now() behaviour suddenly changes

[gothic]

I'm more or less a newbie on alphafive but a geriatric systems wise.. building my first a5 app.

I have been using the now() function in an action scriot immediately before saving a record to provide an audit trail. This all worked fine up until Monday night, 12 June. I started work on Tuesday, and (without making any code changes) the input form crashed at that point with an error 'invalid date/time format'. I set up a simple system with two fields in (one character, one time) in a new database and the same thing happens.

I'm really stumped. What could I have changed on the PC or alphafive which would cause this? It's obviously not to do with the orginal code at all.

Any hints or pointers would be very gratefully received.

[Stan Mathews]

I'm more or less a newbie on alphafive but a geriatric systems wise.. building my first a5 app.

I have been using the now() function in an action scriot immediately before saving a record to provide an audit trail. This all worked fine up until Monday night, 12 June. I started work on Tuesday, and (without making any code changes) the input form crashed at that point with an error 'invalid date/time format'. I set up a simple system with two fields in (one character, one time) in a new database and the same thing happens.

I'm really stumped. What could I have changed on the PC or alphafive which would cause this? It's obviously not to do with the orginal code at all.

Any hints or pointers would be very gratefully received.

It'll be a lot easier to comprehend if you attach a sample table, and its support files, which demonstrates the problem.

[gothic]

now problem example

Stan

I'm amazed at such a fast response ! Thank you.

I've attached a zip file with the test table in, plus a screen shot to show the error, because it could be something to do with my PC... though I don't know what it might be.

I suspect it's something embarrassingly silly.

:o

[Stan Mathews]

Stan

I'm amazed at such a fast response ! Thank you.

I've attached a zip file with the test table in, plus a screen shot to show the error, because it could be something to do with my PC... though I don't know what it might be.

I suspect it's something embarrassingly silly.

:o

Sorry, home now without Alpha. Will lood in the morning if someone else doesn't answer first.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Tim,

I couldn't generate the error here using your sample.

However, I see two things I'd change:

a) in the OnInit for the form, switch the order of your action scripting statements. Your form's data entry style is modal. Enable edits, then begin the new record. Don't do it in reverse.

b) in the onPush event for your form's button, edit the first action statement. The expression you supplied to the genie was

date() + cr() + lf()

This happened because you pressed the ENTER key after typing "date()" when typing the expression you wanted Alpha Five to use when setting the value property of the field object. You should remove the hard carriage return using the little xy button to get to the expression builder.

-- tom

ps. Alpha Five has a rudimentary audit trail facility that is built in. If you haven't explored it you probably should. It might save you a bit of work. Dr. Wayne's "Xbasic for Everyone" contains a n example of a more robust audit trail system.

[gothic]

now() behaviour suddenly changes

Gentlemen

Thanks you for your input.. and for the other helpful hints. I've been in the computer biz for 35 years, but not touched code in anger for the last 30, so I'm learning to ride the bike again, so to speak.

now() works interactively in the code editor, so I'm still stumped. However, I have now restructured the transaction file in question to hold a date and a time and that will work, although it's slightly more tedious to answer the question 'how long since" ..

I would still be very interested to understand the cause of this oddity.

Thanks again

[Tom Cone Jr]

Tim, I'm sorry but I don't follow.

Are you saying the sample you uploaded is not working correctly after the changes I recommended?

What does "restructured the transaction file" mean?

The NOW() function returns a TIME data type. Read the help file discussion on how to create a table. There's a section there describing the permitted field data types. A TIME field type holds both a date and a time. Contrast that with a Short Time field type.

-- tom

[whanigsberg]

Tom and Tim,

I do in fact get the behavior Tim reports--even after making Tom's changes.

The following had no effect:
-starting over with the default form;
-converting the command to inline xbasic and stripping away unnecessary code;
-making the form modeless.

So until inspiration strikes I'm stumped.

[whanigsberg]

Version number

4067.3030

(Just for the record).

[Tom Cone Jr]

Bill, I ran the sample on a second machine and it works fine. Even without making the changes I recommended. I cannot throw an error using his button.

I'm wondering if this might be related to regional differences in dates ? Are you configured differently than me? I'm using MM/DD/YYYY.

-- tom

[gothic]

now() behaviour suddenly changes

Progress - see below. I'm also relieved that it isn't just me :-))

First, Tom, to answer your question, making the changes you suggested didn't have any effect. I also tried it with in-line code.. no go.

So I went back to square one .. what did I do between 12th June and 14th June which might have had an effect ... things don't just "suddenly change". The answer is that on 13th June I ran an upgrade to 4067.3030 (I should have twigged this earlier). In other words, it works in the older version, but not in the new.

Here in London, I am of course set up for dd.mm.yyyy .. could this have a bearing ? Bill, what is it out there in Canada ? I'll try and run the old version in a controlled test.

Thank you both for your valuable input.

[Aside: Tom, what I am doing is building a small transaction system which takes in cash movement requirements and then generates SWIFT (money transfer) instructions. I am tracking each key event by holding who the user was, when (which is they the 'now' was for) they authorised this or pressed that key. I have now changed each data type T for a date and a time, recording the time as C via time().The reason for this is that single payments may be for $500million, so it needs tight monitoring. By the way, no XML import in 2006 is a _real_ bore.]

[whanigsberg]

Regional settings

On my test machine (which I cannot fiddle with at the moment)

Short date: dd/MM/yyyy
Long date: MMMM d, yyyy

Canada, as in so many things, is in multiple personality mode as to dates.
-French
-French Canadian
-English (UK)
-English (Canada)
-English (USA)

One has no idea what setting will be on a giving machine which keeps you on your toes.

Consult the release notes on the latest version and you will see that they fixed a bug (reported by me as it happens) regarding date values in smart fields. I have no idea if this is related to our issue.

[Stan Mathews]

Progress - see below. I'm also relieved that it isn't just me :-))

First, Tom, to answer your question, making the changes you suggested didn't have any effect. I also tried it with in-line code.. no go.

So I went back to square one .. what did I do between 12th June and 14th June which might have had an effect ... things don't just "suddenly change". The answer is that on 13th June I ran an upgrade to 4067.3030 (I should have twigged this earlier). In other words, it works in the older version, but not in the new.

Here in London, I am of course set up for dd.mm.yyyy .. could this have a bearing ? Bill, what is it out there in Canada ? I'll try and run the old version in a controlled test.

Thank you both for your valuable input.

[Aside: Tom, what I am doing is building a small transaction system which takes in cash movement requirements and then generates SWIFT (money transfer) instructions. I am tracking each key event by holding who the user was, when (which is they the 'now' was for) they authorised this or pressed that key. I have now changed each data type T for a date and a time, recording the time as C via time().The reason for this is that single payments may be for $500million, so it needs tight monitoring. By the way, no XML import in 2006 is a _real_ bore.]

You can write your own xml import script if the structure of the xml file is consistent from file to file. See this code archive entry.

[Tom Cone Jr]

I've submitted a bug report after verifying that the error occurs when the regional date/time settings are English (United Kingdom), but the error does not occur if the regional date/time settings are English (United States).

-- tom

[gothic]

Tom, thanks for posting the bug report, and Bill, thanks for confirming the problem

Also, Stan, thanks for the XML import link.

I think this closes down this thread, and I'll keep my eye open for the fix!

I guess this goes to show just how hard it is to write globally sold software...