Whats the best practice for a complex form

[Alberto]

Hi, I have a complex form in w32 that I need to reproduce in NT, it has 7 Tabs and inside each tab 3 or 4 browses and other fields...
By my experience adding tabs to the WebForm take a lot to load, Im thinkin on use Buttons calling popup forms but I know the popup forms are also included in the WebForm but not completed until you open it.
What is the best approach ?
Thanks

PD: If popups were the best... instead of buttons can I add a menu to the webform?

[Bruce]

Hi Alberto,

>> By my experience adding tabs to the WebForm take a lot to load,

Tabs are ok. They're not slower in themselves.
Lots of fields are ok, although obviously as the number of fields grows so does the time the page takes to transmit. but this is a relatively small performance hit.

Having "3 or 4 browses" on 7 tabs though translates to 20+ browses to load and display. And that will certainly take some significant time, both to read the in on the server side, and also to transmit all that data to the client.

So I think you are right to look at this and maybe consider other approaches so not all the data is loaded at once.

>> I'm thinking on use Buttons calling popup forms

Sounds like a good strategy.

>> but I know the popup forms are also included in the WebForm but not completed until you open it.

correct. The "popup container" is there on the parent form, but the contents are not populated. Which I think will gain the performance you are hoping for.

>> If popups were the best... instead of buttons can I add a menu to the webform?

hmm - good question. It's been a _long_ time since I added a menu to a form - but at least in concept it's possible - even if only as a netwebsource included on the form. that said a nice horizontal row of buttons would seem to me to be a nicer interface.

Cheers
Bruce

[Alberto]

Thanks, one more q...
When a popup is loaded you can see the popup window almos inmediately but only with the title ... then some seconds later the complete popup window appears...
Any way of change that behaviour? like a busy gif waitin for the a complete popup or a waiting gif or message in the first window appearance to indicate ist working and waitong info from the server?

[CaseyR]

I had a similar form with several tabs all with many fields and browses, lookups, etc.

In a user group several months ago,  Bruce suggested that for such large forms the tabs can be presented separately based on a menu or a buttons in a browse row.  The Save and Cancel buttons stay the same but the user sees only the section of the form related to the immediate task.  Less overwhelming for the user with the additional performance advantage of not INCLUDE ing any of the controls not needed for the task.   Works great.

[Alberto]

Hi Casey...

buttons in a browse row ?
in a Form?

[Bruce]

>> When a popup is loaded you can see the popup window almost immediately but only with the title ... then some seconds later the complete popup window appears...Any way of change that behavior?

not at the moment.