Dynamic Bubble Help

[lgrupido]

I have a grid where I want to dynamically show bubble help based on a the fields in a table. I know how to use a grid field in the bubble help {myfieldname}

But, this grid is returning a lot of rows, and the help text for each column is the same for the entire column. I'd like to do a separate call when the grid initializes and then use the values I get from the call to populate the bubble help fields in the grid as opposed to pulling it as straight data.

I believe this will make my grid much faster as it is not pulling the same data 1000 times just so I can use it for a mouseover.

But I'm not sure where to start. I think I want to grab the values in the grid.execute event and then store them into an e.rv variable.

But then I don't know how to use the e.rv variable in the bubble help section.

Can someone point me in the right direction, please?

Larry

[Steve Workings]

Re: Dynamic Bubble Help

Larry - can you clarify? Do you want a (possibly) custom bubble help for each row? Or, one custom bubble help for all rendered rows?

[lgrupido]

Re: Dynamic Bubble Help

One custom bubble help for each row, but separate helps for each column.

That is why I would like to read it in once at the beginning, then set the bubble help for each column. Right now I am pulling in the help in the select statement for the grid, but then it pulls the same help for each row, which seems inefficient.

[Steve Workings]

Re: Dynamic Bubble Help

So if you have 100 rows, but three columns, you need a grand total of three different bubble helps?

[lgrupido]

Re: Dynamic Bubble Help

Correct. (Although, in the particular grid I'm looking at, it's more like 50 columns)

[lgrupido]

Re: Dynamic Bubble Help

And just to be clear, (because looking back I'm not sure I have been.) 1 help for each column, and that help would be the same regardless of which row. If the help had to be different for each row, I'd include it in the data because you wouldn't save anything by pulling it outside of that.

But in this case, I want to setup all of the help for each column so I don't have to include it in the data.

[Steve Workings]

Re: Dynamic Bubble Help

OK, here's one way:

I put bubble help in the regular property sheet for two columns. Column 1 bubble help is Col1BHelp and Column 2 bubble help is Col2BHelp

Then in the Server side OnExistingRowRender event, I did this:

dim vCol1Bhelp as c = "This is column 1 help"
dim vCol2Bhelp as c = "Here is column 2 help"
e.currentRowHTML = stritran(e.currentRowHTML, "Col1BHelp", vCol1Bhelp)
e.currentRowHTML = stritran(e.currentRowHTML, "Col2BHelp", vCol2Bhelp)

I'll be interested to see if anyone comes up with something more efficient, but I can't think of it. Does this help?

[lgrupido]

Re: Dynamic Bubble Help

By changing the variables a bit, I can use the ongridexecute event to set the values:

e.rtc.vCol1Bhelp = "This is column 1 help"
e.rtc.vCol2Bhelp = "Here is column 2 help"

And then use them in the onexistingrowrenderevent


e.currentRowHTML = stritran(e.currentRowHTML, "Col1BHelp", e.rtc.vCol1Bhelp)
e.currentRowHTML = stritran(e.currentRowHTML, "Col2BHelp", e.rtc.vCol2Bhelp)


That way setting the values with a sql call will only fire once per rendering of the grid.

Thank you Steve, that is quite nifty!

[RichCPT]

Re: Dynamic Bubble Help

Taking this one step further you might be able to avoid setting the Help Tips on every "OnGridExecute" event. I have a grid where I set column headings, but not during a "save" callback. So, I put this at the beginning of OnGridExecute:

if e.ajaxCallback = .t.
if "save" $ request.variables.__FormAction then
end ' *** Exit event
end if
end if

I figure there might be some other "__FormAction", besides "save", that I might discover that does not need to execute the fixups. That is why I coded it as 2 "IF" statements.

[Clipper87]

Re: Dynamic Bubble Help

You could also do it in the "other properties" property of the grid and do a strtran there for the property "BubbleHelpControl" after first calling a function that looks up the data. No callbacks & only 1 call.
The "other properties" property is pretty powerful you can write xbasic code there with no problem so it is not just limited to setting some tmpl.<propertyname> value as one might think.

[lgrupido]

Re: Dynamic Bubble Help

I was going to only fire the script when ajaxcallback = .f.

But now I'm also going to look into the "other properties" and see how that works!

[lgrupido]

Re: Dynamic Bubble Help

Got it Working! Here is the script in case anyone is interested:

In OnGridExecute:

if e.ajaxCallback = .f. then

dim conn as SQL::Connection
dim connString as C
dim query as C
dim args as SQL::Arguments
dim array[1] as P
dim e.rtc.helparray[1] as P
dim results as C

query = "select FlagHelpKey, flagdef from vw_tblflag where flagorder is not null order by flagorder"

connString = "::Name::conn"

if .not. conn.open(connString)
? "Error" + conn.CallResult.text
end
end if

if .not. conn.ToPropertyArray(query, e.rtc.helparray)
? "Error" + conn.CallResult.text
conn.close()
end
end if

conn.close()

end if

In onExistingRowRender:

-- NOTE: I know, I should put a loop around this. I'll get around to it someday!
-- NOTE2: In each help bubble field I put |Flag1|, |Flag2| etc. Those are values coming through in FlagHelpKey, FlagDef is the help text.

e.currentRowHTML = stritran(e.currentRowHTML, e.rtc.helparray[1].flagHelpKey, e.rtc.helparray[1].flagdef)
e.currentRowHTML = stritran(e.currentRowHTML, e.rtc.helparray[2].flagHelpKey, e.rtc.helparray[2].flagdef)
e.currentRowHTML = stritran(e.currentRowHTML, e.rtc.helparray[3].flagHelpKey, e.rtc.helparray[3].flagdef)

...

e.currentRowHTML = stritran(e.currentRowHTML, e.rtc.helparray[20].flagHelpKey, e.rtc.helparray[20].flagdef)
e.currentRowHTML = stritran(e.currentRowHTML, e.rtc.helparray[21].flagHelpKey, e.rtc.helparray[21].flagdef)