Form button to open a browser tab?

richards

Hi all,

In the form builder, is it possible to make a button linked to a front-end function that opens a new browser tab to a specific URL that is outside of the Rei3 app, e.g. https://www.w3schools.com ?

For example window.open("https://www.w3schools.com");

If so, please could you point me in the right direction because my javascript is not very good!

Setting a form field as display type 'URL' gives a clickable link which achieves the desired result (opening the link in a new browser tab) but making a button to do this instead would be my preferred method for a better user experience.

Many thanks,
Richard

lsw-fabian

Hi @richards - you are right, it is not possible to open links outside your R3 instance by using frontend functions.
This is restriced due to security reasons.

rfernandez

lsw-fabian
Hi Fabian,
How are you?

As a follow up of the previous question, I have the opposite interest :-)

I have a list data element that has a field displayed as URL, and for each row, it opens a new tab with the page/document pointed by the URL in the field. This is the default behavior.

What I would like to achieve is to be able to have the URL hidden, and instead display a button for each row in the list that (using a frontend function) opens the corresponding URL inside an iframe inside REI3, so the user doesn't leave the application context, and also I don't expose the document URL in plain text.
It could be a button that shows in each row (as another field in the row), or a button in the Form that somehow identifies the selected row, gets the URL from that row and calls the frontend function to display that content inside an iframe.

How can I achieve this?
Thank you!!
Warm regards

lsw-fabian

Hi @rfernandez,
currently we dont have the option to insert custom buttons into lists and while it is on our list, i dont think, that it will come soon.

rfernandez or a button in the Form that somehow identifies the selected row, gets the URL from that row and calls the frontend function to display that content inside an iframe.

-> that is possible. The most easy implementation will contain 4 parts on the subform; A button, a hidden field with the URL, an iframe, with the option Hide inputs enabled and a function on your button, that will copy the URL from the URL field and insert it into the iframe.

rfernandez

lsw-fabian
Thank you for your answer!
Let me see if I understand. In the single button solution you are implying that I have to click on the list record open a new Form (subform), and there have the button that reads the url (as the subform has only the selected record from the list)
I see how that will work.

However what I wanted to achieve is to be able to identifiy the currently selected record in the list (selected via checkbox), and have the button trigger the action in the same page of the list.
Is there any way to identify the selected record in the frontend function? An instance function maybe?
Because the object list itself does not expose such a thing, only establish the order in the parent .

Thank you!

lsw-fabian

Ah, ok i see - unfortunally, this is not possible at the moment.

rfernandez

lsw-fabian
Ok.
It would be a very useful feature to be able to identify the record of the list you selected.
It will give you a lot of flexibility to work on user experience and many other things in your forms.

In fact, I'm sure it is already implemented internally, because you can select a record and delete it, so somewhere you keep track of what record you are on.
Maybe what is missing now is the possibility to access that tracking function or property from the UI or via frontend function.
I'm sure this possibility will be very welcome by everyone working with r3!!

Thank you!!
Warm regards!
Ricardo