Global Variables are not updating.

[MikeData]

I am attaching an alpha sport sample, in the main menu there is a button to GET CUSTOMER. It opnes form getcustomer.
This form call for a CUSTOMERQUiCK form. There I can select a customer and apply the value of selected customer to 2 gloab variables.
These globas are seen in the CUSTOMERQUiCK before using & return button is pressed.
When returning to GET CUSTOMER form the globals vaiables in getcustomer form are not updated.
It seems that they retain prior vaules.
I have tried to make many changes in many events, but is not working.

I can see that I can use the drop down in the customerid and make a selection. This application is in a touch screen and dropdown choices are not that practical, that is why I am using this aproach.

Question : Why these globals are not updated in the getcustomer form?

[MikeC]

Re: Global Variables are not updating.

Hi Mike,
You are not setting the variables upon returning to the prior form.....how you have it currently all that you would need to do is to open the CustomerQuick form as Dialog--then the calling script will pause right after opening the CustomerQuick form and then resume once it is closed.

[MikeData]

Re: Global Variables are not updating.

Thanks for replying. The variables ( gCustomerID & gcustomerLN )needed are set before leaving customerquick.
You can see as I displayed them, even before I leave the form.
But once I returned to GETCUSTOMER, The globals are not updated. I have tried few different form sync and refresh in few events.
As a test, I did create a button to re-fill the globals and it does.
I will try your suggestion, But the question remains why the globals do not get updated at GETCUSTOMER under the same process of the button which started the request.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Global Variables are not updating.

Mike you neglected to specify "global" scope for the variables used in your CustomerQuick form. They are therefore local to the form. Changes to them in that form have no effect on the globals even though the globals have the same names.

Confusing?

Shouldn't be. Just remember that Alpha permits the same variable name to be used in different variable namespaces. You can have local and global variables that have the same names, because they're different variables. That's what's happening here.

To see one approach to fixing this, take a look at my example, attached. I suggest you unzip the attachment and extract the files within to an empty folder to avoid overwriting your own work.

Questions?

[MikeC]

Re: Global Variables are not updating.

Tom has the more exact reason behind it but it also appeared that you were trying to set the variables from the first form's calling script on the button....and this would set the variables for the first form as the script never stops.....unless you called the second form as dialog (modal). Once I did this the variables were set correctly.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Global Variables are not updating.

Mike_Data, I huddled with Mike_C offline and have come to believe that I may have misspoken. This was not a problem with the scoping of your variables as I originally thought. Instead, it was a timing issue with when the objects in your Get_Customer form were told to refresh their display. Text boxes bound to variables will not auto refresh when the underlying variable changes. Making the called form open as dialog pauses your calling form's script, so the refresh occurs after the new vars have been set in the called form. Sorry for the confusion my earlier response may have engendered.

[MikeData]

Re: Global Variables are not updating.

First I would like to apologize for not mentioning globals.
For the past few days I have tried many different approaches to solve this process. I was confused and frustrated.
Thanks to the comments of Mike and the sample from Tom, I understand a bit more.
At some point I realize that the button getcustomer was running and not stopping. ( I did tried to use WAIT_UNTIL(), but did not do anything.
I saw Tom sample in how to stop a button.
In Tom sample I see that the globals get updated by the OBJECTREFRESH in customerquick form.
One more detail:
The last part of the button GETCUSTOMER was to make the fields customeID and customerLN in getcustomer form, to take the value of the corresponding globals.

What event will trigger that addition upon returning from customerquick?
(I tried a few with no results)

[MikeC]

Re: Global Variables are not updating.

Mike,

What event will trigger that addition upon returning from customerquick

What I said will do exactly that for you. Open the CustomerQuick form as dialog. Any script after the form opens that remains is paused until the CustomerQuick form closes...then it continues. IOW you have 3 actions scripts in your OnPush event for the button that opens CustomerQuick. The first one change to open the form as dialog. The other two scripts will not run until after the CustomerQuick form closes....that is one of the benefits of opening a form as dialog....the only possible con to this would be that you cannot navigate off the CustomerQuick form--it has to be closed prior to doing anything else.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Global Variables are not updating.

Mike Data, here's one last point. When a form is opened "as dialog" it is not released from memory when the user closes it. The script that opened the form as dialog should include code that closes it, even though it's no longer visible on screen.

So, if you use Mike C's approach and open the CustomerQuick form "as dialog", you should include a final action in the script that opens that form. It should be inline xbasic and should read

if is_object("Customerquick") then
    :CustomerQuick.close()
end if

If you neglect this final step the tables supporting the CustomerQuick form will remain open in memory.

[MikeData]

Re: Global Variables are not updating.

calling the form customerquick as a dialog form, works like a charm.
I was hoping not to have to use the form calling as a dialog form, I was afraid of loosing some of its functionality.

The fear was correct, As you recall the customerquick form is a duplicate of the customer form in alphasport.
The form has a multistate button. that feature is no longer available.

I can create 26 buttons with text as A,B, C... ands so on
and give the option to an script like a multistate script.
How do I change the value of mulstbtn1.text in:
filterExpression = "left("+searchby.text+", 1) = '" + mulstbtn1.text + "'"
without having to create 26 of these scripts?

Or is there another way to keep that button working in a dialog form?

I forgot, Thanks for all the advise.

[MikeC]

Re: Global Variables are not updating.

Mike,
I have not run across an issue doing as you are doing so I would have to create it from scratch (guess).

Regarding Tom's last bit of advice---definitely verify that the code he suggests using is present.....Action Scripting will normally place this additional closing code at the end of your scripts, but have noticed oddities over the years in which, if changed to dialog after other scripts are already in place, the additional closing code will many times either not be present or placed prior to the paused script. So for sure check.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Global Variables are not updating.

Mike_Data, my example did not force the called form to be opened as dialog. The button you use there to select the customer can update the fields on the calling form. You have lots of options here.

[MikeData]

Re: Global Variables are not updating.

I went back and call the customerquick form as a form and learn more about objectrefresh.
In order to be able to setup the objectrefresh, the other form must be open.
Every thing is working fine.
I got all my fields and variables checked.
Thanks to Tom and Mike for taking the time to help me.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Global Variables are not updating.

MikeData,

In order to be able to setup the objectrefresh, the other form must be open.

The action scripting code editor can "see" the objects in other forms only when those forms are open. If this is what you've discovered, relax. Working as designed.