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  1. #1
    Thomasso is offline Competent Performer
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    Main Menu block design with subform

    Hi all,



    I am designing a brand new company DB and I have a very specific idea about the main menu looks and functionality.

    The whole application will lay inside a main form - with header on top of every page (date, time, logged in user, some default options like quit the DB, maybe XML weather, currency exchange rates and so on...)

    On the left side, I would like to have "blocks" where users would access numerous softwares modules (home screen, CRM, accounting, analysis, settings and so on...)

    In the middle, there would (probably?) be a subform which will load the appropriate content based on selected block.

    Here is an example:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Is my approach correct with the subform? Can you give me some tips to effectively implement this?

    Thanks very much.

    BR,
    Tomas

  2. #2
    Micron is offline Virtually Inert Person
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    Not that I completely understand your jargon but a subform control is for loading a related set of records, not some other application. Sounds more like you need a browser control or a bound (or unbound) OLE object control, depending on what the "appropriate content" is.
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  3. #3
    Thomasso is offline Competent Performer
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    My jargon is quite easy in my opinion. I click a button on the left (see the picture), and the appropriate section loads on the right.

  4. #4
    Minty is offline VIP
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    You can set a subforms control source in code, so if your left hand set of controls simply swapped out one subform source for another it would behave in the manner you are expecting.

    You can of course apply this to technique to multiple subforms on a single main form, so building something like the above would be possible, although making it look that pretty in Access would be "challenging".
    You can also have multiple versions of the same subform, with similar filtered record sources, so the four sections at the bottom in the above example, could be the same subform repeated.
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  5. #5
    Thomasso is offline Competent Performer
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    Thanks. Yes, it will be challenging, but I want it to look nice, so I will spend the time :-)

    My idea is to create a main form for the shell of the entire application (the left part and a header with basic stuff), which won't change at all, it will be there regardless of everything - basically like the ribbon.

    Then I want to create a form for each section (like Dashboard, Events, Settings...), which will be on the right side when selected on the left.

    Within each section, there will be further navigation buttons, forms and so on...

    Is it possible to populate the right side with a specific form based on selected option on the left? Would I be able to easily reference to those forms in VBA later on?

  6. #6
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    isladogs is offline MVP / VIP
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    @Thomasso
    It certainly looks pretty but will be extremely difficult to do...that is if its possible to achieve all that functionality with Access
    If you succeed, please post an example database showing how it was done

    One of the most complex forms I created was a Staff Home page which has 11 subforms (not all visible at once) which are docked as shown below.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Each subform contains info relevant to the staff role and with many links to other program features related to that role.
    It works very well but was VERY challenging to do with many hours of development work.

    Perhaps I'm wrong but I think what you are trying to achieve will be many times more complex to create. Good luck!
    Colin, Access MVP, Website, email
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  7. #7
    Thomasso is offline Competent Performer
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    That looks good. I don't need all the displayed functionality, like the KANBAN stuff or the pipeline... It's about the basic functionality - left side blocks and right side content

  8. #8
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    isladogs is offline MVP / VIP
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    Ah, that will probably be a lot easier ��
    Excuse my ignorance but are KANBAN blocks the squiggly 'chart' below Dashboard? Or is that the pipeline?

    Recommend you avoid the built in navigation form. Although it will create the left side blocks easily, its far too restrictive in what you can do with it.
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  9. #9
    Thomasso is offline Competent Performer
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    KANBAN blocks are the things like New Deal, Negotiation and so on, below the chart. Basically it's used if you deal with stuff in different stages, so you can clearly see things like business deals that are currently in the stage of negotiation, waiting for the client's response and so on... Pretty useful especially in project management :-)

    Pipeline is the "chart".

    A disclaimer: I didn't create the system above, I actually just googled CRM design examples and this is the one that I liked the most and would like to replicate the design...

    ---
    So if we're talking "only" about the blocks on the left side, which would populate the right side based on the selection, how would you tackle that?
    (I don't use anything built in, everything through the design mode)...

  10. #10
    isladogs's Avatar
    isladogs is offline MVP / VIP
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thomasso View Post

    A disclaimer: I didn't create the system above, I actually just googled CRM design examples and this is the one that I liked the most and would like to replicate the design...

    So if we're talking "only" about the blocks on the left side, which would populate the right side based on the selection, how would you tackle that?
    (I don't use anything built in, everything through the design mode)...
    Hi
    That part is relatively easy to create.
    The screenshots below show how I would do it. Doing that took about 10 minutes to create

    Design View
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Form View
    Click image for larger version. 

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    I've just used standard Access icons to save time. In my opinion, they don't look great.
    Finding suitable images for your purposes could take longer

    I would create an empty subform 'master' and place that on the main form as shown. Remove the vertical line I used for display purposes
    Then create several subforms of exactly the same size as the master subform with the content you require for each button in the left sidebar.

    When a button is clicked, set the source object of the master subform to the subform associated with that button.
    Hope that makes sense

    In case its any help at all, I'll upload the form I created. Mine is a borderless popup form. Use whatever you want
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Colin, Access MVP, Website, email
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  11. #11
    Thomasso is offline Competent Performer
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    Brilliant, I didn't expect that you would actually create the thing... Thanks so much! Sorry for being ignorant, but how do I set the source object?

  12. #12
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    Hello Thomasso, this has given me inspiration to spice my CRM application up that I have been building since May last year!

    I'm going to crack on with something similar to what isladogs kindly created for you and will post a copy when I manage to complete.

    At the moment my users are currently using buttons to navigate back and forth via the home page to access the different forms as below:-
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails CRM Home Page.jpg  

  13. #13
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    isladogs is offline MVP / VIP
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    I only created a basic framework as an example. I'm sure you can improve on that. Anyway I've left you all the hard work to do.

    On a button click event, you would use something like
    Code:
    Private Sub Me.cmdProfile_Click()
         'set the master subform source object to the fSubProfile subform you have created
         Me.fsubformMaster.SourceObject = "fsubProfile"
    
    End Sub
    Then all you need to do when another button is clicked is to change the source object to that subform instead
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  14. #14
    Thomasso is offline Competent Performer
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    Excellent, thanks!

  15. #15
    CJ_London is online now VIP
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    I use this method in many of my apps but with a twist

    Sometimes users need more than one form open at the same time, or even the same form but displaying different records.

    So I provide a button which creates a new instance of the subform as a pop up (google ‘access form instances’ for how to do this). With a bit of trickery the pop up ‘floats off the main form’ and moves over a bit and the user can then move it to where they want it.

    There are limits on what you can do if your form has complex code as some code will affect all instances but does have its uses

Please reply to this thread with any new information or opinions.

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