Creating lists

What are lists in Navigator 365? #

Lists are one of the most important elements in Navigator 365. They allow you to organize documents related to a specific form or SQL query. Thanks to this, the user gains easy access to the created documents. All he needs to do is find the required document on the list, which is facilitated by built-in functionalities such as sorting, filtering, or searching for items on the list. By default, each created document is displayed on the list, as long as the list is associated with the form. Of course, you can limit it as you like, which is discussed a little later. To make a work easy for the end user it is important that the user can easily access them. Therefore, lists can be easily linked to the menu tabs.

You can learn more about Menu in this article.

What are lists in Navigator 365?

How to create a list? #

There are three ways to create a list.

New list button. Enter the application editing mode. Then you need to click  Lists and New list. After completing the form, select Save list in the upper right corner. A guide on how to complete this form is a little further down the page.

How to create a list?

Create list based on form in the form menu button. This option makes a new list creation much easier because, based on the form’s attributes, most of the new list’s data is completed automatically by the system. To get to this option you need to enter the application editing mode, then click Forms, find the form you need, and click Menu Icon (three vertically oriented dots).

Create list based on form

Duplicate list in the list menu button. Sometimes you may need to create a new list with almost the same settings as one of the existing lists. In this case, the mentioned option could be helpful for you. To get to this option you need to enter the application editing mode, then click Lists, find the list you need to duplicate, and click Menu Icon (three vertically oriented dots).

Duplicate list

General #

In this tab, you can find and configure the basic settings of the new list.

General

In the List name field, you can type the name of your list. It is a good practice to enter here the plural of the form name that the list applies to. For example, if you created an “Employee” form, the list should be named “Employees”. Thanks to this simple rule, it is clear to the user what kind of documents are displayed in the list.

In the Description field, you can enter additional information about the list. Here you can write more about the presented data. This field could be very useful if you create a more complex list with mentions or SQL queries.

In the Empty list message, you can enter the text that will be displayed on the list if the list contains no data.

With Element availability options, you can decide about the availability of the list for other applications. There are three types.

PRIVATE – The list can only be used in this application. You will not be able to select this list in other applications.

PUBLIC – The list will be available to all applications in the system.

Option 'Public'

SHARED WITH APPLICATIONS – The list can be used in the current application and those selected by the administrator. If you choose this option, a dropdown list Select applications will appear below where you can select one or more applications to share the current list.

Option 'Shared with applications'

In the Data source type dropdown, two types of sources are available:

FORMS – The forms and associated documents will be the data source for your list. After selecting this option, an additional list will appear below. There you can select one or more forms. As you’ll probably notice, an additional Columns tab will appear at the top. It is discussed in the section below.

SQL DATABASE – The list will be filled with records from the database based on the query entered in the field that appears below (SQL statement). When creating a list in this way, remember to properly limit the presented data. Too many records can significantly slow down the list display and the application’s performance might be worsened.

Data source type

The further procedure depends on how the list was created. If you chose the Create list based on form or Duplicate list option you will now be able to proceed with the configuration of sorting and filtering data. If you have selected the New list option, you must first select the list columns in the Columns tab. The selection of columns and their configuration are discussed in the section below.

List configuration

After the data source is completed and the columns have been selected, the drop-down list with placeholder Choose column will be populated with the appropriate column names. Now you can select a column from the list and decide whether the sort should be ascending or descending. You can select multiple columns as needed.

Choose column

The last, very important option when creating a list is setting Filters. It allows the administrator to narrow the data from the list to required fields and conditions.  How to use filters is described in detail in another article here.

Columns #

Columns

Here you can select the columns to be considered before displaying the list. You can select a new column (dropdown with placeholder Add column) or delete a column (by clicking on the ‘x’ icon next to the column name). You can also choose whether the column should be visible or not (the eye icon). The difference between making a column invisible and not selecting it at all is that an invisible column can still be used to sort or filter data on the General tab.

Columns tab

Clicking on a column brings up a form with additional column settings on the right.

General tab #

Column general tab

By checking or unchecking Name from form, you can decide whether you want to give the column a different name or leave the default one (equal to the field name on the form associated with the list). To have the Name of column empty (ex. icons) a single “space” should be entered.

