Form Filter

[Bradley Chesnut]

I put a filter on the Form, rep="bac".

When I change index I get all records, not just mine, and the form filter no longer works. Am I doing something wrong? I had hoped that the Filter for the Form would be global and would work regardless to the index that I use. Am I wrong or is there a problem with A5?

Having the form filter work as I need would solve one of my biggest problems and allow me to run my application on a network versus each rep having their own database which makes it a living H*** when doing marketing or customer service. I desperately need the ability for each rep to, in 90% of the time, only have access to their own records. I'm NOT an xbasic programmer and live off Action Scripts.

I'd do this via indexes but we use 6 indexes consistently which would require me to duplicate those 6 indexes by the number of reps which today is 3 with plans to bring on 3 more in 2 months.

Many thanks.
Brad

[Keith Hubert]

RE: Form Filter

Bradley,

You do not need an Index to have a filter on a form.

Have a look at Tools->Security. I think you should be able to select who can do what in your app after they log in.

Keith Hubert
Guild Member
London.

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Form Filter

Brad,

the trick is figuring out how you're presently permitting them to change indexes, then arrange to do it using a query instead. the query would containing the orderig sequence you need from the index, and the filtering sequence you need for each rep.

So, tell us how (exactly) you're setting the initial form filter.

Then, tell us how (exactly) you're permitting the index for the form to be changed.

-- tom

[JohnZaleski]

RE: Form Filter

As Tom suggests, on the form, restrict the change index property of the form.If you establish an index on tha "rep" field, opening the form will be quicker ( LQO)

If your reps want to sort by different fields, they can do that without changing the index.

[Bradley Chesnut]

RE: Form Filter

I noticed that when you put a a filter on the form, the normal ways of changing a filter are no longer available. But, I have buttons on my form to automatically choose an Index since we use 6 indexes consistently. When I push one of these buttons on the form, the index runs and I can see all records for all reps.

Because we use 6 indexes consistently, it wouldn't work to put a query on the form also because that would limit us.

In response to your questions ...
1. how (exactly) you're setting the initial form filter: I duplicated my form 3 times with form having it's own filter ... 1st form rep="bac", 2nd form rep="mb", 3rd form rep="kh". I have NO query on any of these forms because I had hoped I could uses the indexes associated to the master dbf since, again, we use 6 indexes with their own filters or sorting order.

2. how (exactly) you're permitting the index for the form to be changed: I think I answered this above already. I have buttons on my form to automatically choose an Index since we use 6 indexes consistently. When I push one of these buttons on the form, the index runs and I can see all records for all reps. This is how I'm getting around being able to use an index on a form with a filter.

[Bradley Chesnut]

RE: Form Filter

If we use a form filter, I'm not sure how they would be able to sort the records and still maintain the filter of rep="bac".

The key indexes are for the sales reps to make calls, based off the Recall Date. With an index, when I change the Recall Date it resorts it in the list based upon the index. With a Query, it's not resorted until I rebuild the Query. I have a rep who made 647 calls in 2 1/2 weeks. I really need the feature of the Index where it re-sorts the list upon changing a field in the index order expression.

Here are a few of the indexes we use ...
1. RCL_A_T (stands for Recall+Area+Temperature). Area is the calling area, ie, Pacific=0, Mt=1, etc.
Order Expression: CDATE(RECALL)+"-"+TRIM(AREA)+"-"+TRIM(TEMPERATURE)+CALL_PRIOR
Filter Expression: CLASS"DEAD".AND.CLASS"LIST".AND.RECALL>{1/1/00}
(We can classify a record in a number of ways, and in this filter we only want to work with Prosp, Susp, Cust, etc and not Dead or List, and we want to make sure there's a recall date setup.

In addition to this we'll have the following Indexes with their own Filters ...
- Recall+Temperature+Area
- Agency Name
- Last Name+First Name

After looking at the other filters, just the 4 above need to be rep specific.

I appreciate the brain-storming here. I hope the additional info provided helps clarify further what it is I'm doing and what I need.

Again, many thanks for everyone's help on this important thing I'm trying to do with A5.

Brad
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[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Form Filter

Bradley,

Here's an example of the thing I had in mind. Specially prepared for you.

Unzip the attachment to an empty folder.

Open the Main_menu form. Push a button to call Form1. The button will filter the records to a specific Rep and set the display order to C_name. (this is for a Customers table).

Buttons on the called form will change the display sequence without changing the filter.

Hope this helps.

-- tom

[Bradley Chesnut]

RE: Form Filter

Wow, that looked good, from my first view. I just need to figure out what it is exactly that you did so I can duplicate it.

Thank you sooooo much. Yes, I believe this is what I was looking for.

Brad

[Bradley Chesnut]

RE: Form Filter

I see what you did, and was able to duplicate it. I noticed you did a "custom query" as an action script to create the sort orders I need.

Here's my problems with Query's ...
1. I have 30,000 records it would need to build the query from. Query building is slower than filters and when we need to jump to another sort order to pull up a record, this would take valuable time to do.
2. In a filter, when you change a field in the sort expression of the filter it re-sorts it automatically. This is especially important when dealing with Recall Dates so they automatically move forward so we can continue moving forward easily in our daily call-back lists. In a query when the Recall date is changed it maintains the sort order until we rebuild the query, which we'd be tempted to do after each call.

Is there any way we could make this happen and use an index instead of a query without having to do rep specific indexes?

Again, thank you so much for your and everyone's help on this.

Brad

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Form Filter

Brad,

If it were me, I'd spend time reading up on Lighting Query Optimization. The docs explain it. Others have posted good examples here and in the Alpha Five Version Four forum. If you arrange your index definitions to match the same sequences as you need to use in the queries, the queries don't repopulate. Instead a 'range' of matching records is pulled immediately from the index list.

-- tom

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Form Filter

Brad,

Some other ideas...

1) consider using Rep specific forms.

2) consider paring down the big list using temporary tables filtered just for each Rep.

3) remind the Reps how much work the system is doing when they complain about the response times... imagine if they were using a collection of sorted rolodexes to retrieve what they need!

-- tom

[Bradley Chesnut]

RE: Form Filter

In response to both your posts, I'll look into the Network Optimization features.

I created a Rep specific Form with a filter equal to that rep, but because I work off of Indexes I had the same problem. As soon as I hit the button to change the index I lost the filter on the form.

Breaking down the table into small tables won't work because I have a number of key tables attached to it in a set (Hardware, Marketing, Agency Info, etc). We work off the set. Plus, wouldn't this be a lot like we're doing it now, each having their own table?

As for #3, I had to chuckle. What we do is work with insurance agencies on automation. None of us have used paper tracking in many years. I've been in this business since 1989 and even then I was automated, using Q&A. They all know what I'm going through in putting all of this together. And, I've inconvenienced myself, not them.

Finally, another reason this feature is important to me is one day (okay, one year) I hope to write and sell a system for the Life & Health agency and I know this feature will be needed in that system.

Maybe we could just brain-storm by phone? Would you be up to that?

Bradley Chesnut

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Form Filter

Bradley, I'm doubtful it will help, so far my suggestions haven't been useful to you. You haven't indicated, for example, whether you've made an effort with LQO. -- tom