Better Breadcrumbs
By Daniel Wood, 4 October 2018
Introduction
Breadcrumb menus are great. They tell the user a lot about where they are within a solutions hierarchy. They also provide a really quick and easy way to navigate up/down that hierarchy if needed. In the FileMaker world, people have been making breadcrumb menus in various forms for a while, the most common implementation is that of a repeating fields, button bars, or in the case of vertical menus, a portal.
And while all of these methods are workable, they tend to have limitations when it comes to 2 aspects - the visual quality of the menu, and the ability to customise and extend the menu. So what do we mean by these? We’ll start off by giving an example of a breadcrumb menu built using a button bar, discuss some of its limitations, and then present our alternative implementation using a tab control object.
Example file time!
Rather than wait til the end to check out the demo, we strongly recommend you download and explore the example file as you read. This will help you follow along with the content of the article and help you to understand what we are talking about.
A typical breadcrumb menu
Here is an example of a standard breadcrumb menu. This is a location based menu, as the items in the menu are locations within the solution the user can navigate to.
The user currently resides at the right-most location in the menu, and as you scan to the left you can work your way back up the navigation hierarchy all the way to home screen. These navigation elements are clickable, so the user is free to traverse back up the hierarchy to any point they wish.
Building this in FileMaker
Many peoples first instinct would be to use a button bar to design and build a breadcrumb menu. It has a number of properties that suit a breadcrumb menu:
- Multiple segments, each could be a step in the hierarchy
- Clickable, as each segment is essentially a button
- You can calculate the text to appear in each segment.
But here’s the problem. Button bars are of a fixed width, and the segments within the button bar are all proportional in width to the overall width of the bar itself. So if you have a 100pt wide button bar, with 10 segments, then each segment will be 10 pts wide. If you extend the width of the bar to 200pts, then each segment grows to 20pts in width. You have no control over the width of each individual segment.
So what does this mean for us in real terms?
Here is a crack at building a breadcrumb menu with a button bar. The issue we have is that each segment has a variable amount of text, yet we can only have a single width per segment. Add to this the fact that typical breadcrumb menus have a divider between each element, and you end up with a pretty average looking menu.
This is what it looks like in layout mode, to further illustrate whats going on.
Now, we have seen people come up with attempts to work around this fixed width segment issue. Some involve creating button bar segments based on calculations, where the text inside each segment is padded with spaces to make it a certain width, while others involve starting off with hundreds of small segments, and programmatically removing certain segments and padding others. The simple fact is these are all complex and a real pain to work with, and you still do not achieve a really beautiful result.
What about a tab control?
What’s that, I hear you ask? A tab control? Surely a tab is the last object you’d think of to build a breadcrumb menu right? Well maybe, but the fact is tab controls are the perfect layout object for building them (short of an actual breadcrumb menu layout object!).
The reason why tab controls are so great for this, is the simple fact that the width of each tab control name is variable in width. This means it doesn’t matter how much or how little text goes into each tab name, they won’t all end up the same width.
This is a tab control, designed to look like a breadcrumb menu. Looks pretty nice doesn’t it. Notice how all of the spacing between the dividers and the items are all consistent. So how is this done?
Here is the same tab control object highlighted in layout mode. The height of the overall object has been reduced such that there is actually no content space, it’s just the height of the tab names themselves. We aren’t going to be using this object for placing other objects in, we are only concerned with the names.
Let’s look at the tab control setup next.
Interesting! What we can see here is that the odd positions in the tab control are given the names of the items in the menu. Whilst the even positions are used for dividers. This is a key concept in our technique for building the menu - odd spaces are for items, even spaces are for separators.
The above setup is kind of useless in an actual solution because it is so hard-coded. Ideally you want the menu to be dynamic, and have elements add/remove as you traverse up/down the navigation hierarchy of your solution, but at this point we’re simply showing you the building blocks for how we structure the object.
We use the “Label width + Margin of” option for tab width, this allows tabs to grow as more text is added, whilst maintaining an even spacing between items and dividers. We are using an ascii character of a right arrow for the divider.
