A Novel Bookmark Display

This post arose after a client asked for a view of document bookmarks that was similar to a horizontally arranged list box selector. The QV model had a number of states which could be selected using these bookmarks. He wanted his staff to be able to see the selected. The solution looked something like this:

I achieved this as follows:


Step 1: Create the document bookmarks in the normal manner.

Step 2: Open the bookmarks dialog (Bookmarks | More) to get the bookmark Ids for each bookmark. Then uncheck the checkboxes in the “+” column.

Step 3: Create an inline table in the load script with the bookmark names and IDs – something like this:

LOAD * INLINE
[
   BMName, BMId
   Stock on hand, BM32
   Reclaim pending, BM30
   Legal hold, BM26
   Write offs, BM33
   Phyical stock, BM29
   Saleable stock, BM31
];

Step 4: Create a list box containing BMName, and arrange horizontally. You can also sort the list box by load order, if appropriate.

Step 5: Add the BMName selection to each bookmark, by selecting the bookmark (from a bookmark control, or the menu. Then select the corresponding BMName value. Finally, click Bookmarks | Replace bookmark to update the bookmark with the BMName selection. I used an open Current Selections box to verify the correct behaviour.

Step 6: (Almost there!) Go to Settings | Document Properties | Triggers and add an On Select trigger on the field BMName. Add a Clear All action, followed by an Apply Bookmark action. For the Bookmark ID for the latter, enter “=BMId” (without the quotes!).

That’s it. Now selecting a value in the “selector bar” for the bookmarks will apply the bookmark and show the currently applied bookmark. Clicking the selected value will clear the bookmark (ie normal list box behaviour).

If you find this useful, or would have any comments on this technique, please post a comment.