Page layout in the web client

This article discusses layout in the web client. Layout is a design process that specifies how controls appear on a page.

Introduction

Layout is a design process that specifies how the controls on a page appear in the web client. Layout occurs within container controls. The following table lists the container controls.

Container	Description
Form.Design	The root of the page. It functions as a special kind of container.
Group	The general-purpose container control. Group controls can be nested as required.
Tab	A control that contains TabPage controls and has many possible Tab.Style values, such as Tab, FastTab, Vertical Tab, and Panorama.
TabPage	The appearance of each TabPage control depends on its Tab.Style value.
ButtonGroup	A special type of Group control that contains buttons.

A grid is a special type of control that has some container behaviors, such as flexible sizing (SizeToAvailable). However, a grid has special visualizations and isn't a general-purpose container control.

Layout: Dynamics AX 2012 vs. Finance and operations apps

Layout in Dynamics AX 2012

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the arrangement of controls in containers is almost always vertical, and columns are manually set to provide some horizontal spread.

Examples

Columns=1 1 2 3 Columns=2 1 4 2 5 3 In Dynamics AX 2012, sizing is achieved via the Height and Width properties. If Height and Width are set to Auto, the size is as large as the child controls require. If Height and Width are set to Column, the container is as large as it can be within the parent container. By default, Height and Width are set to Auto for every container.

Layout in finance and operations apps

In finance and operations apps, layout is controlled by the same basic properties that control layout in Dynamics AX 2012. However, additional options have been added to support a more responsive layout. In particular, the layout of a page is based on the following factors:

• The arrangement method that is specified by the ArrangeMethod property.
• The columns that are specified by the Columns property.
• The sizing that is specified by the HeightMode, WidthMode, Height, and Width properties.

ArrangeMethod property

The ArrangeMethod property specifies a base arrangement method for a container. For this property, finance and operations apps have all the options from AX 2012. However, they also have a HorizontalWrap option that is intended for tile layouts in panoramas. The following table describes the various options for the ArrangeMethod property.

Option	Description
Vertical	Controls are arranged vertically. If columns are also used, controls are arranged vertically inside the generated columns. This option is the default value for Groups and for TabPages where Tab.Style is set to a value other than Panorama.
HorizontalLeft	Controls are arranged horizontally, and they are left-aligned and bottom-aligned inside the parent container.
HorizontalRight	Controls are arranged horizontally, and they are right-aligned and bottom-aligned inside the parent container.
HorizontalWrap	Controls are arranged inside columns of fixed width that wrap horizontally. This option is typically used for tile layouts in panorama sections. It's the default value for TabPages where Tab.Style is set to Panorama.

ColumnsMode property

For the ColumnsMode property, finance and operations apps have a Fill option to support responsive layouts. When the property is set to this value, columns automatically flow as required. The following table describes the various options for the ColumnsMode property.

Option	Description
Fill	Columns are generated to fill the available horizontal space or vertical space, depending on the container type. If the container is a Panorama-style tab, this option generates columns to fill it along the vertical axis. For all other containers (Groups, Tab-style Tabs, and all other styles of Tabs), this option generates columns to fill the container along the horizontal axis.
Fixed	Specify the number of columns that the Columns property should generate. Controls are evenly distributed among the columns, and their order is maintained. If the controls can't be distributed evenly among the columns, the leftmost columns receive extra controls first. This option is the default value for all controls.

HeightMode/WidthMode properties

In finance and operations apps, sizing is done via two pairs of size properties: WidthMode and Width, and HeightMode and Height. The following table describes the various options for these properties.

Option	Description
SizeToAvailable	Fill the available space along the vertical (or horizontal) axis inside the parent container. If the parent container has SizeToContent height (or width), the child's height (or width) is also SizeToContent, unless there is a sibling in the container that can provide a height (or width). This option is the default value for Grids and Tabs (of all styles).
SizeToContent	The height (or width) of the container should be the height (or width) of its contents. This option is the default value for Groups and all other controls except Tabs. FastTabs that aren't always expanded also have SizeToContent height.
Manual	The height (or width) is manually sized. Set HeightMode (or WidthMode) to Manual, and then set Height (or Width) to a fixed number of pixels. Note: Microsoft doesn't recommend that you use manual heights and widths, because they don't adapt to changes in form density.

Note that if a value of Auto is used for these properties, the behavior is automatically determined at runtime. Typically, a value of Auto for these properties causes the same behavior as a value of SizeToContent, as in AX 2012.

Interactions between the ArrangeMethod and Columns properties

If ArrangeMethod=HorizontalLeft or HorizontalRight, the Columns property has no effect, because items are laid out in strict horizontal arrangement and no wrapping is used. If ArrangeMethod=Vertical, columns are arranged vertically, and the controls are either distributed evenly among the columns (Fixed), or distributed to fill the available horizontal or vertical space (Fill). If ArrangeMethod=HorizontalWrap, columns are arranged, and horizontal wrapping is used at a fixed column width of 280 px. Typically, this option is used to wrap tile layouts.

Examples

ArrangeMethod=HorizontalWrap

ArrangeMethod=HorizontalWrap and Columns=1

1   2

3   4

5   6

7   8

9

ArrangeMethod=HorizontalWrap and Columns=2

1   2	6   7
3   4	8   9
5

ArrangeMethod=HorizontalWrap and Columns=Fill

For this example, we assume that only three lines of items can fit in the container height.

1   2	7     8	13   14
3   4	9     10	15
5   6	11   12

ArrangeMethod=Vertical

ArrangeMethod=Vertical and Columns=1

1

2

3

...

ArrangeMethod=Vertical and Columns=2

1	5
2	6
3	7
4	8

ArrangeMethod=Vertical and Columns=Fill

For this example, we assume that only three lines of items can fit in the container height.

1	4	7
2	5	8
3	6

ArrangeMethod=Vertical and Columns=Fill on a FastTab

For this example, we assume that the width of the FastTab can fit four columns.

1	3	5	7
2	4	6	8

Breakable groups

When you set ColumnsMode to Fill to dynamically create columns, based on the amount of available space, groups of fields can be split into multiple columns. The Breakable property on Group controls lets developers ensure that controls in a group aren't distributed across columns. The default value for this property is Yes, which indicates that the contents of the group can be split between groups. To keep a group together all the time, set Breakable to No. Note that Breakable applies only to the first level in nested groups.

Guidelines for using layout properties

ColumnsMode=Fill

• Don't nest containers that have ColumnsMode set to Fill. Set ColumnsMode to Fill only on the direct parent container of the controls/fields that you want to responsively fill the available space.
• Don't set HeightMode to SizeToAvailable on any child controls of a container that has ColumnsMode set to Fill. ColumnsMode=Fill tries to calculate an average height of all controls across columns to balance them as much as possible. However, our layout CSS and calculations can't handle SizeToAvailable children, and this setting doesn't necessarily make sense.
• Don't set WidthMode to SizeToAvailable on any child controls of a container that has ColumnsMode set to Fill. Otherwise, the child controls will take up all the available width, and all controls will appear in one column.
• Container that have ColumnsMode=Fill should have WidthMode set to SizeToAvailable (if you're using fill-width containers such as Tabs and Groups) or HeightMode set to SizeToAvailable (if you're using fill-height containers such as Panorama sections).

HeightMode/WidthMode=SizeToAvailable

• If you use WidthMode=SizeToAvailable, make sure that parent containers in the form have WidthMode set to SizeToAvailable, not SizeToContent. SizeToAvailable containers inside SizeToContent containers are overridden and become SizeToContent containers.

Additional resources

User interface development home page