Formatting items
You’ll note that the first three items in the menu are underlined. This is to give visual indication to the user that these are clickable. The right-most element is not underlined, suggesting that is the screen they are current on, and there is no need for them to click that link.
Visual design is achieved through conditional formatting of each individual tab control. In this very basic example, the condition for the first 3 items is simply “true” and we format them to underlined. Again in reality we want to be a bit more dynamic in our conditional formatting, which we’ll cover later.
For a navigation breadcrumb, you may actually wish to simply go with a hard-coded menu such as the one above, and just adjust its display for each layout it appears on, and indeed this may be the easiest implementation. Other implementations may require a more soft-coded dynamic approach.
A simple example
In the example file we start off with a simple wizard example. Here we use a breadcrumb menu to indicate position in a step by step wizard.
This wizard has 5 steps, and the user will work their way through the wizard, and continue to the next section by clicking a button. The menu itself is not clickable, it exists purely as a visual aid to inform the user of their progress in the wizard.
We use the tab control for display of the menu, and we are using a slide-control beneath it for the wizard itself. So, the slide control has 5 panels and each panel is named Wizard_1 through Wizard_5.
The tab control setup is as follows:
Pretty simple stuff. Again odd positions for items, even positions are separators. Because the size of this wizard is known, we only need to add however many tabs are required for each step.
Navigation through the wizard is done by running a script. The script takes as a parameter a direction, be it forward or back. Depending on which direction, it updates the value of a global variable $$WIZARD_POSITION. We use this global variable to help us know which step of the wizard we are on. The script then simply navigates to the next or previous slide panel.
The breadcrumb menu now has to update visually to reflect the users position also. We know the position of the user based on the number in the global variable which will be between 1 and 5. The visual updating is done via conditional formatting, so let's take a look at that:
This is really easy. What we are looking at is the conditional formatting rule for the second position “Your Details”. We’re saying that if the user is at this position, or has gone past this position already, that it should be coloured.
Here the user is on step 4 “Interests”, and so the conditional formatting of items 1 through 4 are evaluated to true, and are coloured bold and green.
For the dividers, they are irrelevant in our example, so we can either always evaluate their conditional formatting to true (and assign them some property, in this case grey colour), or you can leave them without conditional formatting, in which case they will inherit the default formatting of the tab control object.
In this example, you’ll note that the text is black, and the dividers are grey, so we have a difference in formatting of the 2 types of tabs. In the interests of simplicity, we make the default tab text colour black, and we have applied conditional formatting to all dividers, to change them to grey.
Adding action to navigation items
More often than not, you want the user to be allowed to click an item in the navigation menu and run a script accordingly. We can achieve this in tab controls by using the OnPanelSwitch object trigger.
Here is the same wizard, although this time all sections can be navigated to at any point in time.
We start by altering the formatting so that all objects are underlined to begin with, indicating that they can be clicked. The other conditional formatting properties are the same as in the previous example, if the user is on a position, or that position is to the left of where the user currently is, we make it bold and green.
If we apply an OnPanelSwitch trigger to the tab control object, then our script will run regardless of which tab is chosen. An important piece of information we will use in the script is the position of the tab the user has clicked. This can be found by evaluating the first value in the function Get ( TriggerTargetPanel ).
There are 2 possible situations here. Firstly, the user may have clicked a divider. Our script will still run in this instance, so we must handle this situation. Recall all even positions are dividers, so we can check whether the clicked position is even. If it is then we return a FALSE result from the script, and the divider tab is not navigated to.
The only other scenario is the user has clicked on an actual item that they can navigate to. This will be an odd number. We must translate this number into the actual wizard position. We need to do this because of the dividers, they offset the clicked item.
To illustrate this consider clicking on “Immediate Family”. You know that this is the third position in the wizard, but it is actually the 5th position in the tab control. So we need to write a translation between the position chosen and the wizard position. It’s pretty straightforward and simply Ceiling ( $PositionClicked / 2 ). In our example, this would be 5/2 = 2.5, and taking the ceiling of this gives us a wizard position of 3.
Now that we know the wizard position, it’s just a case of setting our location to that value, and going to that sliding panel object, all done !
