Place components on tabs

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Applies to: TBM Studio 12.0 and later

If you have a series of related components you want to put in a report, but do not want to spread them out over a large area of the report, you can place the components in a tabbed group. The user then can select a tab to display a specific component or components. All components except grouping boxes can be placed on a tab. A sample tabbed group is shown in the following image:

Add a tabbed group

From the Report tab, click the Tabs icon.

Take actions in tabbed groups

The actions you can take in a tabbed group are described below:

To: Do this:
Add a tab to the group Click the tab with the + sign and enter a name for the tab in the Edit Tab field. To save the tab, press Enter.
Add a component to a tab Create the component on the reporting surface and drag it into the tabbed group. You can add more than one component to a tab.
Remove a component from a tab Drag the component out of the tabbed group or click the delete icon in the upper-right corner of the component.
Change the order of the tabs Select a tab and click the left/right double arrow icons (<<) (>>) below the tabbed group box.
Delete a tab Select the tab and click the Delete icon below the tabbed group box.
Resize the group box Click and drag the borders.
Add background color to a tab Right-click in the tab and select Properties from the pop-up menu. On the General tab of the Properties dialog, select a color from the Tab Background Color field. You can select a different color for each tab.

Set the properties

To set the properties for the tabbed group, display the Properties dialog by doing one of the following:
  • In the upper-left corner of the tabbed group, click the small triangle next to the component name to display the Actions menu. From the Actions menu, click Properties.
  • Right-click anywhere within the borders of the component and click Properties from the pop-up menu.

General properties

  • Name - Enter a name to be displayed in the component header above the component when Show Header is selected.
  • Caption - Enter additional information about the component. The information is displayed based on the setting of the Caption Position field.
  • Caption Position - From the list, select a caption position relative to the button: Top, Bottom, Left, or Right, or select Hide to not display the caption.
  • Show Header - The component header displays the contents of the Name field. Select this option to make the component header visible (the default). When the header is hidden, you can pause the mouse pointer on the component to display it when in Edit mode.
  • Show Border - Select this option to display a border around the table. When the border is hidden, you can pause the mouse pointer on the component to display it when in Edit mode.
  • Wrap Title - Wraps the text entered in the Name field to accommodate the width of the component.
  • Tab Background Color - Select a color for the background of the tabs. This setting applies to all tabs in the group.

Advanced properties

Auto Refresh when Calculations Finish - When the application displays a tab component, it displays it with the calculated data currently available. In many cases, the application may be calculating new values in the background. If you want the results displayed when the calculations are complete, check this option.

Place components in a tabbed group

Ideally, you want components in a tabbed group to move with the group if you reposition it. For components to move with the group, they must be positioned well within the borders of the group. To ensure they are placed correctly:
  • Right-click on the object heading and click Position and Size in the pop-up menu.
  • In the Set Position and Size dialog, set the X and Y coordinates to zero.

Use the resulting margins as starting points for positioning the object. You can increase the margins and the object will move with the group. If you decrease the margins, the object will be decoupled from the group.

Control the display of tabs

When you add a tabbed group to a report, you can use dynamic text to control which tabs are displayed. Dynamic text can reference a data set, or it can use an If statement with filters.

The options for controlling the tabs are:
  • enabled: tab is visible and selectable
  • hidden: tab is not visible
  • disabled: tab is visible but not selectable

The options can be applied to all tabs in a group except the first tab. The first tab will always be visible and selectable.

The example below uses the value "hidden" from a data set called TabStatus:

<%=TabStatus:Hidden%>

The data set might look like the following with a header row and a value row:

Enabled Hidden Disabled
enabled hidden disabled

An example If statement is shown below:

<%=If(GetLastFilterValue()="Sales","hidden","enabled")%>

The above example will only work on a filtered report.

To make tabs conditionally enabled or hidden based on the user's role, use the following IF statement:

<%=IF(eval("{$CurrentUser}:{Users.Role}")
      ="Admin","enabled","hidden")%>
To specify the settings for the tabs:
  1. Select the tabbed group.
  2. From the Tabs tab, click Visibility.
  3. Enter a reference to a data set or an If statement for each tab (except Tab 1 which is always visible).
  4. Click Save.