z-order on panels

[incoronado]

I'm trying to use panels to create popup menus. This seems to work except for the fact that if you touch another panel it automatically brings that panel to the front over the top of my menu. It would be useful to have a z-order property on a panel so no matter what you did that panel would stay on top until it was closed. Is this even possible or is there another way to accomplish this?

[ScottBot]

The panels should work like windows on a desktop, so there's no way I can think of to keep one in focus when clicking on another.

But I guess that's probably why you added it to the Feature Requests Forum...

[incoronado]

I kind of figured that. It's no surprise that tablets and touch devices are not suited well to a windowing interface. This is why IOS, metro and Android don't really use them. I found a work around by creating zones on my themes so that I don't have overlapping panels. It just limits the creative options that's all. For that matter, overlapping pop-up menus are not really used much any more either. What was I thinking? One thing that I have noticed in touch devices is that they usually have some kind of navigational functionality to them. This is probably to make effective use of limited screen size. Have you ever given thought about adding a navigation menu to your bevy of controls? IOS & Android seem to make heavy use of accordion style menus. It would be nice to have a feature like that in HB.

[ScottBot]

I'm curious to know more about your menu idea (examples or screen shots).

[incoronado]

Maybe something like this..

http://innofied.com/accordion-view-ios/

One could probably simulate a navigation menu using your list control and a script. Has anyone else done anything with navigation?

[incoronado]

Just an Update.... I have successfully figured out a way to create lists/menus using a combination of transparent buttons, labels, dynamic images and a script. This works best for me because it allows me the flexibility and creativity to get the look and functionality I'm looking for in the menu. I was worried about the responsiveness because these menus are reliant on server side evaluation, but it seems to work very well. I will consider posting the script when I'm finished. I rely upon SQLite to supply the the content and relationships of the menu items.