Navigation Overview
What Is Navigation?
Overview
The Pro version of CC Hierarchy allows you to use the hierarchy as a dynamic navigation system, assigning each hierarchy item with a \FileMaker layout. Example files that come with CC Hierarchy show you how to use CC Hierarchy to and Back and Forward buttons to your solutions.
To get an overview of how this works using the sample data which comes with CC Hierarchy, open the “Navigation Example” section of the hierarchy. Below that you’ll see an item called “Jobs”. Clicking on that item will make it active in the right hand side of the screen under “Edit Selected Item”; below the “Navigation” section you’ll see that this item is linked to a File and a Layout. Click “Go To Item” below these fields and you’ll see the example Jobs file open up.
Notice that this Jobs file has a back, menu, and fwd button in its header. Click “menu” to see a small version of the hierarchy which is designed to work as a floating navigation palette for your solutions. (This is just a different layout in the hierarchy file shown in a new window.) Once this mini window is open, you can click on other items within the Navigation example section to see how the floating palette can let you navigate through your solution.
You can also click on the tabs at the top of the Jobs file to navigate to other sections of this example system; notice that even as you navigate using these tables the floating menu “keeps up”, always recording your current location. It even keeps up when you use go to related record step as when you click on the arrow beside a job’s client.
Check out the “Button Tab” and “Go to...” scripts in these example files to see how you need to tell the Hierarchy system where you want to go.
File & Layout Names
Navigation works by associating a File name and a Layout name with a hierarchy item. These items have to be spelled exactly as they are in the target files and CC Hierarchy has some self-checks in place to help you with that. Providing that the target file is open, CC Hierarchy will show a “No Such Layout” warning in red if it can’t find the combination of filename and layout name you’ve entered. Note that you should not include the .fp7 extension when specifying file names.
CC Hierarchy supports navigation within single file solutions or across multiple files. In the Navigation Example which comes with CC Hierarchy Contacts and Clients are in a different file from Jobs.
Nicknames
In most \FileMaker solutions you end up navigating around using things other than the main menu (our floating navigation palette), using things like tabs or Go to Related Record commands. In such instances you need to tell the hierarchy where you want to go by specifying a unique hierarchy record. Rather than having to know the unique ID numbers of your destination records in the hierarchy, you should assign each navigation destination a unique nickname: something you can keep in your head and easily call when writing scripts in other files. Take a look at the “Button Tab” and “Go to Related Company” scripts in our demonstration Jobs file for examples of how this nickname is used. When you’re writing your \GoToRelatedRecord scripts you can also turn on “reveal nicknames” on the Setup screen to see each item’s nickname beside it in the menu.
Going Further: Shortcuts and Layout Options
You can associate find criteria with your navigation options so that hierarchy records can represent found sets or individual records within your solution. See the entry Shortcuts for more information.
CC Hierarchy also lets you link hierarchy items with \FileMaker’s privilege sets. In this way you can hide certain hierarchy items from users based on the \FileMaker privilege set. When using the hierarchy for navigation you can also change layout behavior based on privilege sets, controlling the status area as well as the use of the New, List, Find, etc. buttons you’ll see in the header of our demonstration files. See Layout Visibility for more information.
Are There Any Shortcuts in CC Hierarchy?
Yes there are.
When opening and closing items on the hierarchy, you can hold down different keys to affect the hierarchy’s behavior. Hold down the shift key to select multiple items. When clicking on a closed item, holding down the Alt (option) key will open all that item’s children when the item itself if opened.
When creating a New Item, holding down the shift key creates a child of the selected item. (Normally, new items are created as peers of the selected item.)
