Allow Changes on one Column possible?

[Neil Hucker]

Hello,

I was wondering if it was possible to allow changes, on only one column of a browse (from a button script)? I have a set that I want to view and alter in different ways. I want to open the set and have the parent table as part of the form but have the child tables as part embedded browses. But if I have already entered a record that may have many child table entries for each parent level record, I want to be able to push a button that will only allow changes for specific columns of a specified embedded browse (child table).
For example;
I have client John Smith who has submitted various samples for testing at a the lab. In this case John Smith's personal data will be stored in an address book. The Adress Book has a One to many relationship with the Submission Book which stores data the reference number for the submissions, the date, progress, what types of tests have been ordered etc... and is related to the Client Book by a client number.

These 2 books will form the data for the overall form which summarises the information for this particular submission, (in actually fact, I have the submission book as the parent and a one to one relationship with the Address Book). The various test types and information associated with them are what make up the information for the child tables and the embedded browses. When a submission is submitted, John Smith's client number is associated with the submission book, the submissin book uses the submission number to associate this record with data in the test tables. Information that may be stored in the test tables are, Sample name, weight, various memo comments, test complete (logical), along with the actual numerical results i.e. concentration per gram of substance X. All records are entered at the time of submission except the test tables wont contain any results until the test is complete.

When the lab tech's enter their results I want this form to be Modal and require a button to be pushed to enter the results in each embedded browse. But I don't want them to be able to alter the original data (well not in this form!), so I only want to allow changes on particular columns and not be able to enter or delete records.

What I can't determine is how to specifically address and enable changes for those columns of the embedded browses only. I expect to have one button per browse for each of these forms.

The information contained is quite important and so the ability to alter an entire record needs to be tightly controlled.

Does anyone know how to enable this (or have an alternative solution)?

[martinwcole]

RE: Allow Changes on one Column possible?

every column in a browse has a property - readonly that can be set to .t or .f

if the browse is initially read/write for all columns, then your button would have to make all but one readonly=.t.

enclosed is an image - to be reached from the explorer from within alpha

[Finian Lennon]

RE: Allow Changes on one Column possible?

My advice would be to keep the entire browse read-only but to have an OnRowDblClick event that the uses the .active() method identify the column and activate an xdialog where the data is entered and from which it is saved.

Finian

[Neil Hucker]

RE: Allow Changes on one Column possible?

I tried Martin's solution first of all, where I had a button that could be pushed to enter the results for that particular browse using the code;

topparent:Bulk_browse:N__epg_.Field.Readonly = .f.
topparent:Bulk_browse:S__epg_.Field.Readonly = .f.
topparent:Bulk_browse:Comments.Field.Readonly = .f.

where the Bulk_browse is the title of the browse, followed by fields etc.., I couple this with a few object hides and an object activate to get the focus on the column S__epg_ (the coloumn title is actually S (epg) and I suspect the use of '(' is bad practice, but I don't seem to be able to call the object one thing and display another), the actually field name is simply S, the same goes for N.

Setting "readonly" to .f. allowed me access to enter the details for each record, which worked fine. So I decided I'd have one button to enter and one to save so I could turn the readonly back on. This proved to be a problem in itself. I turned the readonly back on with;

topparent:Bulk_browse:N__epg_.Field.Readonly = .t.
topparent:Bulk_browse:S__epg_.Field.Readonly = .t.
topparent:Bulk_browse:Comments.Field.Readonly = .t.

Unfortunately even if had various "save record" and "commit" type scripts preceding this (for both the form and the browse object), turning the readonly properties on some how managed to make the data revert to original data before it was altered. I was under the opinion that once the data was commited that this would not be possible? Sometimes it would revert only one or two of the fields and some times the whole lot. It seemed very buggy any way.

I haven't tried Finian's method yet, but it looks like it may be the only stable method of doing so. I should be able to just open the Xdialog box under the same query for this shouldn't I? Is there an easy way to make this Xdialog box simply fetch the next record of that particular child table in the set, whilst still restricted by the original filter of the form so it is still under the same submission number (ie. a next button).
Should a client have many samples for the one submission and test type, opening and closing an Xdialog for each sample could become quite tiresome. I haven't had much luck in the past when writing scripts to navigate and alter records in the child table of a set. i.e. would I need two pointers, one for the "set" and one for the "table" to do the changes? Or will this be taken care of in the Xdialog generation? I'll give it a try tonight anyway.