I ask a lot of questions to people on this site so if I get over bearing just tell me to shut up and go away. I'm in the process of trying to evaluate PB for future enterprise applications, figuring out what it can do and how well.
One of the tools in my tool bag that I use extensively is the master / detail data window combination, where the master shows rows from the table and the detail provides a means of updated, inserting, or deleting a row. But I sometimes find that there is a need to provide multiple detail data windows for one master. For example, an employee has demographic data, address data, and objectives. The employee, addresses, and objectives are in three different tables.
This could be three separate windows, each using the same master list data window, accompanied by the appropriate data window for the function. Or it could be one window where the data window is dynamically selected - but to the user it still appears as three separate windows, probably requiring separate menu items to select them. Another possible approach is to use something like a tab control on the window with the master data window above it and one page for each of the detail data windows, all keying off the row selected in the master data window. Thus a list of employees in the master data window with the detail displayed for the selected row in three tabs, demographics, addresses, and goals, accessing the three tables.
So my question is simply, is there a good standard way of presenting this to the user that is easiest for them to understand and use which is not overly complicated? Also, placing all of those controls on one window may make things technically challenging from an operational or code maintenance perspective?