adding 2 or more records to a form

[martinwcole]

on my main form i have a button "add a hearing aid"
when the user pushes it asks left,right,both
i capture that and other info in variables, close the parentform, and open a form for adding hearing aids.

so far so good

but here's the rub:
at the onsave event, i write information to two other files. Then I check the varible (left/right/both)
and if its both i add another record, filling in several of the fields in advance

all in all everything works okay - but when they get to one of the "fieldrule lookups" - paytype - on the second record I get the error "incomplete lookup - unable to make the ...

I may be making this too complicated - how do others handle this sort of situation??

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: adding 2 or more records to a form

Martin, it sounds as though you're entering a new record for each hearing aid and that may be exactly what you need. Maybe we can suggest a fix for the lookup error you're getting if you give us more details.

Your question asks for design suggestions, and I'm often wrong, but never in doubt, so here goes...

You might consider changing the system to enter one record for each customer, instead of each hearing aid? You could have a field for 'ear' where you store left, right or both. You could have a field (or a series of fields) for the model details are recorded for the 'left' side, and a field or fields where the same info is collected for the other side. During data entry the form could enable and disable the left and right fields based on the value in the ear field. This design would result in lots of empty fields if most customers have only one hearing aid, but I'd argue that maybe the data entry simplicity would be worth the lost disk space...

-- tom

[martinwcole]

RE: adding 2 or more records to a form

thank's tom - but many users have 3 or more aids - they buy replacements and history is retained for a period of time - so multiple records is the best way to go i think - at any rate, i got the problem to disappear - although I'm not sure how or why. it happened to me once before - what happens is that a field set to be filled in by a lookup, defined in field rules as a simple lookup, works on the first record but bombs on the second - it say unable to create ..... anyway, i wish I knew what I did to fix it.

although i have a good working model, i have had a time getting the second record to work. when i write the first record, i setup repeat values for the second record and send a Tab to get it to work.

[whanigsberg]

RE: adding 2 or more records to a form

Martin,

Are you using xbasic to write to your forms or to the underlying table(s)? I guess the forms because if you write directly to the table you should not (I think) be dealing with the lookup. When you write to the form using xbasic you get all the advantages and disadvantages of the high level field rules.

Flesh out your discription a bit, why don't you.

Bill

[martinwcole]

RE: adding 2 or more records to a form

thank's Bill, following is the code at the OnSave event for the "add a hearing aid form."

this code is about 1 1/2 years old. I wrote it when I was first learning Alpha/XBasic.

the way it works is this:
on the "master form" there is a button "Add a Customer" that at the onsave event for adding the customer asks if you want to add a hearing aid, and if so left/right/both. if they answer both it sets the variable one_or_two to "both", and opens the addahearingaid form in a new record with other variables sent to it, like customer number, etc.

the last field in the record, salesperson, is a lookup/simple expression field - about every 7 or 8 months it bombs on the second record - i.e, if they are adding two hearing aids

''XBasic
tbl=table.current()
dim rec as n
dim tempdate as d
dim temp as n
cnum=tbl.customer_number
uniquesn=tbl.uniquesn
amount=tbl.sale_amount
if amount > 0
count=1
end if

tbl=table.current()
bell=table.open("bell customers")
bell.index_primary_put("custnmbr")
bell.fetch_find(cnum)
de=table.open("dailyentries") ' a logging file archived every 90 days
de.enter_begin()
de.filedate=date()
de.customer_number=cnum
de.hasale_date=tbl.sale_date
de.hamdlnmbr=tbl.model_number
de.hasernmbr=tbl.serial_number
de.hasaleamnt=tbl.sale_amount
de.hasalesper=tbl.sales_person
de.hadateadd=tbl.date_added
de.fullname=bell.fullname
de.sales_office=bell.sales_office
de.type="Hearing Aids Add"
de.timechanged=dtoc(date()) + " - " + time("0h:0m:0s-AM",now())
de.enter_end(.t.)
de.close()
bell.close()

tempdate=tbl.sale_date
pay=table.open("payment history") 'this puts a charge in payments history so that i only have one file to use to get accounts receivable updates
pay.index_primary_put("custnmbr")
pay.enter_begin()
pay.cust_number=cnum
pay.payment_date=tbl.sale_date
pay.amount=tbl.sale_amount
pay.charge_or_payment="Charge"
pay.description="H-Aid - " + alltrim(tbl.model_number) + " - " + alltrim(tbl.serial_number)
pay.uniquesn=tbl.uniquesn
pay.date_added=date()
pay.timechanged=dtoc(date()) + " - " + time("0h:0m:0s-AM",now())
pay.enter_end(.t.)
pay.close()
if var->one_or_two="Both"
FacInv = tbl.facinvnmb
SalePer = tbl.sales_person
Sorce = tbl.source
WarLen = tbl.warranty_length
DelDate = tbl.delivery_date
ExpDate = tbl.expiration_date
var->one_or_two="" 'reset variable
parentform.new_record()
parentform:ear.value="R"
parentform:customer_number.value=cnum
parentform:Facinvnmb.value=facinv
parentform:Sales_Person.value=saleper
parentform:Source.value=sorce
parentform:Warranty_Length.value=warlen
parentform:Delivery_Date.value=deldate
parentform:Expiration_Date.value=expdate
parentform:sale_date.value=tempdate
sys_send_keys("{tab}")
end
end if

if var->count=1 ' if there was a sale amount greater than 0.0
choice=ui_get_radio("You Added a Hearing Aid - Enter Intial Payment?",1,"Yes","No")
if choice="Yes"
f=form.view("Payments Initial Add")
f.new_record()
f:cust_number.value=cnum
f:Charge_Or_Payment.value="Payment"
f:Cname.refresh()
f.maximize()
parentform.Close()
end
else 'if the aid has sale amount but no payment update balance due
script_play("uponebalance")
end if
end if

phones:
if adding="Add"
choice=ui_get_radio("You Added a Customer - Add Phone Numbers?",1,"Yes","No")
if choice="Yes"
adding=""
f=form.view("addaphone")
f.new_record()
f:customer_number.value=cnum
f:cname.refresh()
f:phone_number.activate()
parentform.close()
end
end if
end if
adding=""
form.view("master form")
parentform.Close()
end


I wonder if I moved the offending last field, saleperson, from last to next to last, that might solve the problem.

[Pat Bremkamp]

RE: adding 2 or more records to a form

Martin,

I'm not sure I followed your logic...for example i don't see where you saved the data you wrote to the addahearingaid form... but your problem might not be the lookup even though it looks like it when you are entering.
What I would suggest is that the problem might be with the use of "parentform". Since you are doing a lot of opens and closes, i would use the actual form name instead of parentform. Perhaps alpha is geting confused about which form you mean to affect.

[martinwcole]

RE: adding 2 or more records to a form

i just checked - there is no button on the form to save the record.

the record saves when it reaches the last field - i guess!!?? - good point - its the only form i don't have a save button on that is the last in the tab order

in looking at the code with a year and a half on xbasic under my belt, i see a lot of ways i could clean up the script.

i think a button would be the way to go
thank's

there are no other forms - all other files are opened and closed with xbasic.