Field data erased ....

[peterg000]

Had an issue today with a user working with app .... she was editing customer data which uses one form to one table(customer). Somehow, all the data fields in the record for a particular customer where erase. Normally I would think it was user or programer(me) error, but user doesnt have access to the key field(customer number) and the program does nothing special. Anyone see behavior like this. Not sure where to start to debug .... went through dozens of edits ... couldnt re-produce myself. user said she edited data ... looked at screen and everything looked good .... hit the save button(executes save record) and everything went blank .... ????

Any help would be much appreciated ....

Glenn

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Field data erased ....

Can the user delete a record? Have you tried to undelete records? You might want to make a copy of her table and do some careful poking and prodding.

[peterg000]

Re: Field data erased ....

Tom .... first thing I thought of .... record wasnt deleted .... data just blanked out. How I found this out was by tbl.undelete(1,999999,.t.) to undelete .... no record undeleted .... then I found the blank record.

Kinda scarey ....

and no .... they dont have capability to delete ....

Glenn

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Field data erased ....

Was the user entering the record through an embedded browse? What build of vers 10 was in use? Might the SAVE BUTTON be running a script that failed? Are there CanSaveRecord event scripts in play in field rules? How about a CanSave event script in the form itself?

[peterg000]

Re: Field data erased ....

Tom,
Form was launched off embeded browse ... form stands alone .... just uses customer number from embeded browse to display correct customer in customer form. There is a button to put form in change mode ... once user edits record, there is a save button to execute the save record. Have no idea the sequence she caused to have record get erased .... but like I said, she has no access to key fields ... at the very least, they should not have been erased ... ????

V10 2814-3539

Glenn

[martinwcole]

Re: Field data erased ....

Are there any lookup fields she is using from the form, that use table lookups in field rules. And, if so, do they use a drop-down list box? Are there any form gadgets, like combo boxes, etc?

In converting an app from 8 to 10, I ran into this sporadic behavior, and spent an enormous amount of time trying to debug it. Although I never did find a cause (and another seasoned developer tried to help me find the issue) I found a work-around that works about 97% of the time.

When I initialize the form (opened as a dialog) (and it is filtered for one record only)

1. I read into variables the initial values for maybe 10 of the major fields, and then at the commit button check to see if any of the major fields are blank. (And depending on the fields, I then know that the fields have been blanked, and cancel, telling the operator data is corrupted - need to do it again, and close the form.

2. Two fields, via xbasic, I prevent from EVER being blank. Firstname and lastname. And I have a 1 second timer that checks to see if the fields are blank - and if so, I know it happened, and alert the user, cancel changes, and close the form, immediately, since any further editing is futile.

I found that using lookups NOT as drop downs made a big difference. I did everything you can think of - including making a new form from scratch. But could never pinpoint the cause.

I thought about sending a bug report, but because this is a medical app, and there are hundreds of lines of code that fire, decided not to send.

But if yours is simpler, you may be be able to send a bug report. If there are any lookup fields, repeatedly edit a record and change the lookup values. And the same with form gadgets. Try to be able to recreate the issue at least most of the time so they can, too.

Note: one of the oddities of this issue is that the fields on the screen do not appear to have been blanked, but if you click on one, it will then be blank, as well as most of the other fields.

good luck

[peterg000]

Re: Field data erased ....

Martin,
Thanks for you feedback ... very helpful ... a little scarey, but helpful. On save, I could check to make sure key fields have not been erased ... at least I would feel better that im checking something. I will try to run through and see if I can re-create ... so far, I have not been able to. At least Im not going crazy ... :)

Thanks again .....

[martinwcole]

Re: Field data erased ....

I think the cansave is where you want to check, but I'm not sure what it will show, or show correctly.

In my debugging routine, I would check to see if the original record was still the same one on the screen, and it was - so I knew it hadn't jumped.

You'll have to experiment.

[martinwcole]

Re: Field data erased ....

PS: if possible, post your app here or send it to me with instructions and I'll see if I can reproduce it, because I know it exists. If we could ever isolate the cause, we could get a fix.

[jkletrovets]

Re: Field data erased ....

