Creating Tidy Popup Windows

• r o b 'jesus Land Tidd' lewis 18/12/2012 5:44pm (11 years ago)

  this gives valuable infromation however
  
  WHAT SCRIPT WILL TOGGLE A PORTALS POSITION ? hide it by repositioning it off screen ?
  
  _i am_ looking for script code that will reposition my portal ? hide it, by repositioning it. off to the right of the screen on the extended part f the browse mode layout, that is not visible.
  
  THUS HIDING MY PORTAL. when not needing it.
  
  i know you can use tabsto do this, but _i am_ wanting my Portal to disappear and to reappear in its origional position over on top of ANY of my selected tabs.
  
  A nd the script needs to return my portal back on screen in its origional location.
  
  THANK YOU
  FOR YOUR ATTENTION
  
  

• CWright 31/05/2012 5:05am (12 years ago)

  Lyle...I'm sure you've found a fix by now, but I came across something new today and thought I'd share. I too was going crazy with Windows resizing my main window. My mentor, recommended keeping every window maximized, but sometimes the user needs to be able to reference the main window. Previously I would always maximize the main window when the popup closed. This didn't work cleanly, because then you get a flicker and a refresh.
  
  So what I found today comes from an old 10/2009 post by Chad Sager (IT Solutions) at http://www.topitproviders.net/index.php/2009/09/17/78/ . He basically is calling it a "Fake Maximized Window". You set your main window on login to the size that takes up all the real estate. His method is to set your window size using "Get ( WindowDesktopHeight ) and Get ( WindowDesktopWidth ) functions. This will tell you how big to make the window. I?ve found that subtracting 4 pixels on each dimension will make the window size just right."
  
  This is working great for me so far. A little worried it may not be the best solution if you have users with both high and low resolution displays. Guess it depends on which user you base your layout design. ;) I'm sure there are other drawbacks, but I'm going to try if for awhile and get some user feedback.

• jGalt 31/12/2011 5:05am (12 years ago)

  Thanks Daniel, the refresh fixed it...on OSX anyways. ;)

• Daniel Wood 30/12/2011 9:41pm (12 years ago)

  hi J,
  After some testing I've found that you can remove this scrollbar flicker by inserting a "refresh window" script step after the script step that sets the layout of the new window. If I had to guess why this works I would say that when the layout is offscreen, FileMaker sees no need to render the window, and it is only when it is moved on-screen does FileMaker render the layout. Before it renders however it does not know the layout dimensions and so the window initially starts out with the scrollbar, and once it renders it realises there is no need for the scrolls so they disappear.
  
  The refresh window step in the script before it goes onscreen must force FileMaker to re-draw the layout in the off-screen window which must then tell it the window does not require scrollbar, so when it moves on-screen it doesn't have them.
  
  Anyways that's all assumption, but the refresh seems to do the trick :)

• jGalt 30/12/2011 8:55pm (12 years ago)

  I mean to say I am running FM11 on OSX 10.6.8

• jGalt 30/12/2011 8:53pm (12 years ago)

  Thanks for sharing your technique. I am running FM11 on OSX 10.8. I have downloaded your demo file and I am seeing a very brief but noticeable flicker in the scroll bars. The flicker is being caused by the (not sure what they are called, "the elevator sliders?") appearing and then disappearing. Is everyone seeing this? Is there a way to get rid of the flicker?

• Graham Parkhurst 19/11/2011 1:29am (12 years ago)

  Hi,
  Nice idea to create the popup off screen.
  
  I use something similar but store the windows position and size within a table in case the end user wishes to move a window. Some windows I allow the end user to move and others will always popup within the centre of the viewing area. Within my table I have various presets for locking the status area, hiding toolbars etc which are scripted into a general window creation script, including the window name and every time a window is closed there is another general script that writes any required position changes to the table.
  

