Designing List Pages

The List page type displays records from an underlying table, either as rows and columns or as individual tiles.

Overview

You design list pages when you want to provide users with a collection of data, enabling them to get an overview of and find entities to work with, such as customers, vendors, or sales orders. Typically, a list page will link to an associated card page that lets users view or modify specific entities in the list.

There are different ways to incorporate a list page into that application:

• Make the list page available from the navigation of a Role Center page.

  This gives users quick access to the page. With this implementation, the list page opens in the content area of the Role Center page, where the Role Center's navigation area is still present and accessible at the top of the page. For more information about Role Centers, see Designing Role Centers.

• Make the list page available from an action on another page.

  With this implementation, the list page opens in a separate window in front of the current page.

• Make the list page searchable from the Tell me what you want to do feature.

  With this implementation, the list page also opens in a separate window. For more information, see Adding Pages and Reports to Search.

Customizing a list pages from the client

In the client, users can personalize list pages by rearranging or hiding records or FactBoxes as they like. For more information, see Personalizing Your Workspace.

As a developer or administrator, you can use Designer to customize the list page the same way that individual users personalize their own work spaces. The difference is that changes you make are applied to all users. For more information, see Use Designer.

Structure

General definition

A list page is defined by a page that has the PageType property set to List and SourceTable property set to the table object that contains the records that you want to display.

To associate a list page with a card page, which enables users to view, edit, or create records, you set the CardPageId property of the list page.

For a simple code example of a list page, see Simple List Page Example.

Structure

The following figure illustrates the general layout and elements of a list page.

The following table describes the elements of a typical list page.

No.	Area	Description	Usage Guidelines
1	List	Displays records of the source table as rows and columns, where each row is a record and the columns are the fields. You define the list by adding a repeater() control within the area(Content) control of the page, and then add field() controls for each field that you want to display. For more information about the repeater control, see Work with repeater controls.	The order of the field controls determines the order they appear on the page.
2	Tile view	Renders records in a list as tiles (or bricks). Client users can toggle between the list and tile view. As a developer, to enable a list to be displayed as tiles, you must specify the table fields that you want to include in the tiles. You do this by adding a fieldgroup(Brick; <Field>) keyword in the code of the source table. For more information, see Displaying Data as Tiles.	You can design any list page to display as tiles. The tile view is particularly beneficial for lists with records that include media or images, such a customers, contacts, and items lists. For more information about adding media to records, see Working With Media on Records.
3	Action bar	The action bar provides links to other pages, reports, and codeunits. The action bar is defined by an actions control in the page code, and individual actions are defined by an action() control. Actions can be displayed on three standard menus in the action bar, Actions, Navigate, and Report, or in promoted categories, which are like custom menus that you define. You can arrange actions on these menus in the root-level or grouped in a sub-menu. The objects targeted by these links will open in a separate window. For more information, see Adding Actions to a Page.	Organize the action bar to contain the actions that users need to complete a task, such as posting, running a report, and opening another page with related information. Place the most important action at the root-level, and group closely related actions in a sub-menu.
4	Promoted actions	Promoted actions are actions that are defined in the area() control like any other action in code, but are configured to display on a higher level in the action bar, in a specific category that you define. You promote actions by setting various Promoted-related properties on action() controls. For more information, see Promoted Actions.	Promote an action to give it the most prominent placement for users to find it easily. Actions that are promoted appear first in the actions bar. Actions that are not promoted are available to the user by selecting More options in the action bar.
5	FactBoxes	FactBoxes are located on the right-most side of a page and it is divided into one or more parts that are arranged vertically. Each part can display different content including other pages, charts, and system parts such as Microsoft Outlook, Notes, and Record Links. For more information, see Adding a FactBox to a Page.	Typically, you can use a FactBox to display information that is related to an item on the main content page. For example, on a page that shows a sales order list, you can use a FactBox to show sell-to customer sales history for a selected sales order in the list.
6	Search	A cross-column, text-based search box at the top of the page that provides users a quick and easy way to reduce the records in a list and display only those records that contain the data that they are interested in seeing. The Search appears on all list pages, and requires no additional coding. For more information, see Searching, Filtering, and Sorting Data in the user help for Business Central.
7	Filter pane	The filter pane enables users to apply filters on one or more fields in the list to limit the records that are displayed. Client users can toggle the filter pane on and off as needed. For more information about how to use the filter pane, see Searching, Filtering, and Sorting Data	The Filter pane is available on all list pages, with no extra coding required. However, as a developer, you can define sets of special words, called filter tokens, which are kind of like predefined filters. Users can then enter these filter tokens in the filter pane to quickly filter the list to display the desired data. For more information, see Adding Filter Tokens. Also, you can set FlowFilters on the list that enable users to adjust various dimensions that influence calculated fields. The FlowFilters appear in the Filter totals by section of the filter pane. For information about adding FlowFilters, see FlowFilters.

