Table Chr length change, no refresh ?

[Walter Campbell]

I had to change the length of character from say 8 to 16 in a table I had already set up and had made various Forms etc from that table. I find that after I had changed the Table to 16 that in all the forms I had carefully dervied from that Table that they were still stuck at 8, the original setting. I though this was an Object package and that this should have rippled through ? This means an awful lot of work now to go through all the forms etc. Unless there is a way to Globally refresh this ?
Its not acceptable to make sure you have it right at the beginning since all systems need will need change and need updating due to demands.

Walter

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Table Chr length change, no refresh ?

Walter,

I don't recall anything in the documents which indicate that all forms, letters, reports, labels, and browses would be automatically updated when the user changes the structure of a table. Furthermore, the objects used to display table fields in forms, letters, reports, labels, and browses are not locked to the maximum width of each field in the table structure. Users are free to, and often do, display something less than the actual field width in their layouts.

I'm afraid you've bumped into an unpleasant reality of database application development. Changes in table structures are tedious and difficult to implement in fully developed apps. Far better to spend the time on the front end to get the design right initially. (Which of course is what I say, but hardly ever do, myself!)

-- tom

[Ohlen Cartmell]

RE: Table Chr length change, no refresh ?

Jim Chapman taught me a way to think about this I've found extremely useful.

The fields on a layout (form, report, label or letter) should be thought of as windows through which we view the data. Example: you can have a field rule that transforms the capitalization of the data and changes the way it's stored in a table or you can change the form field to change the way the data is viewed regardless of how it's stored.

Similarly, you can have a data stored in a 25 character field while choosing to show only the first 15 characters in the window. The size of the data field and the size of the window are independent.

I know this doesn't solve the current dilema but I hope it will help in the future.

[Walter Campbell]

RE: Table Chr length change, no refresh ?

Thanks to both replies, actually I have not done a great deal of work on the forms but I am realistically evaluating all the types of things I would do on a larger application before I do it proper. This is an important lesson !

Walter

[Peter.Wayne]

RE: Table Chr length change, no refresh ?

this little script will tell you what forms potentially need updating after you make a change to the size of a field in a table:

' detect mismatched field widths on forms
table_list=a5.Table_Enum()
table_list=sortsubstr(table_list,crlf())
field_list=""
table=""
field=""

result=ui_dlg_box("Update field width",""];
""> ;
%dlg%,val(width) .or. field_decimalsval(decimals) then
		     forms_to_fix=forms_to_fix+formname+crlf()
		   end if
		end if
	   
	end if		
next
f.close()
end with
end function
f.close()

[Walter Campbell]

RE: Table Chr length change, no refresh ?

Thanks for that I will apply it in the next few days, I'm impressed !
I notice that if you change the field rules of the Table that it does refect through to the Forms.

Walter

[Ton Spies]

Re: Table Chr length change, no refresh ?

this little script will tell you what forms potentially need updating after you make a change to the size of a field in a table:

' detect mismatched field widths on forms
table_list=a5.Table_Enum()
table_list=sortsubstr(table_list,crlf())
field_list=""
table=""
field=""

result=ui_dlg_box("Update field width",<<%dlg%
Choose a table: [.40,10table^#table_list!table_chosen];
{lf};
Choose a field: [.40,10field^#field_list?table\>""];
<*10OK?field\>""> <10Cancel>;
%dlg%,<<%code%
if a_dlg_button="table_chosen" then
   field_list=table.external_field_name_get(table,"n|T|W|D")
   ' eliminate memo, logical, and date fields from the display
   list_to_exclude=<<%lst%
|M|
|Date|
|Logical|
%lst%
	field_list=filter_string_multi(field_list,list_to_exclude,crlf(),.t.)
   a_dlg_button=""
end if
%code%)
if result="OK" then
   width=word(field,3,"|")
   decimals=word(field,4,"|")
	table=upper(strtran(table," ","_"))  ' replace blanks in table name with underscores
	field=upper(strtran(field," ","_"))
   form_list=a5.form_enum(2)
   form_count=w_count(form_list,crlf())
   dim forms[form_count] as c
   forms.initialize(form_list)
   vl=local_variables()
	forms_to_fix=""
   for i=1 to form_count
   		
   		explore_form(vl,forms[i])
		xbasic_wait_for_idle()
 	next
 	ui_msg_box("Forms needing editing",forms_to_fix)
end if

end

function explore_form as v(vars as p, formname)
with vars
f=form.load(formname)

n_children=f.children()
for j=1 to n_children
	o=f.child(j)  ' pointer to the object on the form
	if o.class()="type-in field" then
		fd=o.field_get()
		t=fd.table_get()
		
		if t.name_get()=table .and. fd.name_get()=word(field,1,"|") then
		   'ui_msg_box("found a form",formname)
		   field_width=o.entry.width
		   field_decimals=o.entry.dec
			'debug(1)
		   if field_width<>val(width) .or. field_decimals<>val(decimals) then
		     forms_to_fix=forms_to_fix+formname+crlf()
		   end if
		end if
	   
	end if		
next
f.close()
end with
end function
f.close()