Changing the appearance of M3 list cells with conditional styles is easy but in some cases you need to do things that require logic that cannot be expressed with conditional styles alone. This post will show you how to change the style of list cells in M3 lists using JScript, custom data templates and custom data template selectors.
Author Archives: norpe
Function expressions in variable replacements
This post is an introduction to the enhancements made to the variable replacement functionality in Smart Office 10.2. The variable replacement syntax now supports function expressions that adds the possibility to modify values during a variable replacement.
Function expressions are currently supported in many places that uses variable replacements. Some examples are M3 toolbox shortcuts, Mashup parameters and links, Mashup controls such as WebBrowser and FileBrowser and data service parameters. Smart Links do not support function expressions in the current 10.2 release but this has been addressed and support for function expressions in Smart Links will ship in the next fix pack for Smart Office 10.2. Continue reading
Hyperlink columns in M3 lists
This post is a follow-up to a question in the comment section on a previous post called Adding a new column in a M3 List. The question was how to add a clickable hyperlink in a new list column. This could be solved in a generic way by creating your own data template and template selector or by reusing existing functionality in MForms. In this post I will just cover the second part by reusing existing functionality. The more generic solution for custom content in list cells might be covered in a future post.
Icons and icon buttons
When the new style for Smart Office was introduced in version 10.1.0 we also added a new set of icons. There are now almost two hundred icons that can be used on buttons, menus or to convey information in an application. In addition to the new icons a couple of controls were added to make it easy to use the icons. These new controls are the Icon, IconButton and CommandBarButton in the Mango.DesignSystem namespace. Continue reading
Handling navigation events in a modal browser window using JScript
This post will cover a very specific scenario that relates to the areas of modal tasks, the WebBrowser control and navigation events. We got a question on how to close a modal browser window in Smart Office when the browser control navigated to a specific URL. The answer is not obvious so this post will show one way to solve this using JScript. Continue reading
Introduction to MForms extensions
When extending the functionality of M3 panels in MForms you have three different options and these are JScript files, Script assemblies and MForms extensions. MForms extensions allow you to do similar things as with a regular JScript files but extensions are Smart Office features, written in a .NET language such as C#. The way extensions are deployed, configured and registered is also somewhat different compared to how you usually do with JScript.
This post is a brief introduction of how to create and deploy an MForms extension using the Smart Office SDK. Note that if you don’t have access to the SDK you will not be able follow along in the example on your own. I will also assume that you are familiar with the Smart Office SDK and will mainly focus on what is specific for MForms extensions.
Script assemblies in MForms
The most common way to extend the functionality of M3 panels in MForms is to use JScript files but there are other options such as Script assemblies and MForms extensions. With Script assemblies you can write code in most languages supported by .NET such as C# and VB.Net and you can actually debug your code using Visual Studio. Instead of deploying the script as a JScript file you use a .NET assembly in the form of a DLL file.
Inline personalizations in M3 Mashups
The Inline personalizations functionality in M3 Mashups can be used to deploy personalizations as part of a Mashup. Instead of relying on the personalizations for the regular programs you can create custom personalizations that are only used in Mashups and that do not affect the other personalizations.
Support for inline personalizations was added in Smart Office version 10.0.5.0 but there have been some fixes so this functionality should only be used with Smart Office 10.0.5.1 or later.
Getting values from M3 panels with Jscript
Almost every M3 script needs to get values from the panel it is running on at some point and there are quite a few different ways to accomplish this. The script might need the value of a specific TextBox, the value of a cell on the selected list row or it might need to know what the name of the current program is. These are just a few examples and there are many more. This post will show how to get values from M3 panels in the most common scenarios.
Custom list templates in M3 Mashups
Support for custom list templates in M3 Mashups was added in Smart Office version 10.0.3. The requirement was to be able to display lists in a more compact way, similar to a card view list. The settings dialog for the M3 ListPanel control now have the option to choose two different List styles called Standard and Template. The Template List style lets you to create a custom list template that defines how the list rows are displayed in the list. Continue reading
Tooltips with MI data in M3 lists
A script requirement we recently heard of was to be able to show tooltips on cells in a M3 list and that the tooltip value should be retrieved using a MI-program. The specific requirement was to get the user name for list columns that contains M3 user IDs. The idea is to use this in M3 lists where the user ID is shown in a column but the user name is not part of the list. Continue reading
M3 Bookmark URI syntax in MForms
This post describes the M3 Bookmark URI syntax that is used in MForms. Knowing the bookmark URI syntax is important when generating URIs within Smart Office using scripts or in other scenarios such as external applications that links to Smart Office with task parameters that contains a bookmark URI. Continue reading
Using M3 language constants in JScript
Using M3 language constants in JScript is a requirement that has been received from several sources recently. In Mashups it has been possible to use M3 constants and messages for some time using the markup extension MForms.Mashup.ConstantExtension. JScript developers however have been out of luck and have had to use other means of translating texts in scripts that targets more than one language. Continue reading
Printing from a Mashup
In Smart Office 10.0.4 a new Mashup control was added that adds basic printing supports to Mashups. Before you get too excited it should be noted that this functionality is more like print screen and it does not support pagination or output formatting. The new PrintControl supports printing of parts of the Mashup or the entire Mashup window. The output can be sent to a printer, a print preview window or to a file. Continue reading
Improvements in JScript logging
Introduction
Since there is no way to debug a JScript in LSO developers have to use other means to find errors. This can include writing to the debug console in the Script Tool, writing to the Smart Office log file or the classic, showing dialog boxes.
In many cases you want to write both to the debug console for development purposes and to the log file for troubleshooting deployed scripts. One way to solve this is to create your own wrapper functions that does both these things and some of you have probably done this already. To make logging a bit easier from JScript we have added some new methods and properties to the ScriptDebugConsole class. First I will describe how a log wrapper function might be implemented and then how the new API methods can be used to remove the need for a wrapper function. Continue reading
Using date bookmark keys in M3 Mashups
This post describes some of things you need to be aware of when building a Mashup using bookmarks that have dates as part of the primary key. The first part is a rather long discussion of why things are the way they are but if you’re just interested in how to get things working you can skip this and jump to the second part directly. Continue reading
Using JScript and a Mashup to browse for values on M3 panels
The goal of this post is to show how JScript and Mashups can be used to extend the browse functionality in M3. The idea is simple, instead of using the M3 Browse dialog to find a field value on a panel a custom built Mashup is used instead. The Mashup can use M3 panels with Enterprise Search, data services and all the other Mashup controls to improve the browse experience for the user.
The solution consists of two parts, a generic JScript and one or more browse Mashups. The browse Mashup is started using a button or a keyboard shortcut, the user selects something in the Mashup and then one or more values from the Mashup are used to update fields on the panel. The rest of the post will cover a simple browse Mashup and the important parts of the JScript. Continue reading
Validating M3 panels using JScript and MI programs before a request
The scenario for this post is to be able to verify something on a panel in a M3 program before a request is submitted to the M3 BE server. The validation in the example will be made using a MI program that is called asynchronously. The example is not a realistic case but it is easy to test and can be modified and generalized for real business cases. Note that the script is just an example and not intended for production use. Continue reading
Modal task URIs
In Lawson Smart Office (LSO) version 10.0.0 two generic URI parameters were added to support modal tasks. The requirement was to be able to launch any LSO URI in a modal window.
A modal window is a child window that requires users to interact with it before they can return to operating the parent application (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_window). There are many scenarios where this could be useful (if a modal behavior is desired) such as Mashups, personalized links, navigator links, canvas shortcuts etc. Continue reading
Developing for Infor Smart Office 