How to hide an empty character field in grid view?

[compuaid]

I'm using the grid view in A5V10 beta and need to know how to write an expression in the Client side Hide/Show javascript to hide a field and the label when the field is blank. I've tried using ALLTRIM(fieldname)='' as well as LEFT(fieldname,1)=' ' but neither works.

[Jim Coltz]

Re: How to hide an empty character field in grid view?

I'm using the grid view in A5V10 beta and need to know how to write an expression in the Client side Hide/Show javascript to hide a field and the label when the field is blank. I've tried using ALLTRIM(fieldname)='' as well as LEFT(fieldname,1)=' ' but neither works.

I just tried it with today's build and alltrim(fieldname)='' works for hiding the control. When you say label do you mean the column title?

[compuaid]

Re: How to hide an empty character field in grid view?

I'm using today's build and I have a field - subdiv - which shows as a label on a complex display only grid. When I use the expression alltrim(subdiv)='' the label is hidden on my grid regardless of the contents of the actual field. I find that Alltrim(fieldname)='' is always evaluating to true even when the field contains data. Again, I'm using label controls rather than text controls as this is not an updateable grid.

[Jim Coltz]

Re: How to hide an empty character field in grid view?

I think you may have it backwards. The control is shown only when the expression evaluates to true. Alltrim(fieldname)='' will evaluate to true when the field is blank and show blank fields, it evaluates to false when the field is not blank and therefore fields with data are not shown. Try alltrim(fieldname)<>'' to show the data.

[compuaid]

Re: How to hide an empty character field in grid view?

When I use alltrim(fieldname)<>'' the field shows up on every record whether the fieldname contains data or is empty. When I use alltrim(fieldname)='' the field is hidden on every record even when the field contains data. It appears to always be evaluating to true or false regardless of the field data depending upon the operator (= vs <>).

[Jim Coltz]

Re: How to hide an empty character field in grid view?

Maybe it doesn't do what you are expecting. Try using the expression to evaluate a known value and see what it does. For instance, I'm using a small grid based on the customer table in Alphasports. I set the client side show/hide expression for the bill_address_2 field to alltrim(Bill_address_2)='Apt 7' and the only values shown in the column are Apt 7. Change the expression to alltrim(Bill_address_2)<>'Apt 7' and all values but Apt 7 are shown. The placeholder in the grid is always shown regardless. Make the control editable by setting it to a text box and you will be able to see the control is hidden/visable based on the expression. In all cases, the column in still visable.

[compuaid]

Re: How to hide an empty character field in grid view?

Actually, your suggestion to change the control to a text box was a good one for testing. The condition works exactly as I intended when the control type is a text box (making the field appear when there is data and hiding the field when no data exists) but does not work when the control type is a label. I'm going to submit this as a bug to Alpha.

[compuaid]

Re: How to hide an empty character field in grid view?

With Selwyn's assistance and insight, got it working. The issue is that in order to keep tables properly formatted, Alpha inserts a &nbsp; character when a label is empty as a place holder. The code required to hide an empty label field thus becomes:

alltrim(fieldname)<>'' and alltrim(fieldname)<>'&nbsp;'

And it works! Selwyn stated that the next code update will include javascript generated by Alpha to treate &nbsp as null so that the original test of just alltrim(fieldname)<>'' would work.

It sure is great working with a company where the developers listen and respond!