Hey all!

I have a BIP I've developed that utilizes an HTML form with controls the pass filtering values to all content on the portal/page. My issue is that, when I launch the portal, all the content loads fairly quickly but displays the auto amper prompting for as long as it takes the HTML form to finish loading to finally provide the initial refresh of all the other content. Is there a best practice or method to get the content to not display the auto amper prompting even though it does need values passed to it still so the portal doesn't look super tacky upon launch?

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CoolGuy,

if you use -DEFAULTH &VAR1=''; it will hide the auto prompt for that variable. Is this something that you are refering to?

I was just about to write a new post or edit my existing one to say that I just switched my -DEFAULTs to -DEFAULTHs and that is better that having the auto prompting facility pop up.

Is there a way I could set up the content to show a loading .gif until my HTML form finishes loading? Or something even better than the "Your request did not return any output to display..." message that now displays?

Thanks though eric.woerle.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CoolGuy,

That what we ended up doing here.

And also we added a check to see if the parms were supplied and then returned a blank page so nothing showed up till, a run button was clicked or load task is run.

Waz,

Thanks for your input. How did you go about implementing the check and blank page displaying until parms were supplied? I am very interested in how you did that. I would love to do the same here.

Again, thank you so much for what help you are willing to give.

Our set up always uses a set of parameters and a run button.

I've added a hidden variable set to Y that is passed with all the parameters.

We then have a common module that checked the variable, if its Y, then let it through, otherwise show the blank page. its one of the first things that is run, so its quick(er).

Waz,

Thanks for your additional help. Let me see if I'm reading you correctly:

You have a set up (a form I'm guessing) that has a set of controls that each pass a parameter to content via the run button much like we have here. You add a hidden variable somehow that is set to Y within the form also? Which control type did you use? Or where/how is this hidden variable implemented? Also, your common module or function for checking if that variable is Y...is placed or included in each piece of content? If it's not too much to ask, would you be willing to share your code for this? I'm somewhat new to .js so it would help greatly. I really appreciate your willingness to continue to help me and share your cool concept. (And that is coming from CoolGuy... lol)

Thanks!

There is not much to share, its all point and click.

Our parameter HTML file is built in composer, we created the parameter and attached it to a hidden control that is set to Y.

Then in our common fex that initialises stuff, it checks the variable to see if it is a Y, if not then return the blank page.

We've done the same thing with &VAR.EXISTS

-IF &VAR.EXISTS EQ 0 THEN GOTO :WAITING

and down at

-:WAITING
-HTMLFORM PLS-WAIT
-EXIT

PLS_WAIT is just very simple HMTL page that states "Please wait. Page loading"

This stops the report from running before the "Magic" Filters and again when the filters load.

I wish IB would implement a way to priortize a report or HTML page in the Portal

Stu

Waz and StuBouyer,

Thank you for your insights! I rally appreciate it! I think I finally understand enough to get it to work for our content.

Add an additional hidden control set to "Y" (or whatever) that gets passed along with the other params once the filters load completely. All the while having (as StuBouyer describes) a conditional expression written in the DM language checking if either that hidden variable value exists or not or we could check if it EQ "Y". If it isn't "Y", GOTO the HTML page saying please hold on while the filters load; or if the "Y" value does finally get passed, run the rest of the .fex for the content to load.

Thanks a bunch guys!

BTW: I'm with you StuBouyer! They need to implement that. I actually got an IB tech support guy to put that functionality in as a NPR with David Glick's "blessing" from another thread. Hope to see it come included in a not so distant future release!

I know i'm late to this party here. But another thought came to me... If these reports are wrapped in an HTML page... why not set that page no not execute on open, and let the magic filters run the first execution? Of course I don't have 8104, so I would be doing it custom and have that control. So this might not help...

Eric,

Your method works as long as the reports are always wrapped in HTML pages or you (as the developer) add them to the portal and control the auto-execute.

However when you create a bunch of individual reports to allow your users to assemble their own dashboards you loose that control and often see the dreaded double run. This is really evident when you get 4 or 5 graphs and the same number of KPIs or tabular reports on a Portal. Especailly if your -DEFAULT values are _FOC_NONE

Cheers

Stu