I'd like to implement a dashboard-style interface as the main "home page" of
my Access app in the style of MS Money's interface (similar to many
websites, such as http://www.excite.com). These interfaces are dynamic and
task-based, with different sections the user can choose to show or hide, and
each is moveable/expandable/flowable. Content would be dynamic, and
generally hyperlinked to areas within the Access app (such as alerts, lists,
common tasks, recently viewed items, charts, RSS feeds, etc.).
I can think of several ways of dealing with this:
1) pure HTML -- the app would dynamically write out an HTML page and that
would be displayed in an HTML control on the applications main page. Would
need to find a way to grab notification of user's interactions (grab
hyperlink). Flow control is easy -- it's handled by rendering engine.
2) use container objects (possibly custom controls) and write a layout
manager to handle resizing, reflow, repositioning, roll-up/down, etc.
Events are easy to deal with, and this allows for greater flexibility of the
interface within each section (richer controls than allowed in HTML engine).
Layout manager coding is non-trivial, however.
Anyone implemented such a thing in Access? Anyone know of 3rd-party
solutions as add-ins to Access (layout manager, for example)?
Thanks,
Kirk Severtson