Error with cascading drop down in repeating section

[[email protected]]

Hi, I'm trying to implement cascading choices where the child dropdown is in a dialog's repeating section. It's throwing a JS error :Unable to get value of the property 'length' object is null or undefined."

If I move the child drop down out of the repeating section the cascading works fine... is there a limitation with cascading choices in repeating sections?

Thanks, Richard.

[Davidk]

Re: Error with cascading drop down in repeating section

The parent dropdown is NOT in the repeating section? Just confirming.

[[email protected]]

Re: Error with cascading drop down in repeating section

That's right, the parent dropdown is not in the repeating section.

[Davidk]

Re: Error with cascading drop down in repeating section

Why not put the Parent dropdown into the repeating section as well? Just curious.

You can kinda do this, but it's messy... and not nice. But... have a look at what you get, then you can decide if it's worth it. I'm going to guess at the error, 'cause it makes sense. The parent dropdown is looking for a "similar" name in the child. If both dropdowns are in the repeating section then you'd have... in the 1st row...

DLG1.V.R1.PARENTDD_A5INSTANCE1 and DLG1.V.R1.CHILDDD_A5INSTANCE1

PARENTDD and CHILDDD are my control names. You tell the child dropdown who it's parent is, and that dropdown goes and finds it. In this case, you tell CHILDDD that PARENTDD is it's parent. Because it's in a repeating section and therefore has the name A5INSTANCE1 appended to it, the child knows that PARENTDD_A5INSTANCE1 is it's parent and the parent knows who it's child is.

Now... if you move PARENTDD out of the repeating section, it's name no longer ends with A5INSTANCE1 (for the 1st row). The parent (whose name NO LONGER ends with A5INSTANCE1) cannot find it's child. The CHILDDD control is now... wait for it... orphaned. (I love how this works out).

Anyway... you can cheat. As each row gets focus, you can "remind" the parent dropdown that it has a child... and what that child's name is. But it's messy looking and may not flow as you'd like.

In the Client-side Event, onRptSectionRowChange, enter this code...

$('DLG1.V.R1.PARENTDD').name = 'V.R1.PARENTDD_A5INSTANCE'+e.rowNumber;

But, you have to click into a row before dropping down the parent. The code would fire, the Parent dropdown get's renamed to something that is common to the Child dropdown.

You could also go the other way, and change the SELECT ID of the CHILD dropdowns. But, in this case, as you rename the current row dropdown to match the parent, you'd have to put back the last one you changed. It's a matter of either getting rid of, or adding, the A5INSTANCEn in either the SELECT ID or the name element.

Yikes. It's ugly, but Alpha lets you do it... and that's all that counts.

[[email protected]]

Re: Error with cascading drop down in repeating section

Thanks David, I appeciate the help and enjoyed the puns.

To answer your question I could put a parent dd in the repeating section but why ask the user to select the same value in every row... which is my scenario. It's just more efficient to select it once then filter all dds in the repeating section. However this gets me thinking, maybe I can set the value in a repeating parent once it is selected in a dd in the non repeating section, thereby filtering the dd that the user will actually select from in the repeating section... I'll give that a crack!

[Davidk]

Re: Error with cascading drop down in repeating section

Yeah, I figured you wanted one main selection. Then you best bet is to base your child grid on a variable and then set that variable in the parent. That setup is perfect for what you want to do since you don't have to worry about control names. I just thought it was interesting to find out how the parent-child dropdown communication worked.

[Davidk]

Re: Error with cascading drop down in repeating section

On the other hand, you could use the very nice Methods that Alpha actually provides and that I never thought to look for. Really need to start looking before I leap. Anyway.

In your Parent Dropdown, onChange event, get into the Text Mode and enter this code...

var currParent = {dialog.Object}.getValue('PARENTDD');

//refresh the choices in the DropdownBox for the 'products' control.
//{dialog.object}.refreshDropdownBoxChoices('PRODUCTS');
//refresh the choices and set the select to 'PRODUCT_X'
//{dialog.object}.refreshDropdownBoxChoices('PRODUCTS','','','PRODUCT_X');
//refresh the choices and filter choices to only show items where the 'type' field is 'a' and 'code' field is 'x'


//{dialog.object}.refreshDropdownBoxChoices('PRODUCTS','type=:whatType and code = :whatCode','a|||c|whatType\nx|||c|whatCode');
//Note that in the above example the dynamicFilterArguments is a crlf delimited string (\n is the CRLF code in javascript) of the form
//value|||datatype|argumentname

var ddArgs = currParent + '|||c|custId';

//{dialog.object}.refreshDropdownBoxChoices('CHILDDD','CUSTID=:custID','2|||c|custId');

{dialog.object}.refreshDropdownBoxChoices('CHILDDD','CUSTID=:custID',ddArgs);

Have a look at the Method information to get familiar with it. I've copied the samples just so I could follow them. You want the last sample which allows you to query and filter your child data table. I based the filter on the value of the parentDD. And... by default it changes all the dropdowns if it's in a repeating section... but... there's an option to turn that off if you don't want it... but you do, in your case. It's brilliant and it's all built in for you. So... all the posts above? In the words of Rosanne Roseannadanna... Nevermind.

[[email protected]]

Re: Error with cascading drop down in repeating section

Thanks David, I've gone to the Parent DD OnChange JS property and into text mode but for some reason that method doesn't exist in the list of available methods.

All I've got are .refreshCaptcha and .refreshClientSideComputations

[Davidk]

Re: Error with cascading drop down in repeating section

So... the Parent dropdown control, Properties, Javascript, onChange event, Text Mode radio button, click on the hyperlink Insert Dialog Method, and you should have a long list... unless something is typed into the filter. Here's a screen shot of the list.

[[email protected]]

Re: Error with cascading drop down in repeating section

Hi David, I appreciate your perseverence here... for some odd reason I simply don't have that option. I'm running the latest version 11 build 2765.

Here is a screenshot.

ScreenHunter_38 Jul. 31 16.41.jpg

[Davidk]

Re: Error with cascading drop down in repeating section

Sorry for the wild goose chase Richard... these are in one of the pre-release builds. I'm running 2811-3978... hadn't thought to check that.

[[email protected]]

Re: Error with cascading drop down in repeating section

Few, thought I was going nuts there for a minute. Thanks David.