Carousel
You can use the Carousel Special Feature to create a dynamically changing section on the Home page of your app. This is similar to a banner ad slider on a website.
Watch this video to see how you can setup a Carousel in your app, or follow the steps below:
To create a Carousel, go to the Home canvas and use the canvas splitters to create the area where you want your Carousel.
In the Tool Box, open the Special Features drawer, grab the Carousel tool, and drop it on the canvas in the area you just created.
Once your Carousel is on the Home canvas, click it and select your target AppBlock - this is where the Carousel will get its data. You can choose any Basic Flex AppBlock, One Item Flex AppBlock, or RSS Feed AppBlock.
After setting your target AppBlock, go to the Phone Canvases section of that AppBlock and you will notice two additional pages - Carousel View and Empty Carousel View.
The canvas is only editable in the area of the Carousel's section on the Home page - the rest of the canvas is greyed out and uneditable.
In the Properties box on the right, on the Style tab, you can set the Background Color.
On the Carousel tab, there are three carousel settings:
- Display Page Control
- Item Count
- Page Delay
If "Display Page Control" is checked, the Carousel will display small navigation dots, one for each item, with the dot of the current item highlighted. If it is unchecked, the dots will not display. The number of dots will never be greater than the Item Count.
iPhone: Display Page Control checked
iPhone: Display Page Control unchecked
Item Count is the number of items in the carousel cycle.
The maximum allowed is 25 items.
Page Delay is how long the carousel "pauses" on each item before cycling to the next one. If you set it to 0, the carousel will not automatically cycle to the next item. The app user can still cycle through the items manually by swiping left/right.
The maximum allowed is 25 seconds.
In the Tool Box on the right, on the My Content tab, the content fields from your targeted AppBlock are available to place on the canvas.
On the Generic Tools tab, you can add the Text Label and Image tools. You cannot add buttons or special features.
On the Empty Carousel page, just like on the Carousel page, the canvas is only editable in the area of the Carousel's section on the Home page - the rest of the canvas is greyed out and uneditable.
In the Properties box on the right, you can set the Background Color.
In the Tool Box on the right, on the Generic Tools tab, you can add the Text Label and Image tools. you cannot add buttons or special features.
Device Behavior
When the app user launches the app and comes to the Home screen, he will see the Carousel. If the Page Delay is more than 0, the Carousel will periodically rotate to the next item. If the user taps the Carousel, the app will go to the Detail page of the tapped item.
Regardless of the Page Delay, the app user can always change the current Carousel item by swiping left or swiping right. The only time this doesn't happen is when the Item Count is 1.
If there are no active items in the targeted AppBlock, the app user will see the Empty Carousel View.
iPhone: Empty Carousel View