Check zero value before being allowed to close form

[martinwcole]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

Bravo, Sean - the most of us learned, along with the help of the board.

[seaken64]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

Your replys suggest you really need help in understanding how Alpha works.

You got that right! This the first time I've dabbled with entering scripts. I've started reading up on Xbasic. But up till now I've always got the results I needed with the genies and menus. It's about time I started learning more about the inner workings of A5 for these cases when I have to go off the genies.

These are not mission critical projects. I can wait until I learn how to do it. In the meantime I'll continue with what has been working. I appreciate the help in the forum but I tend to read and experiment myself until I learn it. I get a lot of good tips and some general direction here in the forum and that's all I was looking for, some tips. Now that I know about the form Events I will study up on that.

Thanks again.

[martinwcole]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

Sean, if I were you I would employ Tom to come on your computer with Logmein or similar. Your replys suggest you really need help in understanding how Alpha works.

[seaken64]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

I have a "Save" button on the form. I entered the error checking script in the OnSave event and this works fine.

I also have a "Save and Close" button. I also entered the script on the OnExit event. I get the error message but the form still closes when the "Save and Close" button is used. That button is is programmed to first save the record and then close the form. I get the error message twice but the form closes anyway and the record is saved with the variance field with a wrong value (meaning there is an entry error somewhere).

I'm wondering if I should put something in the "Save and Close" button to prevent the actions if the error script is tripped. Not sure what that is. Any ideas on how to keep the form from being closed and the record saved?

[seaken64]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

I was able to get the warning message to show. Thanks for your help. But I can't keep them from closing the form. The message pops up but the form closes anyway after they click on OK. This is probably because I don't know a lot about how to execute a script. What command has to be entered after msgbox() and cancel() in order to keep the form open?

[seaken64]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

In this case the set consists of two tables, the Transaction table and the Customer table. The set is used only to link the customer name and number to the transaction entry. I'm sure there are times when I am using multiple records from a child table but in this case each time I enter a transaction with this form I'm entering a new record into the Transaction table. The customer record is not added as it must already exist before the Transaction can be entered. In our terminology the Transaction record represents a single sales slip.

[seaken64]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

Maybe a picture of the form will help?Transaction Form.png

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

Sean,

You may need to re-think the concept of a "record". In your first post it sounds like you use that term to refer to the entire transaction. In databases like Alpha Five the term has a very different meaning. In your set based form each "transaction" probably has a single "record" entered to the parent table in your set, and multiple "records" entered into the linked child table. The parent table record will be saved as soon as editing a new child record begins. If you are entering child table records through an embedded browse each row gets saved when the user navigates to a different row, or clicks on a field in the form outside the browse object. All of this can be managed but its not particularly easy, and is impossible for us to specify for you, given the limited amount of information you've furnished and the absence of a working sample.

[seaken64]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

Thanks guys. Yes, this form is based on a set. And I probably should consider putting this kind of thing in the table field rules. I'll start messing around with that idea. In the meantime this solution looks like I might at least be able to show a warning message if they try to close the form before making sure the numbers are correct. I'm still a little unsure of how to get this script into the form but at least I now have a clue. I'll experiment and see if I can figure it out. It's about time I learned how to do some simple Xbasic scripts instead of just using the Active Script genies.

Thank again.
Sean

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

Martin, I'm not sure. That works well for a data entry form based on a single table, but its beginning to sound like he's got a set based form, that probably includes multiple child table records. what's needed is an event that fires before the user can leave the current transaction. -- tom

[martinwcole]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

Sean, put Tom's code in the canexit event for the form. Action scripting is not needed. In design mode, at the top of the screen, where you see Form, right click and you will see many form events - one of them is CanExit

Tom, do you think this might be better handled in the cansaverecord event in field rules?

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

[ deleted duplicate ]

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

Sean,

Assuming the two calc display fields are numeric data, something close to this should do the trick

In the CanExit event for the form:

if calc->cmtrlvariance <> 0 .or. calc->cvariance <> 0 then
    msgbox("Oops","Your transaction is not in balance, check your variance values and correct before closing the form.")
    cancel()
end if

We can't see the entire data entry sequence. The solution above should solve the immediate problem but it would not prevent the user from entering incorrect data for two separate transactions back to back. why? because they wouldn't try to close the form after each transaction so the CanExit wouldn't fire until they try to close the form after the 2nd transaction. Is this clear?

You probably need to think more carefully about when you want this type of validation to occur, limiting it to attempts to close the form may not cover all the situations you may need.

[seaken64]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

put this in the form's canexit event

if somevalue <> 0
cancel()
end if

This is done with a script? How do I get a script to fire on a form event? Do I enter this script in the genie? or do I store the script somewhere and then refer to it?

Sean

[seaken64]

Re: Check zero value before being allowed to close form

Thanks Al,

I looked at that but I could not figure out how to "test that it is or is not zero"