Action 'prominence' / display options

[Jonathon]

A few observations / requests

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Top-right action menu

It would be nice to be able to explicitly chose which actions show up in the top-right action menu - or if the menu is displayed at all. Ideally, it would auto-hide on views where it had no assigned actions.

Often I have views with only one action, such as an add button, set to ‘Display prominently’. This creates the familiar floating button in the bottom right… I don’t need the additional menu in the top right to access the add function - users aren’t using it, I wouldn’t want them to, and it adds unnecessary clutter. Worse is, if I do want actions shown in the menu, I don’t want them to confused with the ‘Display Prominently’ actions.

Specifically, I am referring to this menu:

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Top nav bar actions
Currently some default actions, such as delete, are displayed along the top bar. We are not able to chose our own actions to place here. It would be nice to be able to specify certain types of actions to live directly on this nav bar.

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App definition / action display control
In a nutshell, it would be nice to get two additional choices as options for where to display actions: “Display in Menu”, “Display Above”, or some more meaningful wording. It may also be beneficial, for a given action, to select more than 1 display option, or to be able to use CONTEXT() in determining which display option is chosen.

Also, under UX->Options, there is a toggle: ‘Hide menu and search buttons’. It would be much better to be able to control these individually. As an example, in an application launcher, I don’t need the search function. But I still want the hamburger menu to show up, so that users can log out should they need to.

[Jonathon]

To add to this,

I REALLY wish we could force the default ‘edit’ action to only display along the top menu bar.

I would like to have display_prominently (floating) buttons to add related records in detail view. having the edit button shown here along with add buttons is confusing.

In cases where editing the parent record is only rarely needed, having that option in the top-right menu is an elegant solution.

[Kirk_Masden]

Hi @Jonathon!

I voted for this a long time ago but found myself wanting this kind of feature again today and rediscovered your request with a search. I think the top bar is an area that really needs improvement. Today I wanted to place a navigation action there with a question mark icon that would give users a way to quickly get to an explanation about how to use my app. I’ve placed various explanations in a menu view but I also need to explain how to get the menu view to show up when it’s been supplanted by a back arrow. I hope others that would like to have more control of the top bar will vote for this.

[Marc_Dillon]

I support these requests as well.

If we’re making changes to Action Prominence options, add this one to the list as well.

Allow multiple "Prominence" selections for Actions Feature Requests

I don’t see any reason why I need to be creating 2 copies of an Action if I want to display it “Prominently” in a Detail view, as well and “Inline” in a Table view (amongst other combination options one may need).

[Kirk_Masden]

Hi! I found myself wanting this again so I thought I’d write a note about why.

I would like to make my trash action (system generated) trigger another action that records the number of records remaining. I can do that with a grouped action but I lose the placement of the trash icon and this kind of functionality:

If the system-generated delete is to be “special” (work and be displayed in ways that cannot be duplicated with user-generated actions), I would like to have the ability to make a system generated delete action trigger another action. Better yet, it would be nice if AppSheet could allow us to make “special” user generated actions to fully replace system generated ones we want to tweak (displayed on top bar, capable of group delete, etc).

By posting this little comment, I hope I have improved the visibility of this important feature request, at least temporarily. If you are seeing it for the first time, please vote for it.

[Ferret]

Top-right action menu

It would be nice to be able to explicitly chose which actions show up in the top-right action menu

Until we get Tabs on Detail Views (and in some cases still after), I often desire to place an action shown as “Other Info” that takes to another view of the same record, but only have it show up in the menu on detail view in the top menu (SPECIFICALLY NOT under the detail view headers because it should be out of the way according to its frequency of use).

Top nav bar actions
Currently some default actions, such as delete, are displayed along the top bar. We are not able to chose our own actions to place here. It would be nice to be able to specify certain types of actions to live directly on this nav bar.

So far, many of the apps I build would benefit from a feature like this. Particularly, I frequently build an ‘archive’ action that toggles a Y/N value used in a security filter. It would be useful to have the ability to make buttons appear here, both on Detail views and List Type (Deck/Card/Table) views.

Also, under UX->Options, there is a toggle: ‘Hide menu and search buttons’. It would be much better to be able to control these individually.

IMO, this has gained importance now that we have Filters in Searchbars.



Thank you for your consideration of this, Appsheet, and thank you @Jonathon for posting this.

[Shawn_Crocker]

This is really needed. I am often finding myself slipping into a mode of trying everything I can think of to stop a view from having an action displayed in a bunch of places.

[gefaila]

Implementing this might also fix https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/AppSheet-Q-A/How-to-have-default-system-actions-only-display... 

[dbaum]

I particularly endorse @Kirk_Masden's use case. Given how many scenarios there are to end up with orphaned references to deleted records, it's often necessary to replace the default system Delete action with a custom group action that performs various clean-up actions and then ends with the system Delete action. It's problematic in terms of UI consistency to not be able to position the custom Delete action in the header bar where the system Delete action normally appears.

[Kirk_Masden]

Thanks for your comment about my use case, @dbaum !  I don't seem to be able to "like" your post (or any other posts) in this thread. I guess that's a characteristic of discussion in "Feature Ideas" but it strikes me as rather odd.  Has this matter already been discussed?

[Roderick]

We're actively working on making the desktop navigation more customizable this year. I don't know if what we have planned will address all the things in this request, but we are definitely trending to address most of them! We will also be addressing some of these items in the upcoming Nov. 2022 Office Hours. Keep an eye on the Release Notes for updates. 

[Roderick]

We're actively working on making the desktop nav more customizable this year. I don't know if what we have planned will address all the things in this request, but w'e're definitely going to be releasing a number of the items on your list.  

[Kirk_Masden]

I'm glad this is "planned."  I found myself wanting it again today.  Any news?

[KryptonElk]

Came here looking for this feature and wanted to particularly endorse @Jonathon's use case. I want the Edit action to be displayed only along the top menu bar and nowhere else. Indeed it would be the most elegant solution. 

I'd like to highlight to @Roderick that this feature request is not only for the desktop navigation but also for mobile navigation, where it would be a lot more useful due to the limited screen estate and limited attention span of users. Please allow actions to be moved to the top menu bar. 

[Rifad]

Hello @Roderick looks like this is something that will be really helpful  Request for Grouped Inline Action - Google Cloud Community  sounds similar to @Jonathon request. You can notice that Inline actions in desktop UI only supports 3 action per column and its stopping us from adding multiple actions thats required for a business application. It would be really great if you could consider something similar to above feature request. Thanks.