The method of accessing different type of functionality in an application is very important from the esthetical point of view and even more from the practical and effective point of view. Functionalities must always be easily and quickly approachable. Time and effort spent in order to open a user interface or to activate some other activity must be minimized to as little as possible.
It is also important that the user always knows exactly where something in the application is and how to reach it. It does not matter in which part of the application or where in the execution of business logic the user is currently located, he must always feel totally oriented and have everything under control.
Mx-Frame navigation satisfies demands mentioned above and more. Using new innovative design all navigation is done in one place throughout the whole application. This prevents the end user from getting lost in the flood of all kinds of buttons and menus located everywhere in the application. Because all functionality is reachable in one place consistency in accessing objects is assured.
Ribbon
All the navigation in MX-Frame is implemented with a ribbon. Ribbon contains menus which can be used to perform many different tasks. Menus can open an user interface, execute predefined data source statement or it can execute any kind of business logic developed in with MX-Developer. The ribbon is located at the top of the screen and contains menus which are organized in pages. Menus on the ribbon can be a part of general application navigation or just menus for activating some sort of activity implemented on a certain user interface. Based on this fact two different types of navigation exist.
The design procedure for each of them is completely the same. The difference is only in the segment where the navigation can be used in the application. While designing the navigation, preview is possible. With the preview the developer can see exactly how the navigation will appear in runtime.
Application Navigation
An application menu is designed with navigation elements Domain, Page and Item in three-level hierarchical organization. The domain represents the top level element in the navigation and can contain any number of pages. Each page can then contain any number of menus.
Context navigation
The MX-Frame concept for user interfaces designing does not anticipate the use of buttons. Buttons are excluded in order to gain space for other controls, improve visibility and achieve application consistency, i.e. standard "look and feel" of user interfaces. Buttons are usually used to start some operation in an application.
NOTE: Although the context navigation is introduced in order to replace buttons, buttons can still be used in an application. To see more on the control see chapter Button.
Context navigation also supports data navigation. Data navigation can be used as substitute for grid navigator. It is possible to create menus on the ribbon which can be used for accessing the same functionalities as with navigator buttons in the grid control. To learn more about data navigation and instructions on how to create it see chapter Context Navigation.
In This Section
Create a MxNavigationMenu Component
Component can be easily added to the project by selecting it from the predefined templates.
Whole navigation in MX-Frame applications is implemented with the ribbon. It offers easy access and great overview of all functionality in an application.