Enterprise Portal Action Pane User Experience Guidelines
Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Like a Microsoft Dynamics AX client action pane, an Enterprise Portal action pane appears at the top of list pages and forms, and it is divided into tabs that can contain button groups. Each button group has action buttons that can be used to do the following:
Move to other pages.
Add, remove, or modify records.
Perform common tasks for a selected record, such as creating a new sales order or viewing a profile for a selected customer.
The action pane in Enterprise Portal differs slightly from the Microsoft Dynamics AX client action pane in the following areas:
Site actions tab
Browse tab and breadcrumb
Mode (view/edit) switching in entity details forms and their command grouping
The purpose of this page is to highlight the differences.
Example of an Enterprise Portal action pane
.png "Action pane for Customer list page")
Example of an Enterprise Portal action pane
Design concepts
For each page, the actions that the user can carry out should be displayed in one central location. Some actions are used more frequently than others are, and they should be easier to access. Therefore, actions for similar tasks should be found together. Different roles need different sets of actions, and they do not need to see the actions for other roles. An action pane addresses all of these issues. Additionally, an action pane resembles the ribbon in Microsoft® Office, making its use familiar to Office users.
Guidelines
This section includes both general guidelines and guidelines for specific uses of an Enterprise Portal action pane. It also includes guidelines for when an action pane should not be used.
General guidelines
All Enterprise Portal list pages should have an action pane. For information about how to design an action pane for a list page, see the Action Pane User Experience Guidelines topic.
Important
The action pane UX guidelines for such things as command layout, grouping configurations, icon uses, label consistency, and group order apply to both the Enterprise Portal and the Microsoft Dynamics AX client list pages. However, The action pane UX guidelines for an Enterprise Portal task form are different from the Microsoft Dynamics AX client task form guidelines because of the platform and commit model differences.
All primary entity details forms should have an action pane.
An Enterprise Portal action pane should have no more than 10 tabs.
Specific guidelines
Enterprise Portal action pane on list pages
Examples of an Enterprise Portal action pane with callouts
.png "Enlargement of action pane")
Examples of an Enterprise Portal action pane with callouts
.png "Action pane with callouts")
Note the following elements of an Enterprise Portal action pane on list pages:
Site Actions – This is a button generated by Microsoft SharePoint®. It contains actions to modify the site, the current page, and more. It only appears in Enterprise Portal navigation pages (Role centers, area pages, and list pages), not in task forms. The content of this menu is the same for all pages.
Browse tab – This tab appears only on Enterprise Portal navigation pages and not in task forms. It is mainly there to show the breadcrumb and to align and be consistent with SharePoint 2010. It is always placed as the first tab on the action pane. The Browse tab is generated automatically and does not need to be implemented in the application.
Breadcrumb – As in SharePoint, the Browse tab contains a breadcrumb to show where the user currently is within the navigation hierarchy. The breadcrumb is generated automatically and does not need to be implemented in the application.
Page description – A brief description of the current page.
.png "Enlargement of Browse tab")
RoleTailored tabs – All tabs except for the General tab are RoleTailored, meaning that they are related to an activity or a set of related activities performed by one or more roles. As soon as a record is selected on a list page, the first tab after the Browse tab is put in focus. Because the first record is always selected by default on list pages, the Enterprise Portal action pane always has focus on the second tab by default when the user navigates to a list page. The user can click the Browse tab to see the breadcrumb. The automatic tab switching on selection is standard SharePoint ribbon user interface behavior and provides easy access to essential actions and alignment with the list page interaction model in the Microsoft Dynamics AX client.
General tab – The General tab is not associated with a specific activity, but contains actions that are used by all roles on an infrequent basis.
Enterprise Portal action pane in details forms
An Enterprise Portal action pane should be used in view forms and in new/edit forms.
Enterprise Portal action pane tabs in view forms
View tab
In a view form, the first action pane tab should be named “View” and the first button group should be named “Maintain”, and they should be placed on the left side of the action pane. The view form should include the following groups:
Maintain – This should be the first group on the left side of the action pane, and it should include Edit and Close actions. Note that the Close action also appears as a button at the bottom of the form but is repeated on the action pane because it might be out of view if there is more content on the form than can fit on the screen. Because the action pane does not move when the user scrolls through the form, this ensures that the Close action is always available.
Edit button – When viewing an entity, the user can "switch" (navigate) to edit mode, which closes the view form and opens the edit form.
