Issues No.2

Currently I'm trying to model a catalogue browsing experience. This experience includes two levels of drill, search and compare functionalities. Here is the flow diagram...



2.1 - Using dynamic link in repeating table to specify branch in decision

This requires the user to select a category...



Then a subcategory…



However I am unable to work out how to pass the content in the hyperlink to the decision so I can mockup results for both "phones" and "Accessories". In the decision editor I can only define the hyperlink as the "next" button…



This means currently no matter whether you select "phones" or "accessories" you will always end up down the Phones branch.

Of course even this multi branch approach I am taking is a problem as soon as the number of Categories grows large and really mucks up the final process model - I would very much like to be able to pass the link name to dynamically pick a test data set. I suppose the question I'm asking is - what is the best way to model multi level drill downs in Serena Composer?

Currently the only way how we can get around this is to use “hidden” fields in the repeating table as we described in our previous communication. But rather than putting the controls in a single column, it is possible to set column width to 0 and effectively hide the column. We also implemented changes to the Button/Hyperlink control to allow text to be mapped directly if the button action is not POPUP, meaning you no longer have to use the vertical line symbol ( “” ) to have the actual string reflected.

2.2 - Passing variable to interface using dynamic link

After navigating categories and subcategories the user is presented with a list of products...



The user can select an individual product to view its picture and details using the dynamic link in the "Model" column. However currently I cannot find a way to bind the data from this interface to the product details view…



Note: the text items on this screen have been defined as inputs.

This is the same problem/limitation we addressed above. Put all the details into hidden fields placed in columns with the width set to “0.”

2.3 - Retaining a dynamic link name.

After navigating categories and subcategories the user is presented with a list of products...



Should the user can select multiple products and press the "Compare" button the following comparison view is presented…



Note that the word "Hyperlink" appears where the Model No. should appear - I cannot figure out how to fix this. The mapping for this column is exactly the same as the previous view but for some reason does not pass the variable the same way.

Right now, the only workaround is to use the “hidden” field trick described above. In 2.3 we have fixed this limitation by allowing hyperlinks to support output mapping to downstream controls (i.e., whenever control has the “Has Input” checkbox enabled).

2.4 - How do I dynamically display a picture?

Have noticed that there is a "has input" feature in the image control…



In the case where I want to dynamically define which image is displayed is it just a matter of passing a text variable which exactly matches the name of an image in the content manager?

The current product doesn’t have the ability to map images dynamically, so the only solution is to fake it by having multiple interfaces.

We have changed this in 2.3 to allow input mapping to image objects in exactly the way you describe.