Get initial value from search field

[tim.coe]

Hi all,

I'm trying to set the initial value of a field in an A5 grid to match what the user has submitted for the equivalent field in the search part of the grid. In this grid the user can search for the records of contacts by their "Contact ID". I'd like to have the "Contact ID" for new records set to whatever they entered in the search part (e.g. "3").

My coding experience in relation to A5 is pretty limited, so I'm not sure of how best to go about this. I've tried setting page variables and messing around with javascript, however none of my haphazard attempts have worked yet.

Any help would be wonderful. Many thanks.

[madtowng]

Re: Get initial value from search field

I think I know what you want to do, but I want to make sure.
Here is the scenario.

User searches for Contact ID 'XYZ'.

Contact 'XYZ' is not in the table. User needs to add new record.

You want the Contact ID for that new record to be 'XYZ'


Assuming I have this correct, it would be helpful to know if
the new contact is being entered from this page, or of they
are being directed to a new page.

Last piece of information, at least for now, is Contact ID
assigned by the system, or is it chosen by manual process ?

[tim.coe]

Re: Get initial value from search field

Thanks for your reply. To clarify:

1) The component in question is an Alpha Five grid with a search part.

2) The user can search by various criteria such as "Contact Forename", "Contact Surname", and "Contact ID".

3) The grid part then displays the "Events" (records) which correspond to that "Contact".

4) Each "Contact" may have many "Events" (records). They are stored in two different tables, with the Contact ID acting as the common key.

5) When the user searches, they will find any existing records for the "Contact" which they chose in the search part. They can also add new "Events". I'm trying to set the initial value of the new "Contact ID" to the one which the user searched for.

Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words: Contact_Event_Search.jpg

Thanks again.

[tim.coe]

Re: Get initial value from search field

Any thoughts from anyone?

[kingcarol]

Re: Get initial value from search field

What you are trying to do sounds nice... but since I don't know how to do that, I would be tempted to make a grid of the contacts only, then search for a contact on that grid, then click on a contact to pop up a window with the list of events for the contact. If you set a session variable for the contact before opening that window to use as the filter, then you could also use the session variable as the default value for a new record on that pop up grid.

[madtowng]

Re: Get initial value from search field

As I look at the image, it appears the user can do a search without touching the contact-id field in the search area.
If this is the case, you have a very real chance that they will not use the contact-id field (much easier to lookup
Jones or Fred than to remember a contact id.
I know this isn't much of an answer right now, but you can see what could happen.

[tim.coe]

Re: Get initial value from search field

Thanks to both of you for your input.

Carol - Thanks for your suggestion. At the moment I'd prefer to keep it all on one screen if at all possible. If it's really impossible to do it this way though, I think I'll probably take the route you describe.

Gregg - You make a good point about the possibility of the user not using the contact ID when they search. It's a case which I hadn't considered enough. Thankfully the "Organisation Name", "Forename", "Surname" and "Contact ID" search fields are set up as auto-suggest fields, so that when the user searches on just one of those boxes, the rest get filled in when they choose from the suggested list of contacts. (The only minor exception is that searching by "Organisation Name" will fill out the "Forename", "Surname", and "Contact ID", but using those latter 3 fields won't fill out the "Organisation Name", as seen in the screenshot. I don't think that effects this question though.)

That leaves the case of searching by "Event ID". The way the system is set up is such that it wouldn't really be a problem to remove the ability to search by "Event ID" from this grid (there are other grids where the user can do that). If I do remove it, then the only remaining problem is (I think) the original one, which I still haven't been able to crack.

Any ideas from anyone?

[GGandhi]

Re: Get initial value from search field

hello
while i have not done this completely i tested with just one field and it gives the result what you may be looking for:
there is an event "OnSearchPartFilterCompute" which gives all the parts submitted in the "e" object as e.SearchDataSubmitted.objectName, which can be assigned to a variable individually.

can this lead you assign that variable to the field you are looking for when a new record is being added?

[GGandhi]

Re: Get initial value from search field

hello this is follow up on my last post:
OnSearchPartComplete declare a global variable and assign the e object that holds the value to it.
and OnInitialValueCalculate script assign that to the variable you want to assign
that should work.
i tested that briefly and it works.

[kingcarol]

Re: Get initial value from search field

Govindan, after thinking about this, I was going to suggest the same thing. I'm glad you did.

[tim.coe]

Re: Get initial value from search field

Hi Govindan. I'm glad to say I finally got round to implementing your suggestion today, and it works perfectly. Many thanks.

For anyone's future reference, here's what it looks like:

In the server-side event "OnSearchPartFilterCompute":

function OnSearchPartFilterCompute as v (e as p)

dim global search_current_ContactID as c
search_current_ContactID = e.searchDataSubmitted.ContactID

end function

In the server-side event "OnInitialValueCalculate":

function onInitialValueCalculate as v (e as p)

e.newValues.ContactID = search_current_ContactID

end function

Thanks again!