How to auto close an open dialog box

[Tom Henkel]

We've been running into a situation where users will leave dialog boxes open and then go home. This, in turn leaves many tables and indexes open which causes them to NOT get backed up overnight.

I already have a routine (scheduled script) that will close any open forms at a specific time at night, then close Alpha, but it seems that when an x-dialog is open, the routine won't run.

Does anyone have a solution to auto close an x-dialog box after a specified amount of time?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Tom

[Stan Mathews]

Re: How to auto cloase an open dialog box

Immediately after varC_result = ui_dlg_box(.........<<%dlg%

add the line {timer=close}{interval=120}

where 120 represents the number of seconds to leave the xdialog open if it is not closed by the user.

[Ronald Anusiewicz]

Re: How to auto cloase an open dialog box

Tom, when you say the xdialog is leaving tables open, it's really your code behind the xdialog that's leaving the tables open.

What I try to do is to only open tables when I need to get some information and then I write that information to variables. Then I close the table.

Then to protect the integrity of the data, I usually use similar code to the following:

dim MyTable as C = "logged_in"
dim shared vRec_Before as C = ""
dim shared vRec_After as C = ""
dim shared vMyKey as N

vMyKey = 1234	'record number of record to be changed

dim t as P
t = table.open(mytable)
t.fetch_find(vMyKey)
vRec_Before = property_to_string(t)

'set a number of variables
t.close()

'do a bunch of stuff
'now press the save button and save the record
t = table.open(mytable)
t.fetch_find(vMyKey)

vRec_After = property_to_string(t)

if vRec_Before <> vRec_After then
	msgbox("Error","Someone Has Changed This Record While You Were Working On It",UI_STOP_SYMBOL+UI_OK)
	end
end if

t.change_begin()
t.logged_in = "Administrators"
t.change_end(.t.)
t.close()

end

[Tom Henkel]

Re: How to auto cloase an open dialog box

Ron,

My mistake.

I don't open tables until all of the data is entered, verified, and the user clicks "OK". I then open, change, and close the individual tables.

The problem seems to be that an open dialog box prevents anything else from happening. I just tested that this morning. I set my "close Alpha" script to start at a specific time via the script_schedule() function, and then opened a form, opened a dialog and left it sit.

The scheduled time passed, and nothing happened until I closed the dialog. The scheduled script then executed, and The database closed.

What I need to do is to have an "on-timer" routine similar to one on forms that will auto close idle x-dialogs.

Tom

[Tom Henkel]

Re: How to auto cloase an open dialog box

Stan,

As usual, YOUR THE MAN!

Thanks,

Tom

[Stan Mathews]

Re: How to auto cloase an open dialog box

Any selections made in the xdialog will be in effect when the xdialog "auto closes" and the xdialog result will be "OK" or whatever the normal close button returns. Not sure if you need to allow for that in what you are doing.

[Tom Henkel]

Re: How to auto cloase an open dialog box

Thanks, Stan.

Will have to see what affect that has on the code after the dialog closes.

[Tom Henkel]

Re: How to auto close an open dialog box

Steve Andrews was playing with this, and he found that a_dlg_button is set to "close" when the timer is hit, so we can test for a_dlg_button and change the result to "Cancel" instead of OK, which will stop any code after the dialog from running.

I always have an "If varC_result <>"OK"" after the dialog.


Again, Stan, Thanks.

[Stan Mathews]

Re: How to auto close an open dialog box

That is interesting. I just tested

{timer=CANCEL}

and a_dlg_button is set to CANCEL when the timer expires and the dialog closes.

Tested further and you can use anything you want in the {timer=something} directive, or so it seems.

Reread the documentation about 5 times and finally "got it". The {TIMER} command generates timer events. When an event occurs in an xdialog, a_dlg_button is given the value of the event name. Any event that occurs, which is not trapped in the code section of the xdialog and a_dlg_button is not reset to "" will close the xdialog.