Multi-select list box not showing retrieved values

[Anita Headley]

I have a UX component with several textbox controls and a multi-select dropdownbox control. When I submit the dialog, the multi-select dropdownbox correctly saves the data to the associated field in the database as a comma separated list of values.

The Problem: When I retrieve the data by populating the UX component using a lookup on one of the textbox controls, the dropdownbox does not populate and does not show the selections. I can pull the data into another hidden control, but I have no idea how to programmatically highlight/select the values in the dropdownbox to show the user what was selected.

[Davidk]

Re: Multi-select list box not showing retrieved values

Hi Anita,

It seems that the Lookup doesn't understand that the Multi-Select Dropdown needs a Javascript Array of data to properly populate it. But... you can get it done.

You don't say what type your lookup is, so I'll assume Edit-Combo. In your Edit-Combo builder, you have a Javascript Event named AfterSelect.

In the AfterSelect event you can put this Javscript code:

var str = data.FLDDDCHOICES;
var ddChoices = str.split(',');
var ddArray = [];


for(var i = 0; i < ddChoices.length; i++)
{
   ddArray[i] = ddChoices[i];
}

{dialog.Object}.setValue("DDCHOICES[]",ddArray);

The key here is data.FLDDDCHOICES. Change FLDDDCHOICES to the name of your TABLE FIELD that contains the comma separated multi-values. This should be one of the fields in the FILL-IN FIELDS property of the Edit-combo builder.

What's happening is that we're getting the multi-values from data.FLDDDCHOICES (the values coming in from the table). We then loop through the choices and assign each value to a javascript array.

Then we assign that array to the UX control with the setValue method. You'll need to change the setValue line as well... where it reads "DDCHOICES[]" to the name of your dropdown control. Make sure you keep the [] at the end which tells Alpha that we're dealing with an Array.

[Anita Headley]

Re: Multi-select list box not showing retrieved values

Using a textbox for the lookup which returns a record from a popup grid. The array for the multi-select listbox is just one of the fields returned. I did not find an 'AfterSelect' event. I did, however solve this Friday in a different way. I created a hidden textbox field on the dialog to map the list field to. Then in the OnChange event, I put this code in a server-side xbasic function:


' parse list to get individual values for spec_arry
ls_spec_list = e.dataSubmitted.spec_crit
stringarray = comma_to_crlf(ls_spec_list)
dataarray.initialize(stringarray) ' data now in array of records
numrows = dataarray.size()
for idx = 1 to numrows
spec_arry.value[idx] = dataarray[idx]
next

e._set.species_criteria.value = spec_arry

It seems to work ok, but would the javascript be faster?

[lvasic]

Re: Multi-select list box not showing retrieved values

Thanks David. I just used your technique to great success.