What would be the best way to "STAGE a FAKE" new record?

[Fulltimer]

In many apps today (or website forms) you'll notice that the fields have "greyed" fake data in the fields to tell you what needs to be input into each field. For example the First-Name field does not have a normal label but the field does have the words "First Name" in the actual field itself. As soon as you start typing to fill out the form, the fake data goes away in the field that you are editing. If you fail to fill out the field and leave it blank, the staged "hint data" re-appears.

The other issue is I would like to do this without first creating a "real record" that might have to be deleted later if the user decides NOT to finish a valid edit. I need to do this in both the Grid mode or Detail Mode.

How might this type of action be accomplished in A5 V11?

[GGandhi]

Re: What would be the best way to "STAGE a FAKE" new record?

watermark property. ( I see you want it in grid, in dialog yes, I will check grid)
yes it is available in grid too.

[Fulltimer]

Re: What would be the best way to "STAGE a FAKE" new record?

watermark property. ( I see you want it in grid, in dialog yes, I will check grid)
yes it is available in grid too.

I must have seen that feature (i.e. watermark) a thousand times and never knew what it would do in a A5 app. In years of use, I never clicked on it. Thanks for the great "point in the right direction". I can't wait to try it now.

Second point, I rarely work with dialogs and wondered is a dialog the only way to simulate a Fake Record without really creating the SQL DB blank entry? One reason is that I have created some really nice triggers that are working great and I rather not re-invent those wheels. These triggers are not an issue if I DON'T create a real record.

[GGandhi]

Re: What would be the best way to "STAGE a FAKE" new record?

Second point, I rarely work with dialogs

why not?
you have better control, and for data input I like dialogs, to display result I use grids. that is my style. since the dialog is stand alone not connected to a table except for binding you don't save the information till the last moment. the persistent connection is not an issue with the dialog as opposed to grids, where the grid needs to be tethered to table all the time.

[Fulltimer]

Re: What would be the best way to "STAGE a FAKE" new record?

why not?
you have better control, and for data input I like dialogs, to display result I use grids. that is my style. since the dialog is stand alone not connected to a table except for binding you don't save the information till the last moment. the persistent connection is not an issue with the dialog as opposed to grids, where the grid needs to be tethered to table all the time.

Gandhi,

I am replying because I would like clarification on a point you made in your above response. That point was about "persistent connection". It was always my belief that a web based app only had contact with the database at those instances when an active "call" is being made. All other times, my SQL Server Express should not know anything about my connection(s) and could care even less. Unlike in my days with a product like Visual FoxPro which I believe literally kept a persistent connection to the local DBF, even though the user was sitting idle for a period of time.

It would help tremendously if some clarity could be shared on these issues and their impact on the my current A5 V11 apps.

[GGandhi]

Re: What would be the best way to "STAGE a FAKE" new record?

I wrote a detailed example in my blog entry dated August 11th 2013. the link is at the bottom in my signature. if you like and have time take a look at that article.
essentially the difference between dialog and grid is..

in dialog you initiate a process of collecting data and when ready, you establish connection to the server thru your browser and deposit the information. if there are no errors, server says success if not failure and the bowser reports that back to you and the process is over and the connection is terminated. the whole thing can be repeated over and over.

in grid you establish a connection to the server first and get some information and if you think you need to add, edit or delete some information then you do that and submit if done properly in timely manner you get success or failure the whole thing can be repeated over and over.

so far so good, now comes the difference. it is the "timely manner". when the server sends information back it sends with a message to get any changes back and disconnects itself but the connection information is kept in the browser. when you send the correction same connection is reused. if you don't send soon the connection information is dropped by the browser ( or, say someone can close the browser and walkaway!) and you cannot send any more. so all the changes you made has to be repeated to reestablish the connection.
to test this do the following.
open a dialog fill in some info and take a break for half hour and come back finish rest of the information and submit.
next open a grid update some information either in the grid or in detail and then take a break for half hour or so, comeback and update some more information and submit the changes.
see what happens

browser will complain that there is no active search or some thing but not in the dialog. this is also the basic nature of difference between the desktop and the web. at least in desktop you know you are always tied to the database, in web you are tied sometime or tied for a period of time. that is how web traffic is managed.

hope this explains.