Closing a series of forms

[Greg Fong]

I have 4 forms, each one opens the next in succession. Each form has a close button. I was wondering how one would close all the forms from a script in the last button using relative addressing.

[whanigsberg]

RE: Closing a series of forms

Greg:

One of my applications has several forms any combination of which may be open by the time the user wants to leave the application.

Each form has an exit button which runs a logoff script. The script creates a pointer to each form and then
if is_obj(formpointer)
..close this form
end if

and on to the next form.
A5.close()

This way you have only one instance of the code (the script) which works regardless of which forms are open.

This keeps everything real simple and it hasn't created a problem in 2 years in a multiuser environment.

Bill

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Closing a series of forms

Bill, great idea.

Question. How are the form pointers created in the first place? Do you create a pointer for each form as it's opened? If so, what scope do you use for the pointer to the new form?

I see that if you didn't use is_obj(formpointer) but used is_obj(formname) you could also identify the open forms, and then close them. However, this would fail if two or more instances of the form were opened by the user in the same session. Alpha Five would give the second instance a different formname to keep them separate internally. The use of pointers neatly sidesteps this difficulty!

-- tom

[Ohlen Cartmell]

RE: Closing a series of forms

Bill,
Any chance you'd post your script?
Ohlen

[Bob Elliott]

RE: Closing a series of forms

I would like to see the script posted to Bill!

[whanigsberg]

RE: Closing a series of forms

Hello everyone:

Here by popular demand is the code. You will see that it is rather unoriginal in that the error handler is "borrowed" from Steve Workings, the temp files delete code from Finian Lennon and the close function from the Xbasic documentation.

The general idea is that since the logoff script creates its own session I do not have to know which form it is run from whereas were the same code attached to a form's button I would have to close that form last. At least I think I recall discovering this. (I wrote this a while ago.)

Looking back I realize that whether in the application's ini script or from the main menu the application's forms are always loaded using the same pointers. A menu button can test for the existence of the pointer and merely show the form if it is already loaded. On the other hand, if the form has not been loaded, the button code can load and show it. The purpose of all this is to prevent duplicate open forms which would be big trouble for this application.

The more complex forms are loaded and configured in the ini script. The others run from the main menu's buttons.

I have put the script and the function in a single text file although they in use they are obviously two separate entities.

Hope this is not too oblique.

Bill

[Allen Klimeck]

RE: Closing a series of forms

This script closes all open forms and browses even multiple instances of the same form or browse.

Allen

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Closing a series of forms

Allen

Thanks for posting the script. Nice job! Works great.

Jerry

[whanigsberg]

RE: Closing a series of forms

That's really nice. Much more than I needed in my specific circumstance but beautifully general and therefore more useful. Thanks for posting it.
Bill

[whanigsberg]

RE: Closing a series of forms

Allan,

You should really consider posting this one in the code archive.

Bill

[CraigSchumacker]

RE: Closing a series of forms

Allen:

Very, very nice!

Craig

[csda1]

RE: Closing a series of forms

Allen & Bill,

Since everyone is sharing their version of closing all forms, I have posted my version of a global function in the Archive Section at

CloseAll script

It uses a similar searching for aliases as Allen's method, but keeps going until it stops finding them (with at least a minimum). It also handles the case where there are more than one object of the same name but different types (e.g. INVOICE form and INVOICE browse)

Bill - In the future, don't use spaces in your attached file name. It is difficult to retrieve because the board does not know it needs to put a %20 for the space to retrieve it. Also, I never have multiple copies opened of a form (unless I want it) because I always have code check for the layout being opened before opening it up. If you give access to the control panel, I guess you are out of luck.

Regards,

Ira J. Perlow
Computer Systems Design & Associates
[email protected]

[Greg Fong]

RE: Closing a series of forms

Thanks everyone, works like a charm!

[tlyon]

RE: Closing a series of forms

I guess I am lazy. I close my open forms by running a global script to close the database. An 'exit' form opens that has a custom menu with the close database item on it. sys_send_keys is used to close the database, then A5 is closed. The script is:

:a5.restore()
:a5.show()
:a5.maximize()
:controlpanel.hide()
:form.view("exit")
:exit.maximize()
sys_send_keys("{ALT-C}")
:A5.close()
end

Works very well here and doesn't care what forms are open, but i fail to take into account changes that aren't saved. Hasn't been a problem yet, but should probably include that.

Tom Lyon

[whanigsberg]

RE: Closing a series of forms

Hi Ira,

Thanks for telling me about spaces in attachments. I didn't know that.

As for allowing multiple instances of a form, I never allow that. The menu items check for an open instance before opening a form. Apologies if I mistakenly implied otherwise.

All the best,
Bill