New Design for NewEdit and Parameter Pages
Softadmin® 8.0 introduces a new design for NewEdit and parameter pages, where the description is shown together with the label to the left of the control.
The upcoming Softadmin® 8.1 will introduce the option to display the label and description above their control.
Description Changes
Field descriptions used to be displayed to the right of the control; now, descriptions appear beneath the label.
Since this change increases page height and reduces width, you may want to adjust some input pages to a two-column layout.
Extended Descriptions
There's also a new extended description that is hidden until expanded by the user.
Consider whether part or all of a field’s description belongs in the extended description. We’ve provided guidelines to help you decide. Read more.
Changes on Mobile
On mobile, previously all descriptions were hidden until the user clicked to expand them. Now that extended descriptions have been introduced, the mobile version will behave like the desktop version and show normal descriptions.
Automatic Label Wrapping
Previously, labels wouldn't break on their own, causing long labels to push their controls far to the right. The only workaround was to manually insert <br> tags inside the label.
Now labels will automatically break when they become too long. If you've added manual breaks, consider removing them. However, if the manual breaks align with or are slightly shorter than the automatic breaks, no changes are needed.
Description for Headers
It is now possible to add descriptions to headers. These descriptions can provide instructions or details relevant to all the controls under the heading.
New Validations
Input validation will now be displayed under controls instead of in a popup bubble. This will prevent validation messages from overlapping with other controls.
Fewer Layout Shifts
In the new design, hidden controls will reserve space for themselves in the layout. Previously, a field hidden by JavaScript would cause a layout shift when it was revealed.
While this will cause columns containing wide but currently hidden controls to look unexpectedly wide, it will make the interface more stable. In the example below, the checkbox used to change location when clicked, making it inconvenient to toggle it.
Other UX Features
Badge count for InfoSQL top links
Detailview: TabView (dynamic tabs) mode already has support for putting counters on tabs. This version introduces support for also putting counters on InfoSQL top links, using the BadgeCount and BadgeCountUrgent columns.
Other UX Changes
Chart Improvements
Charts will now choose a more readable font size when displayed in small Info Boxes.
Thicker Scrollbars
At first glance, the scrollbar will look the same as in earlier versions. However, the clickable area is larger, and upon mouse-over, it will grow to show its actual size.
Confirmation Text and the Delete Component
If a menu item using the Delete component has confirmation text, the confirmation dialog will now use "Delete" instead of "OK" for its affirmative button.
Other Features
Limited Support for International Email Addresses
The old email validations only supported email addresses using standard ASCII characters.
This version renames the old input validation "Email" to "Email - Strict". It introduces the new "Email - International" and "Email - International (only local part)" validations and the SQL functions
Finally, the email column in the SoftadminApi.User table changes from varchar to nvarchar.
Email - Strict is the most compatible, but allows no international characters.
Email - International is the least compatible, and allows international characters anywhere.
Email - International (only local part) is a compromise, only allowing international characters in the local part, not in the domain.
These changes allow you to build menu items where users can enter international email addresses. However, if you have any integrations, there is no guarantee that any other systems you integrate with can handle international addresses. Further, your own system may not be able to send mail to an international address.
Support for sending email to international addresses is untested. Additionally, the system's current mail server may not be compatible with international addresses.
Grid Rows Can Start Expanded
For a grid that uses Row_ExtraText or Row_ExtraHtml, you can now use the column Row_ExtraTextStartExpanded to force rows to start expanded when the grid is first loaded.
Developer Features
Performance Center
The Performance Center now also shows statistics for continuous jobs.
Menu Item Guides
We've continued working on the new Guide API, which finally supports creating menu items. This version delivers our first menu item guide, "Search, New, Edit, Delete".
Database Designer, Read-only Beta
The new built-in Database Designer will eventually replace the current Softadmin® Map. As a first step, we’re releasing a read-only beta version that lets you view the database structure without making changes.
To enable this early beta, toggle the DatabaseDesignerEnabled system setting.
Edit Both a Control and Its Multi-Control
If a control has been created by a Multi-Control, right-clicking on it will usually edit the multi-control instead, unless the multi-control used the FieldInfoId column.
Now, the developer context menu, opened by control-right-clicking on the label, also has the option called Edit parent multi-control. This feature allows you to still edit the multi-control when FieldInfoId was used.