Breadcrumbs control

You can use the breadcrumb control to enhance navigational functionality in an application. Breadcrumb navigation tracks the steps you take in an application and helps you to retrace steps quickly. You can use a breadcrumb control by itself or in conjunction with another control, such as a tree control. You can place this control inside any container control.

A breadcrumb trail complements a hierarchical tree structure by showing a horizontal representation of where the user is in a menu structure or a service catalog. You can configure a delimiter character to separate items in the breadcrumb trail, such as the greater than character (>) or a colon (:). Each phrase or identifier between delimiters represents one step in a hierarchy.

To synchronize a tree control and a breadcrumb controls, copy the Data Source ID property from the tree control to the breadcrumb control. The following table describes how a tree control and breadcrumb control behave in the user interface when they are used in combination.

When you click . . . This happens
The label of any node A new breadcrumb trail replaces any existing breadcrumb trail and:
  • Highlights the node label in the tree
  • Displays the node label in breadcrumb
  • All levels in the tree hierarchy above the highlighted node label appear in the breadcrumb (in descending order from left to right)
The plus sign in a tree No effect.
The minus sign in a tree Highlights the right-most breadcrumb, which is the same as the node label next to the minus sign.
The dot sign in a tree The corresponding node label highlights in the tree and displays in the breadcrumb. All levels in the tree hierarchy above the highlighted node label appear in the breadcrumb (in descending order from left to right).
Any node label in the breadcrumb Equivalent to clicking the node label in the tree. The tree contracts to the level of the node label and any breadcrumb links to the right of the clicked node label disappear.
A delimiter in the breadcrumb No effect.
You can expect the following user interface behavior when navigating a tree or breadcrumb:
  • Any time you highlight a node label in a tree or breadcrumb, the window displays information related to that label.
  • Clicking a plus sign in a tree expands the node, but does not affect window content, label highlighting, or the breadcrumb.
  • Clicking a minus sign in a tree does not affect window content, but does highlight the node label associated with the minus sign and the breadcrumb reflects the new hierarchy ending with the highlighted node.
  • The highlighted node label in a tree always reflects the right-most element in the breadcrumb. The breadcrumb elements to the left reflect the intervening levels in the tree hierarchy.

Properties

Attribute name Description

Control ID

Each control in a presentation is assigned a unique Control ID that is read-only.

Label

You can specify a text value to use as a label for the control. This label is specific to the application and is not stored in the MAXATTRIBUTE or APPFIELDDEFAULTS tables.

Bean Class You can specify the name of a data bean class to use when creating the data source for the control. If not defined and the control is creating a data source, the default psdi.webclient.system.DataBean class is used. Typically, you use this property to create custom event methods or to override the manner in which the data source obtains its MboSet.
Data Source ID

Specify a data source ID if you want this control to use a different data source than the parent. If the control is creating a data source and the Data Source ID property is not set, the ID defaults to the ID of the control. If the data source is blank, the control inherits the data source from the parent. If no parent controls have a data source specified or if the parent is the application, MAINRECORD is the data source because it is the primary data source for the application.

Business Object

Specify the name of a MBO in this field to determine which MBO the control uses to show and process information. If a MBO is not specified, the control uses the data source of its parent control. When you set a MBO for this control a data source is created that can be referenced from other controls.

CSS Class Name

If you want to change the layout and appearance of the hyperlink, enter the name of the CSS class to use. For example, the “powerwhite” class name changes the font color of a hyperlink to white. You can search for CSS class names in the <root>\applications\maximo\maximouiweb\webmodule\webclient directory.

Separator

Specify the delimiter to use between breadcrumb trail entries, for example >.

Relationship

If you specified a value in the Parent Data Source ID field, specify a value in this field that identifies the relationship between this control and the new data source. A relationship uses a WHERE clause to determine what to show and process from the data source. The control creates a datasource that is by default used by the child controls. You can search for relationship values in the Database Configuration > Relationships tab.

Breadcrumbs The source ID of the breadcrumb control.
Source Method Specify a source method to apply to the source
Align Specify the alignment options for the breadcrumbs.

Signature Option

You can specify a signature option that can restrict access to this control or change the properties of this control based on a condition that you specify. To create a signature option, click Add/Modify Signature Options in the Select Action menu. To specify a condition, click the Configure Conditional Properties button.

Sig Option Data Source ID

An MBO must be used to evaluate whether or not a user has access to a signature option. Specify the value of the data source that performs this evaluation if it is different to the data source that is configured for this control.