Trying to allow users to set the default sort column in a grid, almost working...

[LukeS]

I am trying to allow a user to set a default sort column that is used every time the user loads a grid instead of having a hard-coded default that has to be changed every time the grid is loaded. I made a simple dialog where the user can select a sort field from a pull-down which is saved to a preferences table. I am then looking up the value stored in this table for the "Order" preferences field of the grid but it is not working.

If I enter "description" (without quotes) in the order field of the grid properties the grid sorts by the description field with no problems. Now if I enter an expression to lookup the sort field from my preferences table it does not work

rtrim(lookupc("F", 11642, "sort_field", filename_decode("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\customer_salesrep_pref.dbf"), "Account_Num")) <-- returns "description"

In the above order expression I hard coded the account number to 11642, if I run the above expression in interactive code window it returns "description".

I think it may have something to do with the fact that it is returning a character string. Just messing around I have tried the following to see what works

if(.t.,description,description) <-- works
if(.t.,"description","description") <-- does not work
convert_type(description,"C") <-- works
convert_type("description","C") <-- does not work, even though the quotes are not outputted from this function

Once I get the above working I need to figure out how to use the account session variable instead of hard coding the account number. I have tried the following all with no luck

rtrim(lookupc("F", session.svAccountNum, "sort_field", filename_decode("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\customer_salesrep_pref.dbf"), "Account_Num"))

rtrim(lookupc("F", :Account_Num_svArg, "sort_field", filename_decode("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\customer_salesrep_pref.dbf"), "Account_Num"))

:Account_Num_svArg is an argument that is set to the value of session.svAccountNum

[LukeS]

Re: Trying to allow users to set the default sort column in a grid, almost working...

For my first problem it definitely has something to do with data types, you can not use a character string to specify a order field. I am not sure what data type is needed but to work around the problem I was going to use an IF statement as follows but it is giving me the error "Invalid order expression"

if((rtrim(lookupc("F",11642,"sort_field",filename_decode("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\customer_salesrep_pref.dbf"),"Account_Num")) = "sort_placement"), Sort_Placement, Description) <-- not working, grid gives error "Invalid order expression"

if( (lookupc("F", 11642, "sort_field","customer_salesrep_pref","Account_Num") = "sort_placement"),Sort_Placement,Description) <-- above stripped to bar essentials, still gives error of "Invalid order expression"

if(.T., Sort_Placement, Description) <-- simple test case in grid, this works

if((lookupc("F", 11642, "sort_field","customer_salesrep_pref","Account_Num") = "sort_placement"),str(sort_placement,19,5),str(description,19,5)) <-- This works if I use the STR function that I sometimes see the expression builder use... Why does this work??

if((rtrim(lookupc("F",11642,"sort_field",filename_decode("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\customer_salesrep_pref.dbf"),"Account_Num")) = "sort_placement"), 1,2) <-- If I run this in the interactive window it works, all I did was change out the field names with numbers

The user only has two options to set the default sort to so a IF will work for my case. What is going on here, why do I have to use the STR function in some cases to get it to work? So weird..

[LukeS]

Re: Trying to allow users to set the default sort column in a grid, almost working...

Late night but got it working. I had to set the order expression in the onGridInitialize server-side event instead of the order property box in the grid properties. If anyone is searching how to do this, here is my code. Turns out to be way simpler that I expected just had to figure out the sort expression is stored in e.tmpl.DBF.order

	DIM cStoredSortField AS C
	IF variable_exists("session.svAccountNum") then
		'Lookup the users saved sort field
		cStoredSortField = lookupc("F", session.svAccountNum, "sort_field",filename_decode("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\customer_salesrep_pref.dbf"),"Account_Num")
		
		'If there is no stored field in the preferences table use the description field
		IF (cStoredSortField = "") THEN
			e.tmpl.DBF.order = "description"
		'Else use the stored field
		ELSE
			e.tmpl.DBF.order = cStoredSortField
		END IF
		
	'If there is no session var for the account number just sort by description
	ELSE
		e.tmpl.DBF.order = "description"
	END IF