Card Lists Home Overview Fields and Controls Card Lists

A card list is a field/control of type List that shows a number of cards, with one card per line i.e. list entry. (Read more about lists in general in chapter Lists.)

A card list cannot show any arbitrary collection of cards, but it always shows cards of a single background. So the central parameter of a stack list field is the background of the cards to list.

MoStacks manages card lists completely automatically, according to the cards of the given background that exist right now: If you add or delete a card, the card list will be updated to keep it in sync. A card is allowed to be present in as many lists as you like.

The order of the cards in the list will correspond with the order of the cards within the stack. There is no way to sort the list independently; if you want it sorted, sort the cards.

Both types of lists can be cards lists, stand-alone lists displayed as such, and lists for combo boxes. While as stand-alone lists can have a number of columns that you configure, combo boxes only show card names. Thus card lists can be another reason to keep card names unique if possible.

There are many cases of card lists where you do not want them to show all cards of a background, but only a subset. An example is the Shopping demo stack: The first page shows a large list with Item cards, but not all of them, only those items currently selected as "to buy".

Another example would be a To do stack with tasks in 4 possible priorities and corresponding 4 cards that list the tasks of each priority, in a card list field.

The mechanism to make such sub-lists possible is the following: Only cards that have a certain value in a certain field are selected and go into the list, whereas all cards with other values in that field don't. In the List tab of the Edit Fields and Controls window this special field is called Field to check for selecting value.

In the example of the Shopping stack this "field to check for selecting value" is the boolean Item field Buy today: Checked, in the list, unchecked, not in the list.

In an example of a To do stack the field containing the priority of each task would be that field.

Furthermore, and this is where unfortunately it can get a little confusing, places are needed to store the selecting values themselves, one for each list to form: in the example of the shopping stack the single boolean value True (meaning "Buy today"), in the example of the To do stack four selecting priorities.

Where else to store those values than in fields? In the Edit Fields and Controls window such a field is called Field giving selecting value. You cannot specify any field; it must be in the same background as the list field itself.

And this can be a little confusing, there are two kinds of fields, on two different backgrounds, that both take part in the selection mechanism, but in quite different roles, as explained.

Anyway, MoStacks helps you there. Selecting the background of the cards to list should be straight-forward, with little potential to confuse: In any case you know which cards you want to see. Once you selected the background, the combo box Field to check for selecting value automatically only offers fields and controls from the correct background, which is of course exactly that selected background.

The same is valid for the combo box Field giving selecting value: Because that field must be on the same background as the list field, as already mentioned, it's also clear which fields that combo box will allow you to choose from.