Popup and Normal Forms - OnActivate

[lcbarker]

Popup and Normal Forms

For my Contact Manager I want to have 1) a Background Form which is maximized and stays consistent regardless of which other form is opened; 2) a Family Form which lists the families and includes an embedded browse of family members; 3) an Individuals Form which lists the details for the individuals. The desire is that on the Family Form you can double-click on the name of the individual in the embedded browse and the Individuals Form would open with that individual displayed. The Family Form and Individuals Form are also coded so that they are first opened with form.view(), and then hidden with a form.hide(). The next time the form is opened it responds to a form.show() command.

I actually got this to work fine, but whenever the Background Form lost focused (deactivated?) then it shrank in size and no longer filled the screen as it should when it is maximized. I read many posts and tried fill,fill etc, but could only get it to work properly when I changed the Family Form and Individuals Form to 'Popup' forms. Then everything appears as I desire it.

But then I discovered that the correct individual was not appearing in the Individuals Form after the double-click. After playing with this for some time I realized that the xbasic query in the OnActivate event of the Individuals Form was not working.

I then did some testing with the Trace window. I discovered that a Popup form does not fire OnActivate. When the Popup form is first viewed, it goes through OnInit, OnFetch and CanChange, before settling on the first field of the Tab Order with an OnArrive. That is, unless that first field is on a Tabbed Object, in which case it doesn't settle on anything, unless you physically click in the field. If the Popup form is hidden and then subsequently show()n, then even the OnArrive for that first field is not fired.

So, I guess I have 2 questions. The first is, does anyone have any suggestions for how to handle the query to display the desired individual since there is no consistent event? The second would be, has anyone really successfully got a full-screen (ie equivalent to maximized) background form to work? If so, how?

Thanks

Les

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Popup and Normal Forms - OnActivate

Les, in working with normal forms you might use the script that opens the form to run the query instead of having an event in the called form trigger the query. I assume this would work with popups, too, though I have almost no experience with them.

It's also possible to embed a filter expression in the called form that uses a global variable to define which record to display. The calling form can set that variable just before the form opens. The form opens filtered. No reason to query the underlying table separately.

Have you considered forms opened as dialogs?

-- tom

[lcbarker]

Re: Popup and Normal Forms - OnActivate

Tom,

Thanks for your reply. I have tested your first suggestion and got some encouraging results, plus some unexpected behavior. I'll have to think through the process some more. I found the article on 'Opening a Filtered Browse on another Form' in Alpha help and will test that too. I've run out of time for today and will work on this tomorrow.

I haven't considered the dialog option. I coded them as popups because of a thread on making the background form static. I'll check that out as well.

Thanks again. I'll post again when done the testing.

Les

[Finian Lennon]

Re: Popup and Normal Forms - OnActivate

I don't think you should have to restrict yourself to popup or dialog forms.

I would have as few events in the background form as possible. You may need a "this.maximize()" in the on init. The only other code I would have is a "This.restore()" to the OnActivate event of the background form.

[lcbarker]

Re: Popup and Normal Forms - OnActivate

Tom,

I wasn't getting very far with your suggestions with popup forms, so I reverted to normal forms. And then I wasn't getting your suggestions to work there either, so I figure I'm just plain doing something wrong.

Your first suggestion was to use the script that opens the form to run the query instead of having an event in the called form trigger the query.

The Calling Form is FamilyInfoDisplay. The embedded browse in the form is based on the personinfo table. The following is part of the code for the OnRowDblClick event:

flag = table.isopen("personinfo")
if flag = .T.	then
	tbl = table.get("personinfo")
else
	tbl = table.open("personinfo")
end if
fld = tbl.field_get("idperson")
vcPersonID = fld.value_get()
query.filter = "Idperson = \"" + vcPersonID+ "\" "
query.order = "Idperson"
tbl.query_create()

The code then views/shows the PersonalInfoDisplay form:

if is_object("PersonInfoDisplay") then
PersonInfoDisplay.show()
PersonInfoDisplay.activate()
else
form.view("PersonInfoDisplay")
end if

The record displayed is not what is called by the variable vcPersonID, but is the first record in the table. So I would assume that somehow the query is not working.

Your second suggestion was to embed a filter expression in the called form that uses a global variable to define which record to display. The calling form can set that variable just before the form opens. The form opens filtered. I went to Alpha help and found the article on 'Opening a Filtered Browse on another Form'. That illustration shows putting code in the button on the calling form which then opens a called form with an embedded browse. So I modified their code and inserted it in the OnRowDblClick event.

dim vpPID as p
vpPID = Form.load("PersonInfoDisplay")
vpPID:tables:Personinfo.filter_expression = "Idperson = \"" + vcPersonID+ "\" "
vpPID:tables:Personinfo.query()
vpPID.show()
vpPID.activate()

Again when the form opened the record displayed is not what is called by the variable vcPersonID, but is the first record in the table.

I then reread your suggestions (well actually several times) and wondered what you meant by embedding a filter expression in the called form. Where in the called form would you embed the expression?

Well that's as far as I have gotten so far. I look forward to your next directions with gratitude.

Les

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Popup and Normal Forms - OnActivate

Before spending time debugging these, check out the Action Scripting "Zoom to record" action. It should do what you need. You'll find it in the Form/Browse category of action scripting statements. -- tom