Errors using buttons on a form

[Bill Harriff]

I've got this little app that has about 4 small custom forms for adding/editing customers, inventory, services, & vendors. There are buttons to navigate to save, delete (password req'ed),first, last, next, previous, change to table view and to return to the main menu. All work great with no errors - none whatsoever when the user gets there from the main menu and there are no parent forms open (or any other kind of forms since users are limited by the configuration of the menus & the runtime).

But, I've allowed users to add or edit child records when they're in the main transaction form so that they can add inventory, customers, prices, etc. on the fly. When they make that choice to change a child record and attempt to use, for instance, the save button after either adding a new customer or changing the contact person or address for an existing one, the buttons always return an error. Fortunately, the errors are only local and don't crash the app so it's not a big problem - mainly an unsightly/unprofessional one for me. They can save with F9 or add a new record with Crtl+E but the buttons are a bomb.

Any ideas? Thanks for the help with this.

[martinwcole]

RE: Errors using buttons on a form

what are the error messages?

do you have xbasic at cansave, onsave, onfetch, etc for the form and/or in field rules for the files?

Sometimes the code/rules of one thing cause conflict with another, and you just have to keep messing with it until you figure it out.

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Errors using buttons on a form

Bill,

If this is still a problem, you could post a working model here, with instructions on how to throw the error. -- tom

[Bill Harriff]

RE: Errors using buttons on a form

Thanks for your replies.

I think the error is the same whatever button is pressed but I just checked the "Save This Record" button in the inventory database and got this:
Trapped error in Action Command: [1]
Command: New Record
Error: Argument is Incorrect Data Type

Looking at the "Actions..." for this button, I see:
Action Script ->NewRecord
Script = OnPush
Object = Parent

All of these buttons were created using the button genie and I made no changes to any of the properties other than naming the button. For instance, on the "Save This Record" button I dragged the Button Obj off of the toolbar to the form in design mode, sized it, chose the Built in action (perf. single task) radio but., then Record Operations > Save Record, changed the button text from "Save Record" to "Save This Record" & clicked Finish.

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Errors using buttons on a form

Bill,

Since you say that F9 key works fine, why not use

sys_send_keys("{F9}")

as the only xbasic on the button? I do this on a number of forms where I trap the F9 key using an OnKey event to run some actions. Saves duplicating scripts. Frankly, I rarely use action scripting, except to see the default xbasic script result.

Jerry

[Bill Harriff]

RE: Errors using buttons on a form

Jerry,

Thanks for the tip - it works as advertised! I then tried re-using your syntax and changing it for "Next," "Previous," "Delete This Record" & "New Record" but substituting "PageUp," "Ctrl+E," etc. for the {F9} in your code doesn't seem to work [ e.g., sys_send_keys("{Ctrl+E}") ].

Incidentally, where did you find the sys-send-keys command? I looked in the indexes & TOC's on both the manual and Dr. Wayne's Xbasic books and in the program's electronic Help and couldn't find anything about sys_send_keys and how to use it.

If you know either the syntax for these other keys or where to find the documentation, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for the help!

[Bill Harriff]

RE: Errors using buttons on a form

Jerry,

Ignore my request - I finally found info on sys_send_key in the electronic help buried DEEP! But it's not indexed in Help, hmmmmm!

Again, thanks for the help

[Bill Harriff]

RE: Errors using buttons on a form

Well some work & some don't??
These work:
sys_send_keys("{F9}")
sys_send_keys("{PGUP}")
sys_send_keys("{PGDN}")

These don't:
sys_send_keys("{^D}") neither does "CRTL-D"
sys_send_keys("{^E}") nor "CTRL-E"

Nothing happens when I press the button with the above code for deleting a record; when I press the button for creating a new record the form continues to display the current record and a small dialog Alpha Five window opens with an OK button and a ! in a yellow triangle with an asso. "bonk" sound. I click the OK button & nothing happens other than the dialog disappears.

Any ideas? TIA

[Bill Harriff]

RE: Errors using buttons on a form

This is more complicated that I thought. Here's what "was" and "is" and "when."

When I open the form from the main menu here's what works using the sys_send_key command:
Save Record
Previous
Next

The Add Record button didn't work using sys_send so I reverted it back to Action Script -> New Record -> OnPush (I changed the Object from Parent to "Papers" which is the name of the form in use)

"Delete This Record" also didn't work with sys_send so I took it back to Xbasic -> parent.delete_record()

But, when I am in another form that uses this table (papers) for a lookup and the user chooses to Change some info (I allow this so they can add items on the fly, or change prices, etc.) they I've got trouble in river city! Here's what works...
Save
Delete
New Record

But Next & Previous don't.

Is there a way to force Alpha to open the table rather than the form? When the user click the Change button at the top of the lookup they go to this form - they prefer the table but I don't have a clue how to force that.

Again, thanks...

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Errors using buttons on a form

Dunno,

This is cut and paste from a menu button the works fine.

sys_send_keys("{^D}")

Another button uses

sys_send_keys("{^E}")

and it works fine also. Do you have any code on the OnKey event for the form? Also be sure the the form properties don't restrict delete or adding a new record. If any of the Enter, Change, or Delete boxes are checked, the send_keys won't work.

The dialog message box is interesting. The fact that you get it indicates that something is happening on the OnKey event, or an there is some leftover code somewhere. Be sure to compact the database after making many form design changes. Sometimes the old leftover "removed" code causes problems. Compacting will remove the old code, just like packing a table removes deleted records.

Jerry

[Jim Chapman]

RE: Errors using buttons on a form

Hello Bill,

Just my two cents worth here. I'm always for what works, but sys_send_keys() is a 'throw back' to the DOS keystroke days. It basically throws keystrokes at Alpha as if a user had typed them in. It is not totally reliable in my experience. I think it has to do with the user interface and what Alpha is up to at the time. Ira says that if the control panel is maximized sys_send_keys() is unreliable. I've found that even with the control panel minimized and active, I've still had problems with sys_send_keys(). IMHO sys_send_keys() should only be used when there isn't any other choice, and these times are few and far between with v4.5. The only situations I can think of are loading a different adb or automating a network optimize. Without seeing your code and the context it is running in I couldn't tell you what your problem is, but it should be fairly easy to find out. Go into form design mode and go to the actions for an offending button. I'm assuming you'll be at the action scripting editor. Convert the action script to xbasic(code menu choice and then 'convert to xbasic'). Now you'll be in the xbasic editor. Put your cursor at the very beginning of the first line and press the enter key to get a blank line at the beginning of the script. Now on this blank line put the following code:
debug(1)
Save and then open up the form and press the offending button. The debugger will come up and you can run the script line by line. When you get an error message, see which line of the script is causing the problem and post it here. My guess is you have a context problem. Alpha is probably referencing an object that doesn't exist, or cannot be evaluated by the given syntax in the current context.

Good luck,
Jim