To Bind or Not To Bind, That is the Question

[forskare]

Argumentbind1 shows the property screen for opening a ux component. Press the smart button to the right and Argument2 appears. Does anyone know where Alpha hides the magic wand to make a non bind screen turn into an argument bind screen? This is only one of many hiccups I encounter working with grids and UX components using dbf tables. My frustration level on things like this is at the top. Alpha, do you realize how much time non working things cust your customers and in turn the developers customers? Do you really care? This is not meant to be negative, only for Alpha to address the non working issues, especially with dbf tables.

[coleresources]

Re: To Bind or Not To Bind, That is the Question

I've had terrible luck with crud operations and data binding. I always end up writing the xbasic to handle the sql operations which can be very cumbersome. You have a lot more control overall which is a good thing. Data binding has worked well for me if I only have a few controls/very simple data structure but othewise it's a callback I create

[forskare]

Re: To Bind or Not To Bind, That is the Question

Hi Josh,

When things don't work as advertised, it is very frustrating, disheartening and another method must be attempted which is extremely time consuming. It's time and money down the drain. I cannot/will not bill my customer for Alpha's boo-boos. That would not be right and it's not right for Alpha to expect developers to 'grin and bear it'. It's time for Alpha to step up to the plate and rethink how they handle these things.

[coleresources]

Re: To Bind or Not To Bind, That is the Question

To be fair, it could be something that I am in error with. The most frustrating thing I've encountered is controls that I've set to type=logical. The value in the field evaluates to true or false but errors galore when I try to commit the data. In my ajax callback I have to convert what is already a logical value to type=logical in order to update/insert that row.

I have not submitted anything to Alpha on this and I'm 99% certain if I did, Selwyn would probably find a flaw in my design somewhere that is causing it. It's still frustrating but there it is.

Have you reported it as a bug and submitted the necessary files to them to reproduce the problem?

[peteconway]

Re: To Bind or Not To Bind, That is the Question

You are doing something wrong.. I have done tones of UX components and don't have any of these issues. Step back build a samll component save it different versions and step through it again- as you say explore a little more, focus on what you are doing - not what seems to not work. You will get there. If you want zip up one of your problems and i'll have a look to guide you. Pete

[forskare]

Re: To Bind or Not To Bind, That is the Question

Hi Pete,

Sorry, I forgot to attach the screen shots. They are now attached to my initial post. #1 shows the Argument property selected. Click the smart button to the right and I end up with #2. There is no way an argument can be created with the #2 screen. Both buttons at the bottom of #2 are for changing settings, not creating arguments. This has been this way for a long, long time.

Thanks for responding.

[GGandhi]

Re: To Bind or Not To Bind, That is the Question

according to the image you are entering a new record, why would you want to bind arguments?
all the fields in the dialog are already mapped to the table, correct?

arguments binding plays a role when editing a record.

[GGandhi]

Re: To Bind or Not To Bind, That is the Question

I've had terrible luck with crud operations and data binding. I always end up writing the xbasic to handle the sql operations which can be very cumbersome.

this is not consistent with my experience. something is wrong. dialog CRUD operations are flawless even though I restrict my users from deleting records. so CRU, may be.

[forskare]

Re: To Bind or Not To Bind, That is the Question

according to the image you are entering a new record, why would you want to bind arguments?
all the fields in the dialog are already mapped to the table, correct?

arguments binding plays a role when editing a record.

You are correct. I bound the fields to the tables. However, when I tried to enter a new record, Alpha told me I needed to bind the fields first. That said, screen shot #2 is the wrong venue for databinding. There is no excuse for incorrect screens.

FWIW, often, Alpha hiccups and the only way to reset the program is to close AA and then re-open. Example: I changed the table type from SQL to DBF yet the rest of the fields would not reset to DBF. (see attached) Close the window, try again, same thing. Close the UX or grid, re-open and try again. Same thing. Then closed AA and re-opened. This time it behaved as it should. Things like that happen often enough that I figure it's AA's personality. Maybe it's because of using DBF tables, I don't know. I do know that this type of behavior does not bode well; simply because since this stuff occurs, what else happens that shouldn't be happening and I don't know the difference? An example is what you are pointing out. I just figured something happened that caused the data binding to not register. Alphs caught it and told me to do the binding.

Speaking of not registering or saving, I don't remember what screen I was on but entering data into a genie field did not show. The first 2 times through, I figured I hit the Cancel button instead of the OK button. On the 3rd try, I watched carefully and nothing appeared as I typed. On a hunch, I continued on through the screen and hit OK. Then I went back and what I entered was there.

Thus, I like AA but these occurrences have cost me so much time that if Alpha were to pay me I could buy a new truck. I know I'm not the only one and like most, I've just kept my mouth shut. Now, however, it's time something is said. As I stated above, this is not meant to criticize Alpha. From the viewpoint of an Alpha customer, I paid for software that is not supposed to have these issues and it's very reasonable to expect Alpha to fix these problems.

[peteconway]

Re: To Bind or Not To Bind, That is the Question

Ken - you are not getting it... again If you want zip up one of your problems and i'll have a look to guide you. Pete

[GGandhi]

Re: To Bind or Not To Bind, That is the Question

good morning ken,
i hear and feel the frustrations. lot of stuff that you talk about is probably not seen by everybody. first of all, you have been working with dbf, i would simply continue to do that. it works well in web world just as sql does. you are comfortable with it then that is what you should use. fortunately alpha does provide support for the web side with dbf.
while alpha is not perfect the problems you talk about are so fundamental i doubt it is due to alphas fault. i do not have version 12 nor interested in getting it. i can do better with version 11 and other frameworks as front end and let alpha serve up the data to me, just treat alpha as a mother in law. so i won't be able to see the components and suggest what needs to be done.
i would take pete's offer if i were you. alternatively, if you like and if you have team viewer i can share your screen and show what needs to be done, version 12 cannot be that different from version 11, the logic i mean.

[forskare]

Re: To Bind or Not To Bind, That is the Question

Hello Pete and Gandhi,

I am not one to argue and I may well have missed something 'really' obvious. I will work on a stripped down version over the weekend. I agree it's probably fundamental.

[peteconway]

Re: To Bind or Not To Bind, That is the Question

Good.