In the Data type field, you can select the type of data to be displayed. The data filtering options on the list depend on the selected type. By default, the same data type as in the associated form is selected. Be careful when making changes in this field. Not all data types can be easily converted to another (e.g. text to number) which may cause data presentation errors.

In the Fields option, you can choose which fields on the form should be related to the data in the column. You can select more than one field, but here you have to be careful too. Selection of data of different types also may cause data presentation errors like in the Data type case.

You can add Hyperlink to an item in the list. It is a link to another place in the application or system. This feature is most commonly used to open a document from the list. The None option is selected by default with one exception – if the field’s name is Signature then Go to document in row (edit mode) is selected. The hyperlink field can have a maximum of 6 options.

Hyperlink

NONE – no hyperlink

Go to document in row (edit mode) – Clicking on the link takes you to the document associated with the table record and turns on editing mode

Go to document in row (view mode) – Clicking on the link takes you to the document associated with the table record in view mode

go to external link – Clicking on the link takes you to the indicated place in the application or system

Go to document in cell (edit mode) – This function is available only if the column is related to a list on a form, which is fed by data from documents related to another form. Clicking on the link will take you to the mentioned document instead of the one associated with the table record. Additionally, the document will be opened in edit mode.

Go to document in cell (View mode) – This function is available only if the column is related to a list on a form, which is fed by data from documents related to another form. Clicking on the link will take you to the mentioned document instead of the one associated with the table record. The document will be opened in view mode.

After selecting one of the Go to document… options, you can choose where the document should be displayed.

CURRENT TAB – The open document will replace the content in the current tab.

NEW TAB – The document will be opened in a new tab and the current one will not be changed.

POPUP – The document will be opened in a popup – a smaller window covering the previous one. The covered content will not be changed and cannot be viewed or altered until the pop-up closes.

Appearance tab #

Appearance

Using this form, you can configure the width of the column, and the alignment of data contained in it and decide how the column should behave when the application is opened on smaller screens.

Min column width (px) specifies the minimal width of the column in pixels. The column will not be narrower than this value.

Width type is the unit selection for the column width. You can choose percentages (%) or pixels (px). You can enter the size in the selected scale in the Width field. The pixel value is absolute, while the percentage value depends on the size of the data container. The sum of the percentages of all columns should therefore not exceed 100%.

The Align horizontally and Align vertically fields specify how the text is to be positioned in the cell. It works in the same way as in popular spreadsheet programs. The Inherit from global setting option is, in other words, the default setting.

Appearance options

To display data on small screens correctly (mobile phones, tablets), the application may hide some columns, especially if there are many or contain large amounts of text. By default, the rightmost columns are hidden first. To avoid hiding relevant columns, you can select the option in Column is always visible in the drop-down list Responsive resize.

Dependencies tab #

In this tab, you can check where the data of the selected column is currently used and go there by clicking on the list item. The data from the list can be used e.g. in dashboards.

Dependences

Settings #

In this tab, you can find several options related to the appearance and functionality of the list.

Settings

 

Tree list mode – Displays hierarchical data. If documents are connected using the system Parent attribute the list will show the dependencies.

The Inline edit option allows you to edit data from the list without opening the document. By default, this option is turned off. It is recommended to enable it when the user needs to edit multiple documents at once. An example of the usage could be warehouse stocktaking – the user can change quantities in multiple documents.

You can see two options Use global settings in the Functional settings and Appearance settings groups. These options are checked by default. This allows to apply system default settings to each list in the system. This option standardizes the list’s appearance and functionality, which is appreciated by the users. Leaving this option unchecked means that adding separate settings for each list will be required.

Calendar view settings – used to present data like reservations, absences, etc where the start and end dates are important. To set this calendar view the user needs to choose a default view (Month, Week, Day, or Agenda), Name (the attribute to identify the document on the list), Description (second-line information), and dates (required). The option New document form tells the system what document should be open once the date on the calendar is clicked.

Dependencies #

In this tab, you can find information about what application elements the list uses and by which application element the list is used. Based on this information, the application can block intentional or accidental deletion of the related item. By clicking on one of the elements on the list, you can go to the related item. It could be helpful if you need to find out whether the aforementioned block is necessary or if the reference is linked to the active and used element.

Dependences

 

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