JSONform textarea control available?

[cptutrecht]

I'm experimenting with JsonForm control.
Have seen the multiline textbox.
But seems that the textarea control is missing (preferably with html editor)

Any work around for this / creating a custom control / using embedded control?

Thanks for any leads

[Lance Gurd]

The JSONForm is a great addition to Alpha but it does have a few shortcomings. I am pretty sure/hope these will be rectified/added as time goes by.

To get a look of a textarea in a JSONForm use a standard textbox, set it to multiline and then in its textbox properties set its style to something like height: 2in; optionally set its width here as well or use the width menu in the controlbar at the top.

After using JSONForms since the day they were made available and ironing out some of the issues with Selwyn, I love them, there are still a few things that I still think do not quite work correctly (editcombo being one, but I have worked out a workaround for this pretty much like the early days of using them in standard UX components). I now have Viewboxes for displaying data in list format and JSONForms as the detail view for editing the data. At first it was daunting getting the viewbox to align the data with the JSONForm but when you realise the viewbox just produces the JSON you need to a) create the basis of the JSONForm b) have the data in JSON format to fill in the fields in the JSONForm and then c) the JSONForm can produce the JSON to use in the sql_insert() function it is all so easy to have a working very lightweight UX up in no time.

[kkfin]

c) the JSONForm can produce the JSON to use in the sql_insert() function it is all so easy to have a working very lightweight UX up in no time.

I have moved to sql_upsert. Very nice to use. One function to insert and update.
Alpha may be the best tool working with json. What ever you have for example resultset, request variables, query strings, arrays you can always easily convert them to json and back. There is always some sort of function to do the job.

[cptutrecht]

The JSONForm is a great addition to Alpha but it does have a few shortcomings. I am pretty sure/hope these will be rectified/added as time goes by.

To get a look of a textarea in a JSONForm use a standard textbox, set it to multiline and then in its textbox properties set its style to something like height: 2in; optionally set its width here as well or use the width menu in the controlbar at the top.

.........

Thanks Lance, I agree and your suggestion alsmost works for me.

I have only a problem in de JSONform when using the multiline textbox in an insidelist_beneath row detailview.
When the control has focus, everything is ok.
But when the control has no focus the content of the textbox is shown partly outside the control and the slider is missing
See attached images.

Can you help me to cure that?

Thanks in advance!

[Lance Gurd]

Yes, had not noticed that, that must be a bug and worth reporting. Easily repeated even the quick dialog - XDialog Format multiline text sample format example does not encapsulate the text correctly

[Lance Gurd]

I have moved to sql_upsert. Very nice to use. One function to insert and update.
Alpha may be the best tool working with json. What ever you have for example resultset, request variables, query strings, arrays you can always easily convert them to json and back. There is always some sort of function to do the job.

Thanks for pointing this out, sql_upsert seems a good way to go, do you have an example you could share where it ascertains if there is a primary key or not, the documentation is a bit lacking

[madtowng]

sounds like a fancy term for mySQL's on duplicate key update.

[cptutrecht]

Yes, KKfin triggered me also to investigate sql_upsert. The documentation worked for me:
https://documentation.alphasoftware....20Function.xml
Look at how to get lastInsertedIdentity

To be complete all my steps:

1. Create in Json form a save button to perform an ajax callback (see screenshot)
2. define a gatherinfo() function for the xbasic function sql_upsert:

function gatherInfo() {

var _fieldsValuePairs = {dialog.Object}.getValue('Persons_new_JF');
_fieldsValuePairs = "_fieldsValues_Json=" + _fieldsValuePairs;
//alert(_fieldsValuePairs); for testing
return _fieldsValuePairs
}​

3. Create an xbasic function to perform the sql_upsert function:

function sql_upsert as c (e as p)
dim cn as sql::Connection
dim fieldsValuePairs as c
dim primaryKey as c
dim primaryKeyValue as N
dim tableName as c
dim result as p
result.errorText = "" 'anders sql error als het goed gaat en het uitgevraagd wordt in de fouten informatie

cn.open("::Name::CptDemo")
tablename = "Kontpers"
''debug(1)
fieldsValuePairs = e._fieldsValues_Json

primaryKey = "Kontpers_volg_nummer"
primarykeyValue = ""

result = sql_upsert(cn,tablename,fieldsValuePairs,primaryKey,primaryKeyvalue)

sql_upsert = alert(result.error + "Nieuw Kontpers_volg_nummer" + result.lastInsertedIdentity)

cn.close()

end function

​

If Insert works works, result.lastInsertedIdentity has the new key

I'm now testing how to give a javascript command back so that the created key is stored in another field of the JsonForm,
Should be piece of cake, but it is a long time ago that i wrote the correct syntax for that :-)

[Lance Gurd]

Thanks for this, however I still do not understand how the sql_upsert() method gets the primarykeyvlue when editing an existing record.

[cptutrecht]

Thanks for this, however I still do not understand how the sql_upsert() method gets the primarykeyvlue when editing an existing record.

Indeed, for testing I hardcoded it in the example.

But I have the primary key in the JSONFORM component (hidden - display none:-) and not Updateble.
I set its value when loading the component and use an argument or a state variable for that.

But you know what the primary key is. So, if you only write back for update the dirty fields than you can pass them in as extra variables with the gatherInfo() function.
If you write to the server all fields of the JSONFORM, than you can grab them in xbasic from e._fieldsValues_Json variable (don't ask the syntax, I have to rediscover that also :-)

My usecase is: I have a persons table with persons-id as key and phone/mail/fax table. with telfax_id as key, Both keys are autoincrement ofcourse.

When defining them I use 1 or 2 jsonform, totally unbound, in an unbound ux
Users wil be able to specify both person and contact details (multiple detailrecord) without saving in between

I want to create1 update button with 2 sql_upsert actions in a begin-end transaction proces.
After persons details are stored I grab the lastInsertedIdenty and store that as linking field in the second sql_upsert for telfax table.

That is the plan. When everything works I can share the code if somebody is interested, but i guess it will take a while.

[Lance Gurd]

Finally worked out the correct syntax for sql_upsert()

I used

dim lsjson as c=e.dataSubmitted.JSForm [COLOR=#3498db]'JSForm is the name of my JSONForm on the UX[/COLOR]
    dim sql as p
    dim flag as l
    dim cn as sql::connection
    dim js as p
    js=json_parse(lsjson)


    flag = cn_open(cn,"::Name::Jobs")
if flag = .f. then
    'there was an error
    dim errorText as c
    errorText = cn.callresult.text
    end
end if
'turn on portable SQL
cn.PortableSQLEnabled = .t.
sql=sql_upsert(cn,"job_labour_details",lsjson,"JOBSHEETNO",js.JOBSHEETNO) [COLOR=#3498db]'JOBSHEETNO is the primary key of the table job_labour_details[/COLOR]
savelsheet="{dialog.object}.refreshViewBoxData('jobsheets');" [COLOR=#3498db]'Refreshes the viewbox "List"[/COLOR]
cn.Close()
    ​

And this all works seamlessly if you are saving a new record js.JOBSHEETNO is empty and a new record is created, if js.JOBSHEETNO has a value it knows you are editing a record and therefore saves that record.

This is a great command and saves a lot of long winded if statements that test if you need to use sql_insert or sql_update and also saves a lot of setting each value from a standard form to an argument value in the more traditional method of saving/updating sql tables