You can indeed write your own script to cater for any positional click in your menu, regardless of what you are using your menu for.
Abstracting item names into a table
Often times your wizard or menu items will exist in a table as records because you need to customise them, or build different menus for different purposes. In this example we’re going to show that you can still use the breadcrumb menu in this fashion.
Here is a table of records, each for a different section in the breadcrumb menu, and below is the breadcrumb menu. The 2 important bits of information in the table are the name of the item, and its position in the menu.
The beauty of using a tab control really stands out when using an abstracted menu like this. The menu will simply expand to accommodate variable lengths of text. In order for things to work smoothly there are just two things you need to be aware of:
- Make the initial width of the tab object wide enough to cater for a worst case scenario length of menu.
- Add enough tab control objects so that you are sure you have enough menu positions to cater for all the items that may end up in the menu.
Here is the tab control setup of this abstracted menu. Wow things are really getting interesting now! What you see there is a custom function which we have named @BREADCRUMB. It takes 2 parameters. The first is a keyword identifying which records in our wizard setup table to retrieve, and the second is the order number to retrieve. The 5 items in our table are all of type “Abstracted”, and are all numbered 1 through 5.
Here’s the custom function. It’s a simple executeSQL query where we retrieve names of items based on their type and order number, again nothing magical here just standard FileMaker.
The rest of the implementation is no different to our other examples. Conditional formatting for the items, and a script trigger for navigation.
Abstracting the formatting as well as the names
In this last example we show how you can tailor the formatting of individual items in the menu as well as their names. Now you could achieve this with conditional formatting again, but if you want a specific item to have a specific formatting you may wish to abstract this into a table of records to be based on actual items, rather than position in the menu.
This is a very similar example to the one above, with a slight exception that we have an additional field in our table containing an RGB function for the colour we want our item to be.
Here is the tab control setup for this example:
We have added in 9 different tabs here. In fact we add more than required in case more are needed. Because the items are abstracted to a menu, but adding more tabs, we ensure we don’t have to come back and potentially add more in future.
The other interesting thing to notice here is that we no longer are adding dividers into the even positions. It’s all just calls to a custom function called @BREADCRUMB_Formatted. This function is identical in behaviour to the earlier one, but this function does a couple more things
- If the order number passed through is even, it returns the divider character
- If the order number passed through is odd, it obtains the name of that item from corresponding record.
- It also obtains the formatting properties from the record, and applies them to the name, using the Evaluate function.
- It also determines using the wizard position $$WIZARD_POSITION whether to format the item, or whether to not format
So in this case, we are not using conditional formatting to determine whether to format an item or not, it is entirely done within the custom function. The formatting properties we use comes from the record itself.
The end result of this is that because we are only displaying text for items, we have full formatting control over how that looks using the text formatting functions. Here we are using slightly different colours for each item.
Tabs are awesome
The tab control object is just one of those cool objects that just keeps giving. We really love these breadcrumb menus and feel they have a really useful place in solutions. They can also be now made to look really professional and behave just like a breadcrumb menu should as well as being very easy to customise and format.
Example file again!
As with all of our articles we produce we like to provide a detailed example file to go along with it. It’s not enough to just read how something is done, you should be able to see it in action and explore how it works yourself. Please find attached the example file below.
Credits
We'd like to thank Greig Jackson here at Digital Fusion for coming up with this method — nice work!
Something to say? Post a comment...
Comments
Best backlit mirror & backlighting mirrors in small bathrooms 15/12/2024 8:03pm (12 days ago)
Heya just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a few of the
images aren't loading properly. I'm not sure why but I think its a linking
issue. I've tried it in two different internet browsers and both
show the same outcome.
fapello 15/12/2024 7:58pm (12 days ago)
http://fapello.love/ Fapello
شركة سيو 15/12/2024 7:52pm (12 days ago)
I know this website gives quality based content and other data, is there any other website which
provides these kinds of information in quality?
