How do I suppress the prompt "specify Arguement Values"

[stecenko]

Hi,

I've created an invoice report and a form based on an active-linked table.

On the form are a bunch of questions that the user answers to determine which invoices are to be printed and I have arguments in the active-linked table to receive the answers.

Like this...
WHERE :doNew = 'yes' and dTrnInvPrinted = '1900-01-01'

There are a bunch more, but that show what I'm doing.
Everything works fine. The arguments get sent in the OnPush of the OK button and the report prints properly.
But!

When I run the form, I get the dialogue prompt to "Specify Argument Values".

How do I suppress this?

Also, is there some way to search here for a phrase. If I search for Specify Argument Values, I get 232 posts. If I search for "Specify Argument Values", I get none.

[Stan Mathews]

Re: How do I suppress the prompt "specify Arguement Values"

When I run the form

I assume you mean open the form. You filter a form by setting the filter property. Open the form in design mode, use the Form menu, Form Properties, Filter/Order tab.

[stecenko]

Re: How do I suppress the prompt "specify Arguement Values"

Hi Stan,

Yes, by run a form, I mean open it. I have a mainMenu. On it is a button, that Opens the form PrintInvoices

When I click that button, I get the dialogue box that asks "Specify Arguments". I don't want that diglogue box.

In the form PrintInvoices, I get answers to all the arguments in my active-linked table.

I read in the documentation that using the Filter in the Form Properties happens client-side. I will have many invoices so I want the filtering to be done server-side; that's why I'm using sql arguments.

[Stan Mathews]

Re: How do I suppress the prompt "specify Arguement Values"

On it is a button, that Opens the form PrintInvoices

And what did you specify as the options for this button.

active-linked table

I'm not sure you can do any server-side processing with an active link table. All the options are probably set in the table definition.

I just looked at the active link table creation genie and noticed.

When to Use Arguments
Use arguments when you want to specify values in your SQL statement at run-time.

So if you want to use arguments you have to live with the prompting.

[stecenko]

Re: How do I suppress the prompt "specify Arguement Values"

The genie says, "You can include as many arguments in your SQL as you want. At run-time, if values have not been supplied for any of the arguments, Alpha Anywhere will display a dialog box prompting for argument values."

I take this to mean that if I can supply the values for the arguments, then I won't see the prompt.

In the OnInit of the form, I put this...

dim args as SQL::Arguments
args.add("doNew", "no") or args.set("doNew", "no")

I thought that would supply the arguement and suppress the prompt. In effect, the result set would be instantiated but with no data. Then after the user let's me know which invoices to print, I would reset the arguments and requery the result set.

I have a report with the same table as its data source. If I select the report and do a preview, then the Specify Argument Values appears, as it should.

If I open the form, answer the questions about which invoices to print, and then click on OK, which report.prints the report, then I don't get asked to Specify the Arguments, because they were set in the OnPush of the OK button.

This is my code nin the OnPush...
dim args as SQL::Arguments
args.add("doNew", "no")
dim reportName as c = "InvoicesClients"
report.preview(reportName, "", "", .f., .f., args)

So I think my problem is that I don't where, earlier than OnInit of the form, I can set the arguments.

If I can pass the args to the print, then maybe I can pass them to the form.

[Stan Mathews]

Re: How do I suppress the prompt "specify Arguement Values"

<Form> as P = FORM.VIEWQUERIED( Form_Name as C [, Filter_Expn as C [, Order_Expn as C [, Style as C [, Horizontal_Position as N [, Vertical_Position as N [, IsBaseQuery as L [, Arguments as SQL::Arguments ]]]]]]] )

Looks like the only place I see to do that. Simply opening the form doesn't accept arguments.

[GGandhi]

Re: How do I suppress the prompt &quot;specify Arguement Values&quot;

WHERE :doNew = 'yes' and dTrnInvPrinted = '1900-01-01'

if you do not have this in sqlquery statement filtering and then define the filter in the form and in the action script to open the report if you define those fields to match the report
what will happen?

[stecenko]

Re: How do I suppress the prompt &quot;specify Arguement Values&quot;

Way to go, Stan!

In the button to open the form, I put this xBasic code...

dim args as SQL::Arguments
args.add("doNew", "no")
dim pForm as P = FORM.VIEWQUERIED( "invoicesClientsPrint", "", "", "dialog", "20", "20", .t., args)
pForm.close(.t.)

invoicesClientsPrint opens without the prompt and all is well.

In answer to your question, Gandhi, what you say will work. But, the filter is applied at the workstation. So if you have ten thousand invoices but want to print invoice #18384, all ten thousand are sent to the client and then the filter invoiceNumber=18384 is applied. By using sql arguments, the sql server will select just invoice #18384 and send only it down the line.

Filters work just fine for local DBFs, because when a DBF table is opened the record pointer just sits there. No data is actually transferred to the workstation. Then the filter is set and the record pointer moves to the first record to satisfy the filter. The contents of the index are sent to the workstation so that it can read through the index until it finds the first record to match the filter. But, that's not as slow as sending all ten thousand records.