Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

[rmcgaffic]

Alpha Five is generating an error message "Out of Memory" for an extremely simple opening and closing of a child form from a parent form.

The child form contains a button with the following action script:

Save record in current form at parent level
Close current form or browse window
Close the current window

When I clicked on the button on the child form, the form disappeared as desired.

However, at the bottom of the screen, the tab, which is created for each form as it was opened, did NOT close.

I thought this was weird, and opened my child form and closed it three times using its button.

But the tab at the bottom of the screen still would not close.

Finally I right clicked on the tab, and selected Close All.

At that point, Alpha Five returned the error message.

I repeated this same exercise with the Windows XP task manager open just to monitor my laptop's memory.

I am using an IBM Thinkpad T42 with 2 GB of memory. Throughout all of my testing, the Windows task manager reported statistics like the following:

Physical Memory (K)
Total 2096048
Available 1489788
System Cache 731952

I interpret these statistics to mean that of my 2 GB of available memory, I have roughly 1.4 GB of memory of available. I noted NO spikes in Alpha's use of memory.

If that is the case, does any one know why Alpha Five generated its "Out of memory" error message when Windows Task Manager shows plenty of memory available.

More importantly, how does one close a form to remove it from memory. I resorted to two different close statements in my action script, but apparently they were not sufficient.

Bob McGaffic
Pittsburgh

[rmcgaffic]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

I can hear G Gabriel now: "I told you so!" or insight five minutes later.

Here's what's causing the problem:

The parent form button which calls the child form has the following XBasic behind it:

Dim LinkDef As C
LinkDef = "Topic_id = " + s_quote(mTopic_Id)
Dim p as P
p = Form.ViewLinked("frmTopicItem", LinkDef, "", "", "dialog", "center", "center")

Simple, easy to be sure -- BUT IS IT STABLE? It looks like it's consuming lots of system resources, but I'm not seeing that looking at the Windows Task Manager which shows roughly 2/3 of my laptop's 2 GB as available.

My parent form also contains another button for opening a form using an action script. The form is closed by click on the Windows Window X icon. When the form is closed, the tab disappears. This is the behavior I expected.

Bob McGaffic
Pittsburgh

[MikeC]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

Bob,
You are opening the form as a dialog....and then closing it say via a close button on the form. This is a very prevalent mistake made. You only closed the form from view--it is still in memory. A form opened as dialog works this way so that additional code/scripts can run after the form is closed from view but is still actually present (in memory)--it does this by pausing the script once the form opens (is shown). The paused script resumes when the opened form is closed.

IMPORTANT!!! Whatever script opened the form ALSO has to close the form that has been opened as a dialog (the calling script). So yes, you are closing the same form twice--once from view and the next from memory. Most times, if Action Script is used, it will place the appropriate closing in the calling script....but have had to, on occaision, added my own "Close Window" action script I remember.

[rmcgaffic]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

Miike,

Thanks for the clarification.

I adopted your suggestion, but unfortunately, the "Out of memory" problem remains even after the child form is opened and closed ONE time.

Here's summary of the problem:

mTopic_Id is defined as variable

[FONT="Courier New"][B]Parent form: frmTopic
  Parent button
    Execute inline XBasic code
      Dim LinkDef as C
      LinkDef = "Topic_id = " + s_quote(mTopic_Id)
      Dim p as P
      p = Form.ViewLinked("frmTopicItem", LinkDef)
    Close the form/browse called: frmTopicItem[/B][/FONT]

Child form: frmTopicItem
  Child button
    Save record in current form at parent level
    Close current form or browse window

You can see that I have indeed closed the form frmTopicItem twice per your suggestion. Yet the "Out of memory error" remains.

Then I added changed the child forms as follows:

Child form: frmTopicItem
  Child button
    Save record in current form at parent level
    Close current form or browse window
    Close the current window

The problem remains. Note the child form contains an embedded browse which displays 3 child records.

Note the screen print below shows Windows Task Manager showing that plenty of memory is available.

Why is something this small and simple, so quickly exhausting Alpha Five's resources?

Bob McGaffic
Pittsburgh, PA

[MikeC]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

Bob,
If you do not have multiple instances of the form opened (signified with numeric suffixes after the form names), then the form that is being opened as dialog is being closed as it should be. Your script you last posted opens the form normally (not as dialog).

As is said so many times here--a sample will always get a quicker, more specific response and makes it so much easier for everyone to be on the same page right away....even for what apparently is an "easy" question! :)

BTW--I don't open bitmaps on this PC as it is for some reason a 3 step process for me--even when it is not it does take longer than a JPG or PNG which is mostly recommended for the messageboard.