• Lyle Chamney 25/10/2011 4:02pm (13 years ago)

  Thanks for the speedy reply, Daniel :)
  
  However, from what I gather from your reply, you may have misunderstood my issue. The popup on both platforms is perfect, the correct size and in the correct location, no scroll bars :)
  
  The problem I am having is with the layout where the button resides that calls this popup. As mentioned, the layout that has this button is maximized and of course, take up the full screen width. On the Mac, when this button is clicked, the popup displays where it should, at the size it should, and the underlying layout does not change. But on Windows, the same holds true for the popup - where it should be and the size it should be - BUT - the underlying layout SHRINKS to the "best fit" size (roughly 3/4 of the full size). The issue is not with the popup but with the underlying layout :)
  
  Cheers!
  Lyle

• Daniel Wood 25/10/2011 3:42pm (13 years ago)

  hi Lyle,
  One way to get around this is when determining the initial width/height of the popup, to accommodate depending on the platform you are using. I know that there are defined pixel dimensions for the differences between mac and pc scrollbars and so on, so you can take a dimension from the mac and convert it to the windows dimension and vice versa. The best place to start looking might be briandunning.com for custom functions to do this - I can't remember the dimensions off the top of my head sorry. Another place they may be is in FileMakers knowledge base.
  
  Cheers.

• Lyle Chamney 25/10/2011 3:36pm (13 years ago)

  Howdy Daniel,
  
  Thank you for the great tip on the centred popup! Just what I was looking for to "polish" an app I am working on.
  
  However, while it works "out of the box" on the Mac exactly as you describe, on Windows, the calling layout is "reduced to fit" just before the popup is displayed, and the popup is then centred to the original size of the calling layout. It should be noted that my startup script maximizes the initial window ("Home" screen).
  
  I tried a number of "things" and used the script debugger, but alas, my noggin is not yet completely wrapped around such matters :) Any light that you may be able to shine on this matter will be tremendously appreciated as this app is for a Windows-only "crowd" (I'm trying! ... have "converted" three people so far, but many more to go :) It took me over a year, but I was finally able to convince the airline I am contracted to, to get on the FM bandwagon ... FMSA plus 11 FMP licences ... to start, for 3 apps that I am putting together for them :)
  
  Cheers!
  Lyle

• Daniel Wood 25/08/2011 2:13pm (13 years ago)

  My work e-mail, the link is on my name, and I'm sure it's on the site somewhere, cheers.

• Alan 25/08/2011 2:08pm (13 years ago)

  Daniel,
  
  Great thought on the transparent rectangle!
  What email address should I use?
  
  Thanks
  Alan

• Daniel Wood 25/08/2011 2:02pm (13 years ago)

  Hi Alan, could you please e-mail the example file to me, as I no longer frequent the site you linked to, cheers.

• Alan 25/08/2011 1:58pm (13 years ago)

  Hi Daniel,
  
  Thanks for the reply. That's what I attempted to do in the modification to your example file, and have set up several script parameters to pass along. Works fine, but that darn small flash from the resize step. I realize that was your reason for manually setting the dimensions.
  
  On another note...In the example file I posted, I attempted to modify your functions (renamed popup_ObjectLeft_Offset and popup_ObjectRight_Offset) and for positioning the pop up by adding parameter for pixel offset. Your original functions appeared to offset by 10 pixels.
  
  In the example I am not able to use the "Top" or "Bottom" parameter successfully with an offset of of say 5 pixels with the changes I made. Any light on that would be appreciated.
  
  Thanks again...Alan

• Daniel Wood 25/08/2011 1:52pm (13 years ago)

  Actually just had a thought. How about if you put a transparent rectangle on the layout behind everything which was placed at 0,0 on the layout and which was sized to the default size of the layout. Give the rectangle an object name. Then in your script you can use GetLayoutObjectAttribute using the Width and Height keywords for that function to obtain the dimensions of the rectangle, and thus the default dimensions of the layout. If you used that convention on all your layouts then you could easily determine the initial size your layouts had to be.... Just a thought

• Daniel Wood 25/08/2011 1:47pm (13 years ago)

  Hi Alan,
  Unfortunately as you have discovered, the Adjust Window [ Resize to Fit ] step causes the window to be moved back on-screen. It is for this reason in the article that we define the height and width precisely before generating the window. I would love to be able to do the resize to fit off-screen too, and would love to know any way around this :)
  
  If you were attempting to make the script generic or modularize it then you could pass some of the information as parameters to script such as the object name, height, width etc. Sorry I can't be of more help on the issue, hopefully someone else can shed some light.

