Where is best place to use IsDirty?

[Fulltimer]

I have over 12 date fields spread out over several Tabbed Panes. I am creating automatic ticklers (reminders) from these date fields. I want to create future calendar events triggered by changes in these date fields. This means I'll be running some additional code to update another SQL table.

I am trying to figure out the most practical way to accomondate all these various fields:

- Do I add code to the onchange event and redundantly copy that same code over and over?

- Do I create a singular server side function for each component and somehow parse which field(s) are dirty and then take action? I'm not clear on how to use Isdirty so that I don't keep adding new records when I'm not supposed to (ie. for unchanged fields) .

- Is what I am looking for a candidate for a CanUpdate function? I'm not really trying to stop something from happening, in fact I just trying to add new records to another table when changes have been made to certain fields.

I'm confused about IsDirty and it's proper usage. I need a way to send the Dirty field's NAME and VALUE so that they can be used in my Xbasic function.

[christappan]

Re: Where is best place to use IsDirty?

If you need the code to run as soon as the date is changed in one of the date fields, you could put an Ajax Callback in the onBlur event for each date field. You could use the same callback for each field but submit the field name as a callback variable so the single XBasic function could include logic about what you wanted it to do based on which field had been modified. The values of the fields are submitted in an Ajax callback in the variable e as described in the Ajax callback function prototype comments (varies if it's a dialog or gird component).

Or in the server side AfterUpdateRecord event (assuming a grid, AfterDialogValidate if a dialog), the e.dirtyfields variable has a list of fields changed prior to the user hitting submit, in which case you could determine which fields had changed and similarly use logic to update tables accordingly. The field values in that case are in e.dataSubmitted.FieldName.

Forget for now about isDirty--that's used in client-side Show/Hide and Enable expressions on fields, buttons, and images, etc.

[Fulltimer]

Re: Where is best place to use IsDirty?

Or in the server side AfterUpdateRecord event (assuming a grid, AfterDialogValidate if a dialog), the e.dirtyfields variable has a list of fields changed prior to the user hitting submit, in which case you could determine which fields had changed and similarly use logic to update tables accordingly. The field values in that case are in e.dataSubmitted.FieldName.

Chris,

I believe I'll try your suggestion listed above. I "am" using a grid, so AfterUpdateRecord should fit the bill. However since e.dirtyfields creates a list of items I struggle doing a comparison with the list. Hopefully you can help with a small code snippet.

Let's say I have three data fields that I am concerned with. Fieldnames are: dateofbirth, datestarted, dateofinterview. No action is required unless changes are made to one of these three fields.

Do I do something like :

if at("dateofbirth",e.dirtyfields,1) > 0 then
.
. etc.

My real world example has a lot more fields than noted but if I can understand 2 or three I can understand how to do the rest. I'm trying to write not only functional code but "efficient" code because I have an investment in Xbasic.

Thanks,
Tom W.

[christappan]

Re: Where is best place to use IsDirty?

I'm not the one to talk to about absolute efficiency in XBasic. I'm sure there are better ways...

dirtyFieldsComma = crlf_to_comma(e.dirtyfields)
if inlist2("dateofbirth",dirtyFieldsComma)
      ...process stuff
end if
if inlist2("datestarted",dirtyFieldsComma)
      ...process stuff
end if
if inlist2("dateofinterview",dirtyFieldsComma)
      ...process stuff
end if