[rmcgaffic]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

Tom,

Thanks for the pointers. I use .bmp image files, because Alpha typically uses this format.

Attached is a zipped application.

Here's how to reproduce the "Out of memory" error:
1. Doubleclick on frmTopic to open it in full screen mode
2. Click on the [Continue] button to move to the second record with a topic_id of AA2.
3. On record AA2, click on[List] button.
4. frmTopicItem opens in dialog form.
5. Note that three records are displayed.
6. Click on [Save+Exit] button on the dialog form
7. Out of memory message box is displayed and tab for frmTopicItem at the bottom of the screen is not closed

That's it in a nutshell. I've incorporated your suggestion and have closed the dialog form twice on both the target form and the calling form.

Thanks,
Bob McGaffic

PS: If you double click on a line in the dialog form frmTopicItem, another form opens also in dialog mode frmTopicItemDetail.

Here's the idea:
frmTopic: Describes a topic, for example, characteristics of people we dislike. The user is instructed to click on the[List button]

frmTopicItem: The user has an opportunity to list the behaviors of people he dislikes in a list. The important idea is to capture this information as quickly as possible, like typikng a list in an Excel spreadsheet. Fields Topic_Id and Item_No are both included in the browse, but their column width is set to zero: hence the need for the form.viewlinked().

frmTopicItemDetail: Once the user completes his list, he can doubleclick on any item and open a new dialog form, where he can describe in detail why a particular behavior is disliked.

So two dialog forms and the parent form may be open at one time. I'm running into my memory problem with just one dialog form open with the parent form.

Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado never was able to use Alpha Five, but if he had, I'm sure he would use an application like mine to create a list of objectional behaviors, "a list of people who would not be missed" including those who puff peppermint in your face.

[MikeC]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

Bob,
Sorry but I cannot test with your form as the ActiveX object is based on I believe CtTree which I do not have.

But, I could see your scripts on the buttons. On your List button you used a form/browse close action script. Instead try what I stated and use a Window Close---Action Script left pane of Select Action would be Window Commands, right pane would be Close Window->select "Specify the Window Name" (if you have the dialog form open it will list its name).

Without being able to test your forms this is about all I can help with...

[rmcgaffic]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

Mike,

You don't need the ctTree Control. I should have deleted for you.
It simply populates a tree control with a little more graphic flexibility than native A5 permits.

If you click on a record in the tree, the record will be displayed in the form.

But another way is to use the [Back] and [Continue] buttons. That's why I suggest click on [Continue] to advance to the second record in the database and then click on[List].

Bob McGaffic
Pittsburgh, PA

[rmcgaffic]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

Tom,

Boy, this isn't easy!

I removed the ctTree control and commented out the OnInit code I used to populate the tree.

The control's OnClick event was as follows:

function click as v ()
  dim mNode as N
  dim mTopic_Id as C
  mNode = ctTree1.Selected  
  mTopic_Id = ctTree1.NodeCargo(mNode)
  topparent.Index_SetExplicit("Topic_Id")
  topparent.find(mTopic_Id)	 
end function

This code is used to select the form to display once a node is clicked on.

This code beautifully populated the tree and was superfast with lots more graphic properties compared to the native Alpha tree.

Once this control was removed, and once the child form's [Save+Close] button has an action script as follows:

Save record in current form at parent level
Close the current window

And the memory error does does NOT occur.

Note that the tree control only had three nodes displayed, which couldn't take that much memory. And why did Windows Task Manager never display even a blip in memory use?

What an enigma!

Thanks for taking a look at my zipped file.

Bob McGaffic
Pittsburgh, PA

[rmcgaffic]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

I have come to the conclusion I have no clue as to what the problem is and just want to vent some tea kettle like frustration:

1. Is the problem the third party ActiveX tree control (ctTree by Codejock)?

No, because when I open child frmTopicClue in dialog mode, then close this form using the Windows title X, the form correctly closes, and the tab at the bottom of the screen disappears.

No, because when I open child frmTopicExample in dialog mode, then close this form using the Windows title X, the form correctly closes, and the tab at the bottom of the screen disappears.

SO if both of these forms can be opened and closed cleanly without invoking a memory error, it is unlikely that the ctTree control is the problem

2. Is the problem the Form.ViewLinked() method from Alpha Five?

No, because when the ctTree control is removed and the parent's OnInit code is commented out, the Form.ViewLinked() method allows child form to be opened successfully, and the Close the current window in the child form behaves as it should and the tab at the bottom of the parent form correctly disappears.

3. Is the problem Alpha Five in general?

Any add, change, delete activites in the child frmTopicItem are correctly written to the database.

