In my previous blog I made a promise that more possibilities would soon come available to start task actions from the grid component, so here we are with the next one. 

The grid component of both the Windows and Web GUI now supports translated links to execute a task with.

The idea is to create a better user experience by placing important tasks of a subject at a more intuitive location, so the user can find it more easily. Also, this will require less clicks to get the required task executed on a (inactive) record so users can do their work faster. 

You can choose to execute a process flow after the task execution to guide the user through a series of actions. 

Let's see how we should configure the Software Factory to use those links: 

Two model extenders are used to assign a related task and translation to a domain of the column containing the task link. 

To let the GUI know this column is a “task link”, we added a new control type “task_link” to the domain.

This domain should be assigned to a (expression) column which is listening to all column settings of the Software Factory, like the positioning, column width, model rights, etc. 

Steps to configure a task link in the Software Factory: 

1. Create a new domain with control type “task_link”. 
2. Create a new (read-only) column (may be an expression column so it won’t be created on the database): 
   • Translate the column for the grid, optionally possibly with a whitespace to leave it empty. 
   • Hide the column from the form and the filter & search dialogs. 
   • Turn off sorting. 
   • Provide a manual grid column width. 
3. Create the task to execute, optionally followed up by a process flow. 
4. Navigate to Full model and create a new model extender of type “grid_task_link_id”  to assign a task to the new domain.

   

   The GUI will look for a table task or else will fall back to a globally defined task to execute.  
5. To translate the clickable link in the grid, create a new model extender of type “custom_display_format” to assign a translation to the new domain.

   

   The translation needs to be of type “GUI Object” (13). Create it from the Translations tab of the Full model subject or use an existing one. 

The task will only be executed when the application logic (context procedure) allows it. 

This feature is available for GUI version 2020.2.22 and up.

The next step will be to offer support for a task button like a task is shown in the button bar too, including icon presentation and tooltip. Also, we will support this feature in the Universal GUI too. More about that later.