Xdialog Cancel Button

[SFS]

Hello all, I'm new at programming with alpha 5 and need some help with the following: (1) I have created a dialog box that a user inputs the date range of the report they would like to print, if the user enters begin date and end date presses "OK" works as expected, but if the "Cancel" button is pressed, the report is displayed just as if the "OK" button was pressed, I would like to see the dialog box close at this point. (2) How do you display the filter expression of the report on the report itself. If the user selects a date range of 01/01/09 to 01/15/09, I would like to display this on the report.

I have included a very basic example. If someone could please help, it would be appreciated.... Thank You.. Kelly

[Mike Wilson]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

Kelly,
The code generated by action scripting has the button pushed in the xdialog collected in the variable VarC_results. What you need to do is make the Preview a Layout action conditional upon the value of the VarC_results variable (see picture).

[SFS]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

Mike, thank you for your "working solution". A couple questions if you don't mind... Using my example database as reference, If a user inputted a date range that had no records, what code would be needed to show a message box saying " Zero records found". Right know a blank white page will displays. Second question: I would like to be able to show on the report how the report is filtered ("Report Date Range ?????"). Right know on my example, I've placed the Current_Filter from the System DragDrop List, but not to happy in the results. Once again thank you.... Kelly

[Tom Henkel]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

What you would need to do is to do a query of the table based on the date range. If no records are in the query, then display a message box stating that there are no records, otherwise run the report.

Tom

[SFS]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

Tom, thanks for your reply. If you look at my example database in my original thread, I'm using a xdialog box with a query based on date ranges (beginning and ending), I know that I need to place a message box stating something like "ZERO RECORDS FOUND", but I'm not sure where and honestly how to place the code to do this. If you don't mind looking at my example database and showing me and/or placing the code, it would be appreciated.. Thank you in advance.... Kelly

[Mike Wilson]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

Kelly,
Add two actions to the script, change the scope of the dates to global, and add the date global variables to your report.

The action scripting now has two actions. What you will have to do is insert two actions: 1) a message box with the message that there are no records found, and 2) End Script action. Both of these are going to be set conditional to the value of the expression using a5_get_records_in_query()=0 . Learn about this function, it is a mainstream function for this exact purpose. To set the date variables to global, highlight the first action script and press the toolbar icon to the right of the eyeglasses (spectacles) to convert the script to Xbasic. From there, edit the script by changing the scope of the date variables by changing their dim from shared to global. With the dates being set to global, you can pass these values to the report. Simply add these variable fields onto the report. Theses changes are in the attached example. I also included a duplicate of your script with the added 2 action scripts above combined into one in-line xbasic script.

Good luck.

[Tom Henkel]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

Not for nothing, but I am WAAAYYY more comfortable with x_basic than action scripting, so I converted the action script into code, then cleaned out all of the extraneous stuff. The code below checks for records within the date range and if there are no records, displays a message box stating that, else it previews the report.

Hope it helps...

(my code is in red, everything else was created by the action script, I just cleaned it out a bit)

'Create an XDialog dialog box to prompt for parameters.
DIM SHARED DateBegin as D
DIM SHARED DateEnd as D
DIM SHARED varC_result as C
heading_string = "Enter Date Range of Report"
ok_button_label = "&OK"
cancel_button_label = "&Cancel"
varC_result = ui_dlg_box("Customer Contact Report",<<%dlg%
{region}
{text=30,1:heading_string};
{endregion};
{region}
Beginning Date:|	[%DATE;P=popup.calendar(dtoc(DateBegin));I=popup.calendar%.15DateBegin!DateBegin_*];
Ending Date:|	[%DATE;P=popup.calendar(dtoc(DateEnd));I=popup.calendar%.15DateEnd!DateEnd_*];
{endregion};
{line=1,0};
{region}
<*15=ok_button_label!OK> <15=cancel_button_label!CANCEL>
{endregion};
%dlg%,<<%code%
if left(a_dlg_button,10) = "DateBegin_" then 
	if a_dlg_button = "DateBegin_killfocus" then 
		DateBegin = ctod(dtoc(DateBegin))
	end if 
	a_dlg_button = ""
end if 

if left(a_dlg_button,8) = "DateEnd_" then 
	if a_dlg_button = "DateEnd_killfocus" then 
		DateEnd = ctod(dtoc(DateEnd))
	end if 
	a_dlg_button = ""
end if
%code%)

dim  cnt as N

'debug(1)
[COLOR="DarkRed"]cnt = a5_get_records_in_query("customer",between_date("Contact_date",var->datebegin,var->dateend))
'Conditional code follows. Executes only if the condition expression is True.
IF cnt=0
	ui_msg_box("Customer Report","No Customers match dates in the range of "+dtoc(var->datebegin)+" to "+dtoc(var->dateend))

	END    'DO NOT PRINT THE REPORT

  ELSE[/COLOR]	'Preview a report, label, letter, form or browse layout. You can specify which records to preview.
	query.filter = "between(Contact_date,Var->DateBegin,Var->DateEnd)"
	query.order = "recno()"
	'replace variables in the filter with their actual values	
	query.filter = convert_expression(query.filter,"V")
	:Report.Preview("Customer Report",query.filter,query.order)
END IF
END

Tom

[Mike Wilson]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

Sure Tom,
Take the easy way out...;)

[Tom Henkel]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

Mike,

What can I say, I just find that action scripting creates so much excess code, it sometimes trips over itself, especially in conditional expressions. When testing, I set the variable "cnt" and saw the number. Then, the action script did an "a5_eval_expression", and didn't see it. Taking all that out, and just doing a simple "IF", things work fine.

Tom

[Mike Wilson]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

Tom,
I was kidding. I am with you on this, believe me! I have to completely regroup to remember how to conditionalize action scripts.

[Tom Henkel]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

Mike,

Honest, I took no offense. It would take an awful lot to offend me...;)

Tom

[csda1]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

Hi Tom,

Honest, I took no offense. It would take an awful lot to offend me...;)

OK...There was a Rabbi, Priest and a Minister walked into a bar...:)

I've spoken against Action Script as the best course before (with somewhat a storm of reactions), but if it's a person's only course, it's better than nothing for those unable to grasp programming at a code level.

I can tell you there are some techniques buried in Action Scripting that are used no where else, so they are worth looking at, and using them to generate code (especially XDialog, and particularly Xdialog ListView objects - as an aside, I have probably figured out as much as is possible about Alpha's Listview. I'm not sure I would have taken the same approach for the events, and my code tends to linearize the Listview code to allow more flexibility for me.)

After AS generates the code, as you have done, take out the fluff, redundant sequences and you almost have "normal" code. The difference is faster, more reliable code over the long haul.

[MikeC]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

Mike,

I have to completely regroup to remember how to conditionalize action scripts.

I consider myself somewhat fortunate in this case as I never even attempted conditionals with Action Scripting! Xbasic seemed to be much more straight-forward to learn and use regarding these (and still think so).

[Tom Henkel]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

Just wondering, we've gone off on our own tangent. Is Kelly still with us? and, if so, did anything we have done here helped?

Tom

[SFS]

Re: Xdialog Cancel Button

Tom, thank you for your concerns. Both you and Mike's solutions worked. I did have a couple questions about yours. No matter what I did with your solution, I couldn't get it to print the date range on the report. I change the variables Datebegin & DateEnd to Global a still nothing. Also, on your solution when a user presses the cancel button, it still opens the report. I can see how Mike did it using Action scripting, but after reading several replies to this thread, most people are steering away from Action scripting.

Thanks again for your help... Kelly