Two browses on a form

[Greg Fong]

I have a set made up of two tables linked in a one to one relationship. I am trying to set up two browses on a form to reference this set. The idea is that I could look at different data in different windows. In order to do this I set up two browses. Each browse incorporated a filter on a column to display specific rows. As independant browses this worked fine. But once I create two browses on a form and linked each to the aforementioned browses, I find that the filters fail to operate as designed. Both browses ended up displaying the same rows.

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Two browses on a form

In the situation you describe the browses are looking at the same 'instance' of the set. Even though each is based on a separate table, the two browses can only 'see' their tables through the set upon which the form is based. There is only one set. Two 'instances' of the *pair* of tables does not exist, so it's not possible to manipulate them separately. (Whew! it sure is hard to describe this...!!!)


You might be able to come closer to what you are trying to do if you were to create another table to serve as a parent table in a new set. The parent would be linked one to many to each child. There would be no link between the two child tables. The parent table could be sort of a 'dummy' table with a single record and a single field. Then add a similar field to each record in the two 'child' tables, and stuff them all with the same key value.


Hope this helps.


-- tom

[JohnZaleski]

RE: Two browses on a form

Something close to this was discussed in a previous thread titled "expected value" started by Ken Nordin. If you search on it you might come up with another approach.

[Finian Lennon]

RE: Two browses on a form

Assuming that the two browses you created are based on the child table of your set, you can't display the same table filtered in different ways in the same form unless ... What you can do is to edit your set definition to add a second or even a third instance of the same child table to the set definition. So
Parent - one to many==child
becomes
Parent - one to many==child (not filtered)
|-one to many==Child1 (filter A)
|-one to many==child2 (filter B)

When you add the second and third instances of the table, A5 will automatically add the 1 and 2 to the child table aliases to differentiate between them and when you place the browses in the form you need to be sure that you base each browse on the correct instance of the child table.

This can be useful to display data in different ways and to make changes to existing child records in the set. Personally, I wouldn't use this as a format for entering data and I wouldn't get above three instances even for display purposes as performance degrades pretty quickly with each additional instance of the child table.

Finian

[Greg Fong]

RE: Two browses on a form

First, I must express how incredible this forum is and how quickly people came back with help. I used to work with a product called R:Base and that product had a wonderful community built around it until it disappeared. For a while I worked with Foxpro and Powerbuilder but the community never had the same "feel". It is such a pleasure to be back at it again!
Thanks for the heads-up I would have spent a lot of time whacking my head against this problem.

In essence, I am trying to get the user to enter data through windows that are thematically distinct. I was hoping to enter and display these data on the same form through two browses. It appears too problematic. So I have decided to create two separate forms each to contain one browse. A menu button will call up the first form and after the user enters the data a NEXT button will call up the second form. From there a button will take the user back to the originating form or menu. Thanks again.

[crimmelcp]

RE: Two browses on a form

Greg:
Your Idea will work fine.
I have a tool tracking program where I have 2 browses on one screen. I can double click on the inventory side and it enters a new record into the transactions table.
I brings in the item number, unit of measure,bin location and other info.
Let me know and i'll try to put together the code.
Charlie Crimmel

[Greg Fong]

RE: Two browses on a form

I must not be catching on to the Alpha Five paradigm. I am trying to classify coins according to type. The idea is that each coin has an identity for example Roman or Greek or Chinese as well as other characteristics such as age and value. To simplify things, lets say that the dataset has three columns:

Country(Roman,Greek,etc)
Value
Number of coins.

What I had hoped to do was to create windows on a single form through which I could enter and view segments of this dataset divided by nationality. The first window would filter out all but Romans etc. I also need to be able to get a count of coins in the collection for each nationality as well as a value. I had hoped to be able to query the dataset with six calculated fields but I keep getting the same results. I think I am tripping all over the single instance thing. I am starting to get nervous now because I haven't even started to look at accessing and displaying data from other sets or tables.

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Two browses on a form

This reminds me a bit of the CustomerBase form in the Sample invoice app that ships with Alpha Five. There the entire customer list is accessed through a form which uses buttons for each letter of the alphabet. Push a button, see only customers who's names begin with that letter... Push a second button see only customers whose names match that letter and so on... Perhaps if you examined how that form is put together you can adapt the techniques to your own situation.


-- tom

[Greg Fong]

RE: Two browses on a form

I would be really interested to see this code since I could use it on another project.

With regard to my current problem I finally resorted to creating two identical forms. Each form had a different filter expression that extracted a specific value from a column called "class". One form looked for the word "roman" and the other for the word "Greek". In each of these forms I placed an Embedded browse. Surprise Surprise it works but. What I have here are two forms. Is it good practice to put a variety of these forms together like jigsaw puzzle pieces to assemble a single form?

I was hoping to do all this under just one form. The idea is to create a sort of "control panel" that will allow me to view at the same time, data from a variety of tables and sets as well as different subsets of data within a specific table or set. I am having a great deal of trouble getting data from different tables and sets to display on one form. Trying to get something like a sum of selected items from a set that is not linked or associated with the current form seems impossible.

I feel like the guy who is looking for a car with a speedometer, odometer and tachometer all built into one dashboard who finds to his dismay that the cars available can only be delivered with one feature each and the the only total solution is to buy three cars and stack them one on top of the other.

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Two browses on a form

Greg, the forms in Alpha Five are not like the forms in Visual Basic. They don't exist apart from the tables or sets upon which they are based. When controls on the form change the 'view' of the underlying table, that change affects all the controls on the form. In most situations this is a real advantage because it simplifies database development tremendously. It would not necessarily be an advantage if you wanted your form to exist whether or not it was linked one or more tables. In your case the design of Alpha Five may work, since you are seeking to display in one form multiple, independent, views of the same table. If you really, really have to display multiple, but different, views of the same table in one form you may have look elsewhere. At this point Alpha Five does not offer independent 'grid' controls that you can fill, sort, and manipulate apart from the tables or set upon which the form is based.


In my own work I've found the users don't necessarily need to see everything on screen, as long as they can get to it with a click of a button. Alpha Five makes this easy for me to do, since I don't have to do any of the behind the scenes work that would be otherwise required to load, filter, sort and display custom grids when I open my forms.


-- tom

[Tom Cone Jr]

RE: Two browses on a form

Boy I wish there were some way to edit my posts...


That should have been:


... In your case the design of Alpha Five may *not* work, ...



-- tom

[Finian Lennon]

RE: Two browses on a form

Greg:

I was curious to see if my idea of 2 separate instances of a table linked to themselves in a set could be made to work in a flat file such as you need. Well, it does, sort of.

It's easier to show than explain so here's afile with a form that filters the way you want. It's kind of funky and I'm not sure I would base an application on it. But it does work.

Finian