a function in browse filter fails

[irwincohen]

I have
1) a table with a character field named: loginid
2) a global variable as character named: vopenid
3) a browse with a filter: loginid = var->vopenid
The variable does not change while the browse is open. Between browse openings the variable does change and the browse does filter the table according the current value of the variable each time it opens.
That works fine but the following does not work:
Same table and same global variable
4) a new function:
FUNCTION getvopenid AS C ( )
getvopenid = var->vopenid
END FUNCTION
Note that the function works fine in the interactive window.
5) change the browse filter to: loginid = getvopenid()
The browse no longer updates. The very first time the browse is opened it takes a long time to open. After that it opens quickly but the filter does not reflect the updated value of the variable.
I need to use the function in the browse filter for other reasons but I have distilled the problem down to that one line function.
Any help would be most welcome.
Thanks
Irwin

[Tim Kiebert]

Re: a function in browse filter fails

Try

FUNCTION getvopenid AS C ( )
    dim global vopenid
    getvopenid = vopenid
END FUNCTION

[irwincohen]

Re: a function in browse filter fails

Thanks Tim, I tried the dim statement but it made no difference.
Irwin

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: a function in browse filter fails

Irwin, is this a stand alone browse layout, or something you've embedded into a form? Is the layout based on a set of tables? Is the browse based on the primary table in that set?

Perhaps more importantly, does your browse behave correctly if the filter uses the global variable instead of the function? Does it behave correctly if the filter uses a literal value instead of the global variable?

Have you investigated the use of form.viewqueried() or browse.viewqueried() ?

[irwincohen]

Re: a function in browse filter fails

Thanks Tom
The browse is a stand alone.
The layout is based on a single table
The browse works fine if the filter uses the global variable instead of the function.
And (good question Tom!) if the function uses a literal the same problem occurs. If the function is
FUNCTION getvopenid AS C ( )
getvopenid = "user1"
END FUNCTION
and the literal is changed to "user2" and the filter in the browse is loginid=getvopenid() the browse continues to filter on "user1" even after the literal is changed to "user2" and the browse is closed and reopened.
So it has nothing to do with the global variable. The filter does not update if it includes a function.
I have not tried browse.viewqueried(). I noticed the problem in an embedded browse but used a stand alone browse for these tests.
They act the same.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: a function in browse filter fails

I've stopped trying to embed a dynamic filter expression in my form layouts.

Instead of embedding a dynamic filter expression in the layout and then simply opening the layout, I now leave the filter expression blank (in the properties of the layout), and open the form using a command that takes an optional filter argument.

[irwincohen]

Re: a function in browse filter fails

Yes Tom, I tried exactly what you suggested. I put an event on a button that opens the browse. I took the filter out of the browse and put it in the event (used action scripting). The results are a little different but not good. Using the global variable in the filter works fine and returns instantly. Using the function in the filter now does filter correctly but takes thousands of times longer to return. For a table of only a few hundred records it takes 15 seconds to return when the function is in the filter in the event.

FYI the xbasic from the action scripting in the event is (comments removed)

query.filter = "Loginid = getvopenid()"
query.order = "recno()"
DIM Shared varP_appt4wkcancel as P
DIM layout_name as c 
layout_name = "appt4wkcancel"
dim tempP as p
tempP=obj(":"+object_name_normalize(word(layout_name,1,"@")))
if is_object(tempP) then 
	if tempP.class() = "form" .or. tempP.class() = "browse" then 
				dim flagIsBaseFilter as l 
		flagIsBaseQuery = .t.		
		if flagIsBaseFilter then 
			tempP.BaseQueryRun(query.filter,query.order)
		else
			tempP.QueryRun(query.filter,query.order)		
		end if 
		tempP.activate()
	else
		varP_appt4wkcancel = :Browse.viewqueried(layout_name,query.filter, query.order )
	end if
else 
	varP_appt4wkcancel = :Browse.viewqueried(layout_name,query.filter, query.order )
end if

Thanks
Irwin

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: a function in browse filter fails

If it were me I'd run the function to get the search key, then I'd use the search key in the query filter passed to the statements that open the layout. If you have an index based on the loginid field lightning query optimization should speed things greatly.

I would not embed the function in the filter passed to the statements that open the layout.
Otherwise the function gets called and has to be re-evaluated for each record in the table.

[irwincohen]

Re: a function in browse filter fails

Hey Tom, Bravo. That works great. I used action scripting to include inline xbasic:
dim shared thekey as c
thekey = getvopenid()

Then I used thekey as the filter:
Loginid = thekey

Works well and fast.
Thanks so much
Irwin