Linking to Pages with the Page Hotbox
A page hotbox is a rectangular target, placed on an application page. This is a navigational tool that when clicked, opens a new page as specified in its configuration.
If the specified page has parameters (see: Page Properties Parameters Tab) then values for those parameters can be provided in the page hotbox configuration. You might use this to create a series of page hotboxes, all pointing to the same page, but each providing its own set of tags and values for the parameters.
Details on configuring the parameters of a page hotbox can be found in the next topic, Parameterized Page Hotboxes.
The Page Hotbox control is part of the Standard Library.
The following image shows an example of the basic Page Hotbox graphic editor dialog.
The configuration shown will result in a yellow rectangle that users can click to open the page that has been associated with it (Station1 in this example).
Common implementations for page change hotboxes include:
• On the click of a page change hotbox surrounding an equipment bitmap, open a graphics page with controls and data for the selected equipment. For example, a page change hotbox surrounding a pump might be clicked to enable access to the pump's data and controls.
• On the click of a page change hotbox surrounding a text label, open a related graphics page. For example, several page change hotboxes might be drawn on a large map, with each configured to take the user to a more detailed view of a section of the map.
Page hotboxes remain invisible until the mouse pointer is placed over the target area. Once the mouse pointer has been placed over the target area, an outline of a page hotbox appears in a user defined color, thus identifying that a page change will occur.
Note: The Page Hotbox drawing tool is much the same in appearance to the Set Value Hotbox drawing method for digital output tags (see Set Value Hotbox Drawing Method) ; however, its behavior is distinctly different. When the Set Value Hotbox drawing method is clicked, it changes the value of the related digital output tag. Because the appearance of the Set Value Hotbox tag drawing method and the Page Hotbox tool are similar, it would be prudent to configure each with a distinct color to signify to operators that they are different tools.
Page Hotbox Editor Dialog Elements
Page Title The Page Title drop-down list enables you to select the title of the page you wish to open when this page change hotbox is clicked.
Page File Name The Page File Name drop-down list enables you to select the file name of the page you wish to open when this page change hotbox is clicked.
Note: The Page Title and Page File Name drop-down lists are directly associated. When a page title is selected, the Page File Name drop-down list displays the corresponding page file name, and when a page file name is selected, the Page Title drop-down list displays the corresponding page title.
Parameterized Page
Hotboxes