Tab control blinking property does nothing?

[altenbach]

Here's a quick draft that shows the parallel helper loop dealing with tab blinking.

• For each page, the blink color can be selected
• Several pages can blink at the same time
• The currently visible page does not blink, even if selected to blink

[abvenk]

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@billko wrote:

So is the goal to notify the user that something on that tab needs to be looked at but not actually go to that tab?

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To notify the user to go to that tab when that tab isn't active.

[abvenk]

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@altenbach wrote:

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@abvenk wrote:

Also, your method does not work if the other page is active. That is a crucial requirement. 

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Are replying to any particular post, because we cannot tell what "your method" means here.

I also don't know what you mean by "active". My code should work no matter what page is visible.

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Sorry, I meant to say I tried both yours and @Kyle 's method (both nearly identical). My first attempt got me faulty results, where the tab blinked only when it was the active page (i.e. user is on the page). 

But when I tried it again, it works as you said. The tab blinks even when its page is not active.

However, I have simply used a boolean on the tab to get the effect. I'm simply using the boolean blinking property.

This way I don't need to have a dedicated while loop for the tab blinking.

Still, would have been nice if tab blinking was a native property.

[abvenk]

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@paul_a_cardinale wrote:

Here's a way to do it.

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Thanks! That's a clever way of doing it! 😊

I just put a boolean indicator beside the tab text. This way is minimal for me.

[abvenk]

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@zou wrote:

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@abvenk wrote:

I'm left with doing clumsy things like putting a boolean indicator beside the tab text and making it blink.

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That's not a bad idea.

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Yes, it's not too bad, but ideally would have liked tab blinking as a property... seems so intuitive to have it!

[zou]

You can't get refnum of individual tab, that means you can change properties of individual tab at runtime, not just blink, the whole set of properties is missing.

but if you really want the feature, don't wait for NI.  You can do it yourself.

If you don't have tabs, how do you implement it?  Hint: take a look the Page Labels Display.

Yes. An enum. specifically a Radio Buttons.

You can customize the Radio Buttons to looks like tabs.

And then you can make individual button "tab" blink.

[stevem181]

Note: Using the blinking property on a Boolean is a nice clean method. Be aware that the Blink colors are an

Environment setting. Only one color pair (FG/BG) is available. All vis and projects share this color pair.

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I noticed that setting the tab color on Classic tabs is different from how the Modern tabs work.

To compare them side by side I made some test vis and included the NXG tab.

See the attached project (LV 2018).

Here is a summary of the testing:

Modern tab
- FGColor sets the tab color. BGColor has no effect.

Classic tab
- FGColor sets the border color. BGColor sets the tab color.
- Downside - The blinking border color is very hard to see if the tab is not selected.

NXG tab
- FGColor sets the border color. BGColor sets the tab color.
- Blinking FGColor to blink - the unselected tab is very visible
- Downside? - Blinking BGColor is not visible when the tab is not selected.

  

 

The NXG tab works just like one would expect (unlike the others).
This was a surprise since I have been using Classic tabs with Radio Buttons.
I will definitely use this on some projects (simplicity vs flexibility).

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The LabVIEW Bleed Through Feature:

If you blink the tab color and you have any "Grayed out" controls, the color will bleed

through and look bad (Especially when you use red).
This applies to items that are "Disabled and Grayed Out" and to empty Array elements.

Spoiler

To Avoid Bleed Through:

- Use NXG (preferred) or Classic tabs and blink FGColor
- Or don't leave any "Grayed Out" items on the tab