Show certain layout blocks as single column, even with entities by column

Gerrit Kohrs

Sometimes you'd want a certain block displayed as a single column an others displayed per element in the entities by column. This could for example be a budget for the year and than the actuals by month. The way we have always achieved this is kind of an awkward work-around. For the block that should be a single column we have enabled "Detail by" with an entity, which has only one element. This work-around, however has some disadvantages and it would be much nicer to be able to check an option like "display as single column" or "exclude from column entity".

Helmut Heimann

Hi @Gerrit Kohrs ,

I agree, that would be a valuable enhancement.

Regarding your current workaround: Have you thought about putting the other blocks (those you want to display by month for example) as "detail by" month and leaving the one you want to show as single block out of the "detail by"? At least that's what I would try—and it works pretty well in planning applications where the single block displays i.e. the previous year or target per year, leaving the monthly blocks open for data entry.

Best,
Helmut

Gerrit Kohrs

Thank you for your input @Helmut Heimann !
Yes, we're using it both ways - depending on requirements and the order that the blocks should appear in. You're absolutely right, that it's working well in most cases. However it still feels like a dirty trick and over the last 12+ years of building applications with Board, I have learned that those "unofficial" solutions can stop working suddenly from one version to the next without prior warning, because someone at the lab "fixed" something. 😉
Having an officially supported function would not only be more convenient to use and feel much safer, it would hopefully also eliminate some of the side-effects.