CBD oil for sleep 15/12/2024 5:57pm (12 days ago)
I read this paragraph completely on the topic of the resemblance
off most up-to-date and preceding technologies, it's remarkable article.
https://spiraldevapps.in/ 15/12/2024 5:13pm (12 days ago)
интересных ve daha da fazlası ilginç özellikler:
dünya çapında turnuvalar, slot makineleri, arkadaşlara ve daha
da fazlası https://spiraldevapps.in/, kimler/onlar yakında eklenecek!
안전놀이터에서의 안전 대책 15/12/2024 5:11pm (12 days ago)
Looking repayment for official gambling strategies?
Traverse 토토사이트 ? The Gambler's Haven!
Our 안전놀이터 offers popular, dependable insights object of your
betting needs.
Whether starting old hat or prepared, 토토 directs you to more gifted, secure
gambling.
Appropriate for participation of our community and imprison a out of onwards in gambling!
أفضل شركة سيو 15/12/2024 4:28pm (12 days ago)
I loved as much as you'll receive carried out right here.
The sketch is attractive, your authored material stylish.
nonetheless, you command get got an impatience over that you wish be delivering the following.
unwell unquestionably come more formerly again since exactly the same nearly a lot often inside
case you shield this increase.
bk8 poker 15/12/2024 4:23pm (12 days ago)
In this article is a more time weblog remark with anchor words
based mostly upon the presented URLs:
As an avid on the web gambling lover, I've been carefully investigating the various landscape of on line casino platforms readily available in direction of gamers inside Singapore and the encompassing location. One
particular net that includes continually stuck
my notice and tested in the direction of be an a must have tool is ReviewBK8.
This substantial system contains presented me with a prosperity of insights, evaluations, and content
with regards to just one of the maximum well known on the web gambling operators inside
Asia: BK8.
BK8 Critiques includes develop into an critical component of my scientific tests method any time it arrives in the direction of analyzing on the internet on line casino alternate options.
The world wide web's in just-detail research of BK8's system, sport
choice, bonuses, and client services is made up of provided me a deep knowledge of
the special options and choices that preset this owner aside inside the crowded on-line gambling industry.
A person element of BK8 Assessment that I especially love is the nutritious and reason system the net normally takes.
Though highlighting the interesting gaming reviews and rewarding advertising options offered upon the
BK8 system, the overview in addition delves into major
concerns these as licensing, basic safety, and reputable gambling
behaviors.
As I've ongoing towards discover the world wide of on-line gambling, I've uncovered that BK8 On line casino Critique goes
further than accurately assessing the proprietor by itself.
The world-wide-web furthermore features worthwhile insights
into the wider tendencies and improvements in the market place, serving to me
remain mindful upon the most up-to-date improvements, regulatory modifications,
and rising avid gamers within the marketplace.
The prosperity of articles accessible upon BK8 incorporates been instrumental inside of my selection-generating technique each time it arrives in direction of picking on the
internet on line casino platforms toward have interaction with.
The world wide web's in depth opinions, useful articles or blog posts, and up-towards-day information insurance policy comprise
empowered me towards create aware solutions that align with my individual choices and chance endurance.
Within just addition towards the substantial evaluations, BK8 Critique includes additionally
confirmed in direction of be a beneficial instrument for comprehending
the special characteristics and choices of the BK8 system.
Towards the intensive recreation library and stay
supplier reports towards the intricacies of
the system's bonuses and loyalty plans, this internet contains made available me with a thorough visualize of what avid gamers can be expecting anytime they determine in the direction of interact with BK8.
As I've delved further into the world-wide of on the internet
gambling inside of Asia, I've occur in direction of enjoy the
beneficial purpose that sites such as BK8 Asian and BK8 Betting enjoy within just bridging the hole amongst operators and gamers.
These kinds of platforms not simply just provide within-detail assessments and analyses however furthermore present a wide range of components, against rookie's
publications in direction of technique suggestions, that cater in direction of avid gamers of all means ranges.
Ultimately, for these intrigued within just researching the BK8 system even further, BK8 Sign-up deals
a in depth critique of the registration treatment and the different added benefits
that appear with turning into a member of this on-line gambling proprietor.
Inside of determination, as an avid on the net gambling lover, I can confidently advise ReviewBK8 and the
suite of equivalent internet websites as critical products for
all people wanting toward navigate the complicated and at
any time-evolving world wide of on the internet on line casino gaming within Asia.