Important

List pages are designed for using a single repeater() control within the content area only. If you include more than one repeater or another control like a group or grid, the page might not behave as expected. If you want to design a page that includes controls in the content area other than a repeater, then try using a Worksheet page type instead. For more information, see Worksheet page layouts.

Behavior points

• The Editable property on a list page controls if all rows on the list can be edited. If a list page has Editable set to true, the Edit list icon is available in the action bar and by clicking the icon, the user can edit values across rows.
• List pages that are accessed from the Role Center page open embedded within the Role Center framework. The pages are always opened in the read-only mode, regardless of the Editable property.
• There are a few system actions that are automatically added to the actions bar, such as Search, See Attached and Open in Excel.
• Analysis mode is enabled by default on list pages. If you want to turn off this ability, set the AnalysisModeEnabled property to false.
• The Edit in Excel action is enabled by default on list pages (for users with the right permissions). If you want to turn off this ability, see Controlling Edit in Excel on list pages.
• Media and image fields only display in tile view.

Developer tips

From the user's perspective, the following are qualities of a well-designed list page does the following:

• Displays a single collection of entities or entries that the user needs for their work.
• Includes page title that clearly identifies the collection and any specific view that is in effect.
• Places the most important columns first, and enable a freeze column, so scrolling is not typically necessary. You enable a freeze column by setting the FreezeColumn property of the page.
• The page is accessible from relevant actions on the Role Center page.
• Includes one or two FactBoxes to give necessary statistics and quick access to related documents.
• The most typical actions for users of the page are promoted.

Important

List pages are designed for using a single repeater() control within the content area only. If you include more than one repeater or another control like a group or grid, the page might not behave as expected. If you want to design a page that includes controls in the content area other than a repeater, then try using a Worksheet page type instead.

Designing for devices

For the most part, mobile devices will display the same content as the Web client, but it is presented in different way to suit how users hold and interact with their mobile device.

You can preview how your page will look on mobile devices directly in Designer.

Limit the columns

Design list pages to avoid having important columns on the far right of the column list. Assume you have no control over how many columns are displayed and consider that only the first few columns will be made visible.

Design for the tile view

On mobile devices, records are only displayed as tiles. By default, the first 5 fields defined on the page are used in the tiles. So, it is important that you configure a fieldgroup(Brick; <Field> control in the table code to display the desired fields. For more information, see Field Groups.

Promote actions

Only promoted actions will display on mobile devices, so make sure you promote the actions that are most useful to users. For more information, see Promoted Actions.

Configure actions to display in shortcut menu on rows

Using the Scope (Action) property, configure actions to display in the shortcut menu that is available on each row. You typically do this for common actions that relate to records in the list, such as the Line Comments action. This gives users a more direct way to invoke actions that relate to the selected row or line.

Configure the gesture for actions

Using the Gesture property, configure the swipe direction for running actions on a device with a touch interface.

See Also

AL Development Environment
Page Types and Layouts
Page Extension Object
Actions Overview
Adding Pages and Reports to Search
Personalizing Your Workspace
Use Designer