• Alan 25/08/2011 1:38pm (13 years ago)

  Daniel,
  
  Was hoping you could take a look at the post I made at
  
  http://filemakertoday.com/com/showthread.php/28943-Looking-at-WEETBICKS-quot-Creating-Tidy-Popup-Windows-quot?p=118194#post118194
  
  Thanks
  Alan

• Rich Stuart 31/07/2011 6:37am (13 years ago)

  Thanks for the great article! I hope I just implemented it correctly in my solution by "hard-coding" the height and width of the window under the " Establish the Popup Windows Width & Height" in the "Create Centred Pop-up" script; it appears to work well.
  
  However... (There's _always_ a "however" :) )
  
  I'm still dogged with the problem of a user using the zoom controls and having the pop-up window not resize accordingly, e.g., if the user bumps the zoom up to 150% the pop-up doesn't fit anymore as it was hard-coded for a zoom level of 100% ...and since there isn't a script step where you can insert step "Case( Zoom = 150 ); ...", we're stuck.
  
  I suspect this is more of a FMP Wish List issue than anything else. :S
  
  Cheers.

• Robert Moran 08/06/2011 7:17am (13 years ago)

  Question, can this technique be used for templates? I have a client that uses different templates keyed to specific tasks. The database works perfectly as does the related records that can be accessed via a value list to it's parent table. The problem is that certain fields will be used for one task while a different set will be used for another. I need to allow folks to pick a particular template without creating confusion that separate windows create because the parent table content does not change, only the template. Any help on this would be terrific.

• Daniel Wood 24/05/2011 1:56pm (13 years ago)

  Hi Paula, The issue here may be at which stage you are setting the left and top coordinates to use for your new window.
  
  If you have a look in the example file for the centered window example, you'll notice the use of a couple of CF's called popup_Centerleft and popup_CenterTop. These functions actually make use of the GET window functions such as WindowHeight, WindowLeft, WindowTop etc...
  
  If you call these custom functions from your second file, then when these functions evaluate, they will be obtaining window information from a window in your second file, not the first. If you want your window to appear centered in front of a window from your first file, then you will need to set $Top and $Left window coordinates prior to calling your script in your second file. This way, $Top and $Left will be based on your window in your first file, and the new window will be positioned centered in front of that one as you would expect.
  
  Hope this helps, cheers.

• Paula Sanchez 24/05/2011 2:22am (13 years ago)

  I have a situation where the script begins in one file and carries over to another. I am passing the window width/height/top/left info. via parameters to the 2nd file and watching debugger to see that they are correct. The scripting and custom functions are all in the 2nd file. Still, using the 2 file model, I cannot acheive the centered result utilizing your custom function. I am not screen sharing, but the popup is sticking to the 0/0 (top/left) coordinates. I have always used a similar script in all of my files with great success. Any thoughts. I am baffled.

• Daniel 13/01/2011 9:16am (13 years ago)

  Thanks for the comments everyone. Fenton, I might just try that applescript & see how it goes, thanks.

• HOnza Koudelka 13/01/2011 1:59am (13 years ago)

  I always cared about window positioning when creating a new window and I still have a problem explaining my developers how important it is. The instant pop-up thanks to preparing the window's content off-screen is another good point. Great article! Thanks

• Paul Spafford 11/01/2011 3:48pm (13 years ago)

  I didn't know the dock could throw off your coordinates like that. Nastiness! Thanks for that, Daniel.

• Fenton Jones 11/01/2011 10:10am (13 years ago)

  You can get the oriention and tile size of the Dock via a Perform AppleScript script step. You would need to set these into global fields, best on a 1 record constants table. This can be done via a "startup" script, via File Options. The size of the Desktop itself can be gotten via the Get ( WindowDesktopWidth ) function.
  
  -- keys may not exist if you've never moved the Dock, hence the "try / on error"
  try
  set orientation to do shell script "defaults read com.apple.dock orientation"
  -- "right", key may not exist if you've never moved the Dock
  on error
  set orientation to "bottom"
  end try
  
  -- Don't know what the default tile size is, guessing 48
  try
  set tilesize to do shell script "defaults read com.apple.dock tilesize"
  on error
  set tilesize to 48
  end try
  
  --tell application "FileMaker Pro Advanced" -- not needed within FileMaker
  tell table "Home" -- table occurrence name
  set field "z_gDock_orientation" to orientation -- global fields
  set field "z_gDock_tilesize" to tilesize
  end tell
  --end tell

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