The error message is a dialog box with the following format:
Windows title: Error
Icon: Blue i in a cartoon ballon shape
Message: Out of memory
Button: OK

Wouldn't you think an Alpha error would be displayed with a white X in a red circle icon?

And get this: When I click on the Windows title X to close the Error message dialog, it closes, but the tab at the bottom of the form remains. Then when I click on the button to open child form frmTopicClue, a new tab for frmTopicClue is not displayed at the bottom of the form and the frmTopicItem tab moved to the right, as you would expect. Rather the tab that is "stuck" for frmTopicList is overwritten with frmTopicClue.

The records written to the database with the form.ViewLinked() method all appear to be OK.

So this seems to not really be an error, but really weird behavior. Yes, I would like the tab to disappear when the form is closed, but confronting a user with a benign Error message does not make for a good user experience.

Enough for tonight!

Bob McGaffic
Pittsburgh, PA

PS: My fear is that this is really very unstable and I don't know why.

[MikeC]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

Bob,
I took another look and tried a few things as well.

I can open and close the frmTopicItem as a normal form with no problems.

I can open and close the frmTopicItem as a dialog form with no problems.

But when I use the Form.ViewLinked() I get the same error as you. The form opened in this manner is not allowing any way to close itself so perhaps there is something about opening up a form in this manner that has not been learned or documented as of yet.

Question...why are you using the Form.ViewLinked() method as I do not see any problem whatsoever in utilizing the other two methods??

Also---I think you are taking the error message as literal when perhaps it should not be--some error messages, when found out what has caused them appear cryptic....until they have been fully explained and sometimes it is only when the powers that be {Alpha} come in to do this explaining that they make sense.

[rmcgaffic]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

Tom,

You asked why I was using ViewLinked() instead of just opening a browse.

On frmTopicItem, the browse contains three fields:
Topic_Id
Item_No
Item_Text

The first two fields are set to column width of zero, so when the user opens the form, only the Item_Text field field is displayed. As I mentioned previously, I want this list to behave like an Excel spreadsheet for quickly compiling a list.

However, all added records should be populated with the Topic_Id from the parent form automatically. And that is what form.ViewLinked() is intended to do.

OK, here's the rub: formViewLinked() was made available in version 8. I am using version 9 with the latest patches. When I search the help ("Alpha Five Help/Alpha Five Version 9 dated 03/18/2008), incredibly there are no hits!!! Should we read something into this (the functionality does work in version 9) or is it simply an omission?

Had it not been for a posting of Tim Kiebert (thread: Populating child record with parents ID) I would never know this function exists.

The only documentation I can find is what Tim cut and pasted from his V8 help. This documentation does not mention any specific action needed to close or revoke form.ViewLinked()

One or two messages back, you mentioned that my code behind the button on the parent form did not include Closing the window for frmTopicItem. Light bulb goes on. You must have both windows open on your desktop, frmTopic and frmTopicItem, before you can Action Script a Close Window for frmTopicItem. I did successfully add an action script line to close child frmTopicItem in the code behind the button on the parent frmTopic.

In summary here's what I think is happening:

Click on parent form button[List]
Child form opens in dialog mode
Click on [Save+Close] button on the child form.
Child form closes correctly
Error message "Out of memory is received"
Child form tab is still visble at the bottom of the screen
The ViewLined code hangs and Alpha will not execute the second Close child window command
Click on parent form button [Clue]
This action forces the execution of the execution of the second Close child window command that you recommended
At the bottom of the page the tab for frmItemTopic disappears and is replaced by a tab for frmItemClue.

This looks like a bug to me, especially since my monitoring of memory usage using Windows Task Manager shows no spike or peak levels of usage.

Bob McGaffic
Pittsburgh

[MikeC]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

This looks like a bug to me.

If formViewLinked() is supposed to work when opened as dialog the same way as .Form_View() is for a dialog form then I agree....but without complete documentation I cannot say for sure.

[Doug Page]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

Bob,

I have no help for your problem but just thought you should know that all the help you have been getting is from MikeC even though you keep addressing your posts to Tom.

[Mike Wilson]

Re: Out of memory after opening two simple forms, what gives?

I had to laugh at Doug's post because I was thinking the same thing!

Bob,
Have the list button script be this:

Dim LinkDef As C
LinkDef = "Topic_id = " + s_quote(mTopic_Id)
Dim ptr as P
ptr = Form.ViewLinked("frmTopicItem", LinkDef, "", "", "dialog", "center", "center")

if is_object(ptr) = .t. then 						
	ptr.close()
end if