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**Raymond Lyons** · 06-24-2005, 07:54 PM

RE: loading a form from another database

A bit hard to read your unwrapped lines.

"I would like to load a form from a database other than the current database."

I do not believe you can do this without having the table in your database. But it can be a "foreign" table, i.e., from another folder, without opening the entire other database.

I'll leave your second question to someone else.

Ray

**Doug Chanley** · 06-24-2005, 08:32 PM

RE: loading a form from another database

Thanks for the reply Raymond, sorry about the line wrap, didn't realize it would format that way....

doug

**Doug Chanley** · 06-24-2005, 08:33 PM

RE: loading a form from another database

.....I'll try it with some hard returns.....

Can someone give me a little direction? I would like to
load a form from a database other than the current
database. I would like to get some information from
the form such as field events form events.... etc.
I have been poking around in the *.ddd files outside
the current database but so far haven't been able to
find a way to load a form.... maybe ya just cant do that....???

This brings up another question regarding the data dictionaries, including the database *.alb dictionary.

Some of the field values for contents_m are returning
hex values... or maybe encrypted hex. Is there anyway
to convert them back to text? Below is an example using
the database's *alb dictionary queried on scripts. The
first script is named "Print Function" the contents look
to be in hex. I tried assigning a blob pointer to the
field & doing an ascii dump on the blob, but the results
weren't what I expected.

So I guess I have a couple of calls for help here....
would appreciate some comments.... Thanks

doug

tbl = dictionary.open("tcp.alb" )
query.order = "type"
query.filter = "type = 'SCRP'"
tbl.fetch_first()
?TBL.field_name_get()
= Name
Type
Contents_c
Contents_m
Vendor
?tbl.TYPE
= "SCRP"
?tbl.NAME
= "Print Function "
?tbl.CONTENTS_M
= 0000 : 23 41 35 23 45 4e 49 47 4d 41 23 33 39 33 39 33
0010 : 39 33 33 39 33 39 33 39 33 39 33 39 33 38 37 33
0020 : 38 32 39 39 31 31 39 32 38 31 31 23 65 01 00 00
0030 : 77 26 02 1e 04 19 52 07 17 0b 4c 01 0d 5e f0 50
0040 : f6 1b 18 10 a0 0a 44 18 e4 ee 5e f5 e1 e1 5b b3
0050 : e0 37 f1 fa b8 ff f4 f0 2f fc f7 28 c5 b9 b7 c4
0060 : 3f e5 81 eb c0 17 36 33 f9 82 c4 3a de f1 c5 2b
0070 : 81 d6 07 93 38 22 da c2 d0 1a c0 dc d4 28 53 02
0080 : 11 49 14 67 78 0f 01 57 46 06 0a 09 51 05 1c 59
0090 : ec 5b f1 f4 ec e2 e3 1f e8 fb e5 e9 a3 f7 37 e6
00a0 : e4 64 ed 5f 54 eb f3 f9 28 f6 b5 bd f7 fe ef 72
00b0 : e7 fa d5 ea d7 f9 be d1 3a f3 de 31 d6 6d 29 c3
00c0 : 8c d8 08 dd c1 d2 d8 d8 d2 08 26 1a 0f 09 04 1f
00d0 : 52 01 18 5a 4d 75 63 02 03 5c 44 19 15 e7 56 06
00e0 : f0 52 ed e5 e2 e4 e5 ec ee 1f ee e2 27 f4 11 4a
00f0 : f6 ec f3 07 f0 ef eb b5 b3 3b fc d4 84 eb f8 d7
0100 : df 2d 04 66 27 c5 c4 cf d9 08 94 c1 cb 51 c4 de
0110 : da de a5 db c9 d8 d1 3d 10 15 1b 0e 0d 1f 12 53
0120 : 41 37 78 f7 07 0e 5f f6 1b 14 11 a6 fe 0d e0 1f
0130 : f4 5e 3d 52 e5 e9 a3 f7 39 f5 f6 b1 ef e9 eb ea
0140 : fc 3c 37 5c 1b 84 f0 f3 e5 81 eb c0 06 2d 08 c2
0150 : 87 cd cc e6 c8 de c7 42 2c 29 99 c2 dc c1 de a4
0160 : f5 fe df de 24 01 0a 16 07 15 47 2c 28 0b 58 12
0170 : 0b 1d 05 a3 0b e2 74 78 aa 0c f0 e5 e5 18 1b f6
0180 : 37 5c 04 ae e1 e3 f1 f6 a7 fc f9 fc 2d 57 5a 5b
0190 : 53 61 6e 29 3f 00