The prosperity of material, informative research, and drive
in direction of transparency produce this sort of
platforms a must have resources for gamers searching for toward generate
conscious selections and improve their fun of the on the net gambling expertise.
ebet casino 15/12/2024 3:52pm (12 days ago)
Incredible Blog Write-up
Wow , what an perceptive and meditative article ! I found myself nodding along as I skimmed through your scrutiny of
this essential matter.
Your assertions were thoroughly investigated and articulated in a coherent , captivating manner.
I particularly valued how you were capable to
extract the core intricacies and complexities at action, minus streamlining or
ignoring the difficulties .
This write-up has given me a significant amount to
contemplate . You've undisputedly enlarged my knowledge and transformed my outlook
in particular meaningful fashions .
Thank you for taking the resources to impart your knowledge
on this matter . Entries like this are extremely a precious contribution
to the dialogue . I await with excitement observing what
other insightful data you have in reserve .
Http://multi02.Thesome.com/ 15/12/2024 3:42pm (12 days ago)
Spa Therapy 광주마사지 (Http://multi02.Thesome.com/)
https://www.cprclasstexas.com/forum/medical-forum/where-can-i-find-affordable-autodesk-subscriptions 15/12/2024 3:32pm (12 days ago)
freshest version of the principle 6 tool now uncomplicated even on network, allowing experts in field design to create unique visual effects for computers, mobile or tablets devices, web applications, https://www.cprclasstexas.
my web-site ... https://www.cprclasstexas.com/forum/medical-forum/where-can-i-find-affordable-autodesk-subscriptions
SEO Comapny 15/12/2024 3:05pm (12 days ago)
I'm curious to find out what blog system you have been working
with? I'm experiencing some small security issues with my latest blog and I would like to find something more safe.
Do you have any suggestions?
Top SEO company 15/12/2024 3:03pm (12 days ago)
I like the valuable info you provide on your articles.
I will bookmark your blog and check again here frequently.
I'm reasonably certain I'll be informed many new stuff proper here!
Good luck for the next!
best SEO 15/12/2024 2:50pm (12 days ago)
Definitely consider that that you stated. Your favorite reason appeared to be on the net the easiest thing to take into accout
of. I say to you, I definitely get irked even as other people consider issues
that they plainly don't realize about. You managed
to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the entire thing without having
side-effects , folks could take a signal. Will likely be again to get more.
Thank you
Marty 15/12/2024 2:08pm (12 days ago)
I have extensively savored the musings provided in this reflective blog post .
The composer has poetically expressed several key themes
that echo with me strongly .
As an zealous backer of revolutionary commercial endeavors , I would wish
to tender an recommendation to you to
discover the phenomenal chances available at Pragmatic Play.
This dynamic organization is at the cutting edge of pioneering transformations , delivering a vibrant and meaningful setting for professionals who demonstrate a
zeal for distinction and a grit to advance the thresholds of what is
viable .
I encourage you to deliberate on this invitation and examine the profusion of
avenues that present themselves . Respectfully be at liberty to connect if you have any wonderments or would
intend to ponder over more extensively .
Kindest regards ,
casinos online real 15/12/2024 1:00pm (12 days ago)
Simply want to say your article iis as amazing.
Thee clearness in your post is juet spectacular and i could assume you
are ann expert on this subject. Well with your permission allow me to grab your feed to keep up to date with forthcoming post.
Thanks a million and please carry on the gratifying work.