Close button – Closes the form.
.png "Action pane for a details form in view mode")
Note
There is no Delete action in the Maintain group, or anywhere on the action pane, for details forms in Enterprise Portal.
Note
If there is no Edit action, then the Maintain group only has a Close button.
Common actions – Shortcuts to common actions that would be useful to users across roles. These should be the most common actions that users across roles would need when viewing the entity. With the few exceptions noted for the New and Maintain groups, these actions should be the same as those found on the list page.
Attachments – Includes an Attachments action, which opens the document handling form. This button group should always be placed last on the View tab.
There is no New group or actions that create a new entity on any action pane on Enterprise Portal details forms. The New group and actions are found only on the list page.
RoleTailored tabs
RoleTailored tabs contain actions related to an activity or a set of related activities performed by one or more roles. These RoleTailored tabs only appear in view mode for a details form. See the Action Pane User Experience Guidelines topic for how to design RoleTailored tabs. The RoleTailored tabs should be the same as the ones on the list page.
General tab (optional)
The General tab contains actions that are used by all roles on an infrequent basis. The General tab should be placed in the rightmost position on the action pane, and it should include the following groups and buttons:
- Related Information – All menu items to related content for this group should be organized and placed on the General tab. This group should always be placed in the rightmost position on the tab.
Enterprise Portal action pane tabs in new/edit forms
The action pane in a new/edit form should only include commands specific to the task of editing the record on that form. The reason for this is that Enterprise Portal does not have an immediate commit model. Therefore, changes made to the entity would not be reflected immediately. For example, a transaction created from the entity details form will not show up immediately if the data has not yet been saved.
Edit tab
In the edit form, the first action pane tab should be named “Edit” and the first button group should be named “Commit”. The tab should include the following groups:
Commit – This should be the first group on the left side, and it should include Save and close and Close actions. These actions also appear as commit buttons at the bottom of the form but are repeated on the action pane because they might be out of view if there is more content on the form than can fit on the screen. Because the action pane does not move when the user scrolls through the form, this ensures that the Commit actions are always available.
Save and close – Saves the edits made to the data and closes the form.
Close – Closes the form. Note that edits made to grids are saved to the database for each line. Therefore, clicking Close will only cancel the edits made to fields on the form, but not to grids.
.png "Commit group of action pane in edit form")
After clicking Save and close or Close in the edit form, focus should be given back to the list page where the entity was opened from. The same item should still be selected within the grid.
Common actions – Shortcuts to common actions that would be useful to users across roles. These should be the most common actions that users across roles would need when editing the entity. With the few exceptions noted for the New and Maintain groups, these actions should be the same as those found on the list page.
Attachments – Includes an Attachments action, which opens the document handling form. This button group should always be placed last on the Create tab. Not all forms need attachments.
Note
The Create tab appears only in new mode when the user clicks New customer, for example.
Note
There are no New and Delete actions on any action pane in Enterprise Portal details forms. The New and Delete actions are only found on the list page.
RoleTailored tabs
RoleTailored tabs contain actions related to an activity or a set of related activities performed by one or more roles. These RoleTailored tabs only appear in edit mode for a details form. See the Action Pane User Experience Guidelines for how to design RoleTailored tabs. The RoleTailored tabs should be the same as the ones on the list page.
General tab (optional)
The General tab contains actions that are used by all roles on an infrequent basis. The General tab should be placed in the rightmost position on the action pane, and it should include the following groups and buttons:
- Related Information – All menu items to related content for this group should be organized and placed on the General tab. This group should always be placed in the rightmost position on the tab.
Enterprise Portal action pane on navigation pages
Role centers
The Browse tab should show a breadcrumb and should be selected by default.
The action pane should have a Personalize tab with a command to switch the page to edit mode that will allow users to add Web parts to their Role centers.
.png "Browse tab of Role center showing breadcrumb")
Area pages
The Browse tab should be selected by default and should show the breadcrumb.
Area pages should have no additional tabs or commands.
.png "Browse tab of area page")
An Enterprise Portal action pane should not be used
On simple task forms that have fewer than two actions.
In wizards.
In dialogs.
For line items or local areas of the form, such as the Create, Read, Update, or Delete actions on items on an order form. A toolbar above the line items grid should be used instead.
Additionally
A Browse tab should not be used on task form action panes.
A Site Actions button should not be used on task form action panes.