dim pp as b
pp=tbl.CONTENTS_M
?pp.dump("A")
= #A5#ENIGMA#39393933939393939387382991192811#e...w&....R.
..L..^.P......D...^...[..7....../..(....?.....63...:...+..
..8".......(S..I.gx..WF...Q..Y.[............7..d._T...(....
..r........:..1.m)...........&.....R..ZMuc..\D...V..R......
....'..J.........;.......-.f'........Q.........=.......SA7x
..._..........^=R....9........"7\.........-.........B,)....
......$.....G,(.X.......tx........7\..........-WZ[San)?.

**martinwcole** · 06-25-2005, 01:18 AM

RE: loading a form from another database

as mentioned, you can add the table from the other database to your database - the path will be the path of the other adb. Then you can make forms for the table.

you will need to test this, but I'm also almost certain that tbl.is_record_locked() will let you know if a record in the table is locked on the other system/adb.

**G Gabriel** · 06-25-2005, 01:32 AM

RE: loading a form from another database

Doug:
"maybe ya just cant do that....???"
Yes you can.
First you have to specify te full path: c:\.....alpha\...
Then read the dictionary with: a5_dictionary_read

"Is there anyway to convert them back to text?"
Yes: *FROM_HEXC()

Gabe

**Doug Chanley** · 06-25-2005, 08:40 AM

RE: loading a form from another database

Thanks Martin & Gabe....

I think your right about not being able to use load.form() to load a form that is not attached to the current app Martin, I was just wishing that I could....

Gabe.... where did you find the a5_dictionary_read method, I was unable to find it in the Alpha5 help.chm?? That method works, but so does dictionary.open().... just the same its good to know. As for the *from_hexc(), it would translate a single value like *from_hexc("41") = "A" but it returns empty when you put the whole string into the function. Also in my earlier post at the bottom you will notice where I assigned a blob pointer to the value & then dumped it as ascii, but rather than returning the code for the script it returns this....

dim pp as b
pp=tbl.CONTENTS_M
?pp.dump("A")
= #A5#ENIGMA#39393933939393939387382991192811#e...w&....R.
..L..^.P......D...^...[..7....../..(....?.....63...:...+..
..8".......(S..I.gx..WF...Q..Y.[............7..d._T...(....
..r........:..1.m)...........&.....R..ZMuc..\D...V..R......
....'..J.........;.......-.f'........Q.........=.......SA7x
..._..........^=R....9........"7\.........-.........B,)....
......$.....G,(.X.......tx........7\..........-WZ[San)?.

If you take each set of hex values & use them in the *from_hexc() it will return the same thing that the dump does, I would expect that is should be returning the code for the script?? I may have to settle on confusion for the moment. I do appreciate both of your comments, & welcome any additional ideas that you or someone else may have....

Thanks guys,

doug

**JerryBrightbill** · 06-25-2005, 08:57 AM

RE: loading a form from another database

Doug

Don't make it so hard. This example will open the "invoice" form from Alphasports from any database that can access the path

form.view("Invoice@C:\Program Files\A5v6\Samples\Alphasports\invoice.set")

This will open the "customer" form

form.view("Customer Information@C:\Program Files\A5v6\Samples\Alphasports\customer.ddd")

Note: you can use the .ddd extension or the .dbf, although the .ddd seems a bit faster.

While the help files mention the method to use a fully qualified name from within the database, I can find no reference to using the full path, but that is a common method in WAS to open a report for "save as"

Jerry

**Doug Chanley** · 06-25-2005, 09:57 AM

RE: loading a form from another database

Hi Jerry....

Yes, your right.... easy is better! Thank you for the assist!!

doug

**G Gabriel** · 06-25-2005, 05:09 PM

RE: loading a form from another database

Doug:
I must have missed the part about the blob, there was so much garbled stuff which I skipped.

If you converted the hex to blob, then you could dump the blob into charachter using: "blob".dump().

This leaves me with one curiosity: why do you want to retireve the scripts from another form from another database?

If these scripts are global or made to be global, you could with very few mouse strokes attach a dictionary from one database to another. Just curious.

Gabe

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