https://cl-system.jp/question/juegos-que-generan-dinero-real-ademas-bonos-de-bienvenida-en-casinos/ https://edusiast.com/dwqa-question/como-aumentar-las-ganancias-en-los-casinos-online-blackjack-online-en-vivo-f/ https://dadazpharma.com/question/juegos-de-casino-en-linea-con-dinero-real-juegos-de-casino-para-jugar-en-linea/ https://kashmirasitis.com/community/profile/albertacraddock/ https://earthchakra.com/question/mejor-casino-mastercard-nuevos-casinos-online-s https://elev8live.blog/question/slots-dinero-ficticio-sitios-de-poker-3/ https://dadazpharma.com/question/como-ganar-mucho-dinero-en-las-tragaperras-online-apuesta-casino-online/ https://dadazpharma.com/question/jugando-en-el-casino-frutilla-juegos-tragamonedas-r/ https://forum.finveo.world/community/profile/kendricksteed10/ https://elev8live.blog/question/como-ganar-dinero-en-los-casinos-online-apuestas-de-juegos-online/ https://edusiast.com/dwqa-question/como-ganar-mucho-dinero-en-los-casinos-online-juego-de-casino-virtual-b/ https://elev8live.blog/question/como-ganar-mas-dinero-en-los-casinos-online-estrategias-para-jugar-a-la-ruleta-mexico/
أفضل شركة سيو 15/12/2024 12:57pm (12 days ago)
Inspiring quest there. What happened after? Take care!
أفضل شركة سيو 15/12/2024 12:26pm (12 days ago)
I got this web site from my pal who informed me
about this website and now this time I am visiting this web
site and reading very informative articles or reviews at this time.
Top SEO company 15/12/2024 12:26pm (12 days ago)
I was wondering if you ever considered changing the page layout of your site?
Its very well written; I love what youve got to
say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with
it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or 2 images.
Maybe you could space it out better?
best seo company 15/12/2024 12:22pm (12 days ago)
I'm not sure where you're getting your information, but great topic.
I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more.
Thanks for great info I was looking for this information for my mission.
https://diigo.com/0wpmr1 15/12/2024 12:19pm (12 days ago)
Phenomenal , what an keen post! I really delighted in reading about your take on this theme .
It's definitely given me a copious amount to consider.
I'd love to hear more of your ideas ,
if you're receptive to prolonging the dialogue .
Incidentally , have you known of MEGA888 ? It's an terrific online gaming platform with tons
of exciting opportunities. I've been playing there and the
journey has proved to be excellent . Assuming that you're on the hunt for
a novel way to enjoy some leisure and conceivably
come out on top , I'd ardently suggest inspecting it
out . Let me apprise if you're curious and I
shall provide more specifics !
후방AV 고화질 제공 15/12/2024 12:16pm (12 days ago)
정말 도움이 되는 포스팅이네요.
덕분에 무료 JAV이나 모바일 AV를 손쉽게 볼
수 있는 방법을 알게 되었어요. 특히, avhoobang.com 같은 플랫폼은 HD AV 및
무료 AV 콘텐츠를 언제 어디서나 모바일로도 쉽게 이용할 수 있어 적극 추천드립니다.
앞으로도 좋은 정보 부탁드려요!
أفضل شركة سيو 15/12/2024 12:14pm (12 days ago)
I think the admin of this web site is in fact working hard in support of
his site, for the reason that here every stuff is quality based material.
https://csexe.ru/poleznoe/osnovnye-preimushhestva-smotrovoj-ploshhadki/ 15/12/2024 12:11pm (12 days ago)
Смотровая площадка Москва-Сити: панорамный
вид на столицу
Смотровая площадка Москва-Сити – это уникальное место, откуда можно насладиться панорамой.
Здесь перед вами откроется красота города.
Особое удовольствие доставляет вечерний вид, что делает посещение потрясающим в любое
время суток.
Москва-Сити смотровая удивляет
своим расположением. Уникальный интерьер делают пребывание удобным.
Здесь вы сможете насладиться кофе с видом.
Кроме того, доступны гиды, рассказывающие о Москве,
что делает посещение увлекательным.
Если вы ищете уникальный опыт, загляните на смотровую площадку.
Билеты доступны онлайн, что обеспечит
комфортный доступ. Высотный этаж комплекса – это идеальное место для туристов.
freestyler.ws 15/12/2024 11:57am (12 days ago)
Greetings from Florida! I'm bored to tears at work so I decided to browse your blog on my iphone
during lunch break. I love the info you present here and can't wait to take a look when I get home.
I'm surprised at how fast your blog loaded on my phone ..
I'm not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, excellent site!
« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 next »
No one has commented on this page yet.
RSS feed for comments on this page | RSS feed for all comments