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Drop down boxes

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    Drop down boxes

    Is there a way to display more than just one column in the drop down list so the user has more info about the choice they are about to select, then once they select it, only fill the field with a value form just one field.

    For example, when the user clicks on the drop down box arrow for the name field, I want the list to show:

    Name+" "+socsecnum

    Now, when they select an entry, say "Smith, John 089-53-4153", the drop down should fill the field with just "Smith, John". Right now, I get the field filling with the entire selection.

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Gary
    Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.


    #2
    Re: Drop down boxes

    Assuming you are using a SQL database as the source, try this:

    SELECT DISTINCT YOUR_DISPLAY_VALUE_OR_EXPRESSION, YOUR_SAVED_FIELD FROM TABLENAME

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Drop down boxes

      Good morning!

      I am not using SQL - I am using the dbf files.

      Does that matter for this issue?

      Gary
      Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Drop down boxes

        Originally posted by drgarytraub View Post
        Good morning!

        I am not using SQL - I am using the dbf files.

        Does that matter for this issue?

        Gary
        Yep cos it's much more straightforward in dbf files if you're used to them...

        Just use the expression you described in the DISPLAY value field and use the part of it that you want to actually remember inthe STORED value field.

        For non-dbf/SQL sources/static you use displayexpression + "|" + storexpression

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Drop down boxes

          what i do for this kind of situation is:

          in the field to display I put something like:
          alltrim(Field1)+" - "+alltrim(Field2)+" - "+ alltrim(Field3) '[the " - " are just separators].

          in the store value just put the field that you want to store (obviously) like:
          Field1
          Cheers
          Mauricio

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Drop down boxes

            Andrea and Mauricio,

            Thanks for your input.

            Gary
            Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Drop down boxes

              I recall that someone had said that java script could be used to cause a drop down automatically fill in multiple fields.I tried searching the board but no luck.

              Does anyone know how to do this?

              Gary
              Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Drop down boxes

                Originally posted by drgarytraub View Post
                I recall that someone had said that java script could be used to cause a drop down automatically fill in multiple fields.I tried searching the board but no luck.

                Does anyone know how to do this?

                Gary
                Google onchange and Javascript

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Drop down boxes

                  Hi Andrea,

                  I will (and have) googled, and I will study it more.

                  One question I have though centers around how to get access to the fields with java script since the fields are not visible in the html of the page, but in a component.

                  Would the java script go in the html tab of the component? the xbasic tab of the coponent?

                  Thanks for any help.

                  Gary
                  Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Drop down boxes

                    Hi Gary

                    perhaps you have forgotten this post

                    http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/al...light=onchange

                    the only difference is that when you build the dropdown
                    you will display the multiple fields and hide the single value that you want to use
                    which is exactly the opposite of what you wanted to do in post 70950

                    hth
                    regards

                    martin
                    www.jollygreenthumb.com

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Drop down boxes

                      Hi Martin,

                      Thanks so much for responding to this. I understand the use of the tilda as the separator.

                      Where do you put the code? Does it go in the a5w page, or in the html tab of the component?

                      Thanks!

                      Gary
                      Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Drop down boxes

                        Originally posted by drgarytraub View Post
                        Hi Andrea,

                        I will (and have) googled, and I will study it more.

                        One question I have though centers around how to get access to the fields with java script since the fields are not visible in the html of the page, but in a component.

                        Would the java script go in the html tab of the component? the xbasic tab of the coponent?

                        Thanks for any help.

                        Gary
                        I probably should have asked about the context first...

                        No, you can't edit the HTML and Xbasic tabs of components. It's frustrating initially, because it's counter-intuitive if you have worked with WYSIWYG HTML editors before, but there you go. What you can do though is make a field in a grid freeform, and THEN you can edit bits of the HTML - however you still can't add onChange events etc to fields (it would be nice if there was a Javascript field in the field definitions for grids, where you can write your own JS event code), so you either have to add the whole dropdown box in a freeform part of the grid component (you can find out what the names of these fields, usually gridname.fieldname, by looking at the HTML tab in the component builder).

                        In a dialog you can use the calculated field expressions to achieve this effect, if you study the full HTML output (view the page in a browser and select View > Source) of a dialog that does what you want it to do, this may help too? http://www.charlesworth.biz/CB/test.a5w

                        The easiest way to do this, at least it seems that way to me if you find the time to tinker with the samples provided by Alpha, is with AJAX though, as that lets you populate dropdowns with Xbasic rather than Javascript.

                        http://www.charlesworth.biz/WAS/AJAX...Lookup_DBF.a5w

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Drop down boxes

                          Andrea,

                          Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me in so much detail. I am beginning to understand a bit more.

                          I have several questions.

                          First, in looking at both links that you provided (and thank you very much!), it seems that the JavaScript version of the drop down multi-field fill in works MUCH faster than the AJAX version. The AJAX version is acceptably quick, but has a short noticeable delay, while the JavaScript dropdown fills in instantaneously. This alone would make me want to use JavaScript for this situation. Am i correct with this? Is the JavaScript faster for this situation on your machine too??

                          Second, do the drop down choices have to be hard coded, and therefore fixed, or is there a way to dynamically populate it? (or does this relate to your recommendation to use AJAX, i.e., is AJAX necessary to make it dynamically fill with data from the server?)

                          Thanks Andrea!

                          Gary
                          Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Drop down boxes

                            Originally posted by drgarytraub View Post
                            First, in looking at both links that you provided (and thank you very much!), it seems that the JavaScript version of the drop down multi-field fill in works MUCH faster than the AJAX version. The AJAX version is acceptably quick, but has a short noticeable delay, while the JavaScript dropdown fills in instantaneously. This alone would make me want to use JavaScript for this situation. Am i correct with this? Is the JavaScript faster for this situation on your machine too??
                            The J in AJAX stands for Javascript...

                            The difference in the samples is largely that my Javascript example uses values that are in the page after it is loaded to populate the 2 text boxes, whereas the AJAX sample actually retrieves the record from the dbf files and then populates the boxes.

                            Which you prefer depends largely on whether you mind the whole contents of your table that populates the dropdown to be visible in the HTML page source or not.

                            Second, do the drop down choices have to be hard coded, and therefore fixed, or is there a way to dynamically populate it? (or does this relate to your recommendation to use AJAX, i.e., is AJAX necessary to make it dynamically fill with data from the server?
                            Both can be dynamically populated, if you look at the source code for the AJAX sample (also provided in the sample databases in your copy of Alpha5), you will see the Xbasic used to populate this dropdown.

                            Code:
                            <%a5
                            
                            dim dbf_folder as c 
                            dbf_folder = _A5_Aliases.get("PathAlias.ADB_Path")
                            DIM tableFilename as c 
                            tableFilename = a5_removetrailingbackslash(dbf_folder) + chr(92) + "customer.dbf"
                            
                            
                            dim customerIDList as c 
                            customerIDList = table.external_record_content