Welcome to Coach's Corner my name is Jonathan Leigh and I'm one of the FileMaker coaches here at Richard Carlton consulting.
For this Coach's Corner I want to talk about directed workflow an important design consideration in developing custom apps when a user of your application is completing a process. Such as creating a new project or entering a transaction.
FileMaker Training
You may need them to follow a very controlled ordered set of steps, this is what we call directed workflow. I'm going to demo this using a follow up system I’ve built leveraging this idea. Here's the system in action you'll notice we keep a limited number of items on the screen at a time to help with the users decision-making process.
In the background as we go through this process, several processes are taking place such as note logging and moving the system through these various steps by putting the information on several different screens. It allows our user to quickly make
decisions based on the limited items are seen on screen.
There are four components I really want to make a note of here, but first is this idea of using a card style window or a dialog window to keep the workflow at the forefront. We don't want users running off to other parts of the database before finishing the process.
You'll also see if I go behind the scenes here that we're leveraging a slide control to help move the users through the process. This allows for the entire process to be contained in a single layout on a single window. You'll notice I have a rather lengthy list of scripts here to help move the user through the various steps of the process.
This takes care of all the back behind the scenes data processing that needs to happen as the user completes this follow-up. And lastly one of the extra resources things you'll notice in this process is that there are several navigation options that only display once you've completed a certain step.
In the process we hide and show these based on global variables to prevent our user from moving into navigation options that they shouldn't have access to. You're going to want to plan these processes out before you set out to build them in FileMaker.
And while it may seem like a lot of work it can be a huge potential time-saver if you can successfully build a directed workflow for your processes you can improve productivity by making your database more intuitive and user friendly. As well as minimizing time spent training new employees.
That will conclude this Coach's Corner. If you have any questions or are interested in the coaching program please send an email to RCC Support
Feel free to check out our training video courses at LearningFilemaker.com
and make sure you grab a copy of our free, fully unlock solution FM starting point at FM Startingpoint.com
FileMaker Coaches' Corner - Tip 10 - Directed Workflow
— FileMaker Videos (@FileMakerVideos) February 23, 2018
In this video, Jonathan Lai explains and demoes Directed Workflows.#filemaker #coachescorner #rcc #richardcarltonconsultinghttps://t.co/yRDs59Gubb
FileMaker Coaches' Corner - Tip 10 - Directed Workflow
— RCConsulting, Inc. (@RC_Consulting) February 23, 2018
In this video, Jonathan Lai explains and demoes Directed Workflows.#filemaker #coachescorner #rcc #richardcarltonconsultinghttps://t.co/I5NX47Ps5F