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Open a screen first time and ignore it the next time

  • 24 June 2020
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R
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When the user opens the (desktop) application for the first time, our application might be a bit overwhelming. That's why we want some 'tutorial' or landing page where the software is explained. This could be a web page with some videos embedded in it. This is a bit like downloading a new app on your phone where the important parts are highlighted in a 'scroller view' (each dot is a page) or there is a highlight on certain button or action.

The user should keep seeing this window, until he clicks somewhere saying "Don't show again".

I did read this post that looks a bit similar: https://community.thinkwisesoftware.com/development-13/how-do-i-set-a-table-as-a-start-object-or-landing-page-when-ever-a-user-logs-in-889

By following the steps described on the link above we could add a menu item with 'first start' and set that as a start object for each user. Problem is that it will start each time, where it's quite difficult for a beginner user to disable this the next time: You have to know that you can remove this page under User Preferences > Application Configuration. The user should be able to easily do a "Don't show again". How can I achieve this?

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Best answer by Roel 25 June 2020, 09:15

Good morning René,

You can accomplish this by creating a task and set this task as your startobject. The task can start a processflow which can finally open the landing page you would like to show. On this landing page you can implement a checkbox which says 'Don't show again’. If the user chooses to check the checkbox this will be saved in the database.

The next time the user starts the GUI and the startobject task will run again you can check the checkbox value and use a process procedure to skip opening the landing page and immediately stop the processflow.

I hope this helps you out.

Kind Regards,

Roel

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Roel
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Good morning René,

You can accomplish this by creating a task and set this task as your startobject. The task can start a processflow which can finally open the landing page you would like to show. On this landing page you can implement a checkbox which says 'Don't show again’. If the user chooses to check the checkbox this will be saved in the database.

The next time the user starts the GUI and the startobject task will run again you can check the checkbox value and use a process procedure to skip opening the landing page and immediately stop the processflow.

I hope this helps you out.

Kind Regards,

Roel

R
Rank
Userlevel 4
Badge +15

Good morning René,

You can accomplish this by creating a task and set this task as your startobject. The task can start a processflow which can finally open the landing page you would like to show. On this landing page you can implement a checkbox which says 'Don't show again’. If the user chooses to check the checkbox this will be saved in the database.

The next time the user starts the GUI and the startobject task will run again you can check the checkbox value and use a process procedure to skip opening the landing page and immediately stop the processflow.

I hope this helps you out.

Kind Regards,

Roel

That works 🙂.

For common interest; I've set up a process flow as below:

 

Where in the first task executing is decided if the document ‘intro’ must be opened, or skipped using a suppressed message:

if @a_condition_when_not_to_showbegin  exec dbo.tsf_send_message ‘suppress’, null, 1end

Where suppress is a suppressed message (Message location: None):

The second task is a question which will save the @a_condition_when_not_to_show variable.

I do have one more question; After opening the ‘Open document intro’ step it immediately executes the next task, which is a bit prompting (takes away the attention from the intro doc). Is it possible to open the task after closing the ‘intro’ document?

I've tried this without success:

 

I'm not sure if ‘Close document’ is a valid entry point for a process flow.

R
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I forgot to mention that you also have to configure a start object at ‘Group preferences’, this can be done in IAM and cannot be overriden by end users:

This start object needs to be the first task (user_first_start in the example).

R
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I do have another question:

The ‘intro’ document is a view with only a ‘preview’ component in it. When the ‘intro’ is opened again, it reloads to the beginning. Is it possible that this subject doesn't reload?

Take this example below: I open ‘Documentation’, when I open another subject and switch back it suddenly restored to the begin page, in stead of the page where I left (‘Naming’).

 

Jasper
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Hi René, 

Close document can not be used as a process flow trigger at the moment. Feel free to submit an idea for that.

I cannot reproduce the reload of the preview after switching between documents. Did you happen to enable auto-refresh for the subject? Or is this perhaps a side effect of the Close document process flow?

Jasper
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By the way, the preferred way to disable subsequent steps in a process flow is to clear the order number of the process action using the process flow logic. I'm not sure the suppresses message will work in all (future) GUIs.

See here for more info.

R
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Userlevel 4
Badge +15

Hi René, 

Close document can not be used as a process flow trigger at the moment. Feel free to submit an idea for that.

I cannot reproduce the reload of the preview after switching between documents. Did you happen to enable auto-refresh for the subject? Or is this perhaps a side effect of the Close document process flow?

I've tested it again, it only occurs on the web gui I see. The Windows GUI works as expected. I'll add an issue to TCP if we consider using this (we also have another idea regarding ‘onboarding new users’, which is we think even better).

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