflow views, etc) as well as views that are specific to just the layout (or selected view) such as system views, views you designed for this layout type, and public queries/charts/pivots/etc that can be linked to this layout type.
Delete Current View: Only accessible when the layout is unlocked. Deletes the currently selected view, and all child views within it, from the layout.
View Properties: Only accessible when the layout is unlocked. Provides a popup with all the parameters for a tab. These include:
Selecting which roles can see this view (defaults to all)
Adding a visibility formula to determine if the view should be visible or not at runtime and can react live to changes made to the item. See our Formula Engine for more info.
The name of the view
The icon for the view
Any view specific custom parameters. For example a query view would have custom parameters allowing you to define which values to provide the query parameters with (either hard coded or using our formula engine) along with other options.