Are there any lookup fields she is using from the form, that use table lookups in field rules. And, if so, do they use a drop-down list box? Are there any form gadgets, like combo boxes, etc?

In converting an app from 8 to 10, I ran into this sporadic behavior, and spent an enormous amount of time trying to debug it. Although I never did find a cause (and another seasoned developer tried to help me find the issue) I found a work-around that works about 97% of the time.

When I initialize the form (opened as a dialog) (and it is filtered for one record only)

1. I read into variables the initial values for maybe 10 of the major fields, and then at the commit button check to see if any of the major fields are blank. (And depending on the fields, I then know that the fields have been blanked, and cancel, telling the operator data is corrupted - need to do it again, and close the form.

2. Two fields, via xbasic, I prevent from EVER being blank. Firstname and lastname. And I have a 1 second timer that checks to see if the fields are blank - and if so, I know it happened, and alert the user, cancel changes, and close the form, immediately, since any further editing is futile.

I found that using lookups NOT as drop downs made a big difference. I did everything you can think of - including making a new form from scratch. But could never pinpoint the cause.

I thought about sending a bug report, but because this is a medical app, and there are hundreds of lines of code that fire, decided not to send.

But if yours is simpler, you may be be able to send a bug report. If there are any lookup fields, repeatedly edit a record and change the lookup values. And the same with form gadgets. Try to be able to recreate the issue at least most of the time so they can, too.

Note: one of the oddities of this issue is that the fields on the screen do not appear to have been blanked, but if you click on one, it will then be blank, as well as most of the other fields.

good luck

I can second the EXACT occurrence of this behavior. I, like Martin, have the form as modal. I also have spent a bunch of time trying to isolate it. It definitely appears to be related to any field data entry method that is not just a type in field (combo box, data picker, etc.) I also had resorted to the method mentioned to retrieve the values from fields that were getting blanked out and then putting them back right before the save occurs. But, this was just for testing for me....as it is not practical......I would have to re-do TONS of work as this occurs in MANY places. FWIW, this problem does not occur in release 3520.

I am planning on submitting a bug report once time permits....for now it is release 3520 for me.

Regards,

Jeff

[martinwcole]

Re: Field data erased ....

if you can reproduce the error, please submit a bug report ASAP, before the new release candidate is released.

[peterg000]

Re: Field data erased ....

Martin .... forgot to ask .... you said your work-around code check worked 97% of the time .... what did you do the other 3% when a record was erased? .... did you have to run error reporting every day to check for records with key fields that where erased? ... and how would you fix?

Just wondering ....

Glenn

[martinwcole]

Re: Field data erased ....

my routine prevents the "bad" record from being saved, and restores it to its original condition - I tell the user that "Data corrupted, all changes lost - reenter."

So, in a sense, it works 100% of the time - but only in preventing the saving of a "blank" or partially blank record.

[peterg000]

Re: Field data erased ....

Thanks Martin ..... do you see anything wrong with the code on the cansave event doing the following ...

' =====> check to see if key field has been corrupted and cancel dim vc_check_owner as c
dim tblo as p
'
tblo = table.current()
vc_check_owner = alltrim(tblo.owner)
'
if len(vc_check_owner) < 1
	msgbox("Error","Possible data corruption .... Save cancelled     ",UI_STOP_SYMBOL)
	topparent.cancel()
	cancel()
end if

Seems wierd that the topparent.cancel doesnt completely stop the save ... I have to add the cancel() as well to completely stop the record from being saved. Cant do without topparent.cancel either because thats what cancels change mode for the form ... hmmmmmm ... is this a cart before horse thing?? ... :)

Glenn

[martinwcole]

Re: Field data erased ....

since you are at the form's "cansave" event, cancel() is like answering "No" to the question "May I save this record?" And then you are cancelling the save with the rest.

But I'm not sure whether this will be sufficient - you will need to find out from her how often she gets the message, and whether this will prevent the saving of the "blank" record.

I would put the cancel() before the parentform.cancel()

The question will be does it also always blank the key field - mine didn't, but blanked most of the rest. So that's why I check several fields, and if they are blank I know "it" happened.

I would also recommend closing the form after the action.

Have you submitted a bug report, yet?