Dwight Wilbanks BLOG | Hiding Column Formulas

Friday, July 20th 2007

Hiding Column Formulas - Development tip07/20/2007 01:11 PM

Most of my work recently has been web based, and the users don't have client access to the databases. All maintenance and other nondevelopment activity is done over the web.

So, sometime I don't hide HTML based view columns, I just leave them showing so, as I'm developing if I need to look at the raw generated HTML its very easy.

Recently I've had the desire for a "visible sometimes" column, which leads me to this quick post. If the concept was any more difficult, I would take forever to make the post, then finally quit writing before completion.

On the column properties (beanie tab) use this formula:

@Environment( "ShowHiddenColumns" )!="Yes"

Then create a toolbar button with this formula:

EnvName:="ShowHiddenColumns";
NewVal:=@If(@Environment( EnvName )="Yes";"No";"Yes");
@Environment( EnvName ;NewVal)

The only thing that is missing is refreshing the view, currently, I have to switch to a different view, then back to the one with the "sometimes hidden" column

Bonus tip:
I always label my column headers beginning with "H-" and change the label color to red. Since this is only seen in then designer its helpful to separate programmatic columns VS display columns.
Bonus tip 2:
For hidden columns that are used to return data (like @implode(fullname:address:city:state:zip;"~")), the column number is important, concider putting it in the label like this:

H-Column 5-Lookup

Also concider puting the lookup values in column 1 if your not sorting on it. That allows your lookup views to also be used and customized for developer maintenance too.

Anyone still reading?

Comments :

1. Martin07/22/2007 04:53:03 AM
Homepage: http://martinhumpolec.cz/blog

Still reading :) Just curious about tip 2, because you didn't finish it - will you use this name in @DbLookup?