Selection of tree control level

[Tim Kiebert]

Hello all,

I have a table that holds data on equipment and machinery in a factory. It will be the basis of a maintenance application. The records are structured (have identifying fields) so that equipment can have sub elements to four levels(five levels in total).

I have created a set using the table linked to itself four times.
A form based on that set has five browses in order to browse through the data. This form is fine for finding a piece of equipment and viewing the relevant data.


However, at various points in other parts of the aplication I want to be able to use a similar method to choose a particular piece of equipment, say when entering work orders or service history. The Tree Control is basically the kind of thing I am looking for and I have created one based on my set that does represent the data correctly.

My problem is that the value returned by the control is always down to the deepest level. If there are five levels and I highlight the third, how do I return just the data that is at that level? I am able to parse the returned value to extract a particular bit but don't know how to get the level that is being highlighted.

I have also attempted an xdialog with a number of list boxes in a progressive fashion but again don't know how to return the data in the active list box.


I have read lots of threads on tree controls but none get to the heart of question ie how to return what level is active.
I have also checked out the Xdialog stuff in the .chm.

Or is there just a better way to this?

I'm not expecting finished code, just point me in the right direction. Attached is sample of my data and tree control.

Many thanks in advance .

[Mike Thomson]

Using Xdialog

If you use xdialog then your Xdialog code will include something like

[MenuChoice^<GridMenu!menuchange];

The !MenuChange (which can be any name you want) , cause the code section of the xdialog to be executed. refresh Xdialog manuals for this

You will have something like

 if a_dlg_button = "menuchange" then 
{code to analyse choice}
end if

The variable, in this case MenuChoice will hold the full structure name of the tree selected, seperated by "." character. Use substr and atc to break this into components and you have the value of the tree selected at any level.

If you are using this as menu selection, I also reset the value of menuchoice to the value of the next higher level up the tree. This moves focus away from the currently selected item in the lower order of the tree and allows the user to click it again to call up the same item (otherwise if the value is not changed - they cannot reselect it)

[Tim Kiebert]

thanks for the reply Mike.

I'm just about to get my hands dirty and do some maitaining so I'll go through your suggestions a little later today.

[Tim Kiebert]

Mike,
Thanks to your push in the right direction I managed to accomplish what I wanted. I used a tree control in an xdialog.
In this exerceise I did find something interesting(which is what kept me from getting to a solution earlier) and that is there is a difference in behaviour between a tree control placed on a form and one placed in an xdialog box. A tree control placed on a form used to fill a field or a variable returns a complete 'full structure' ie if you have five levels in the current branch no matter which level you click on, it returns data for all five levels(with the appropriate seperator). You therefore have no way to tell which level you chose.
However, in the context of an xdialog the value returned only goes up to the level selected, ie if you select level three out of five only three levels of data are returned. then all you need to do is parse out from the last seperator and Bob's your uncle.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Sounds like the behavior in the xdialog context should be added to the Features Wishlist for forms. -- tom

[Tim Kiebert]

Tom,

I'll take the hint. Then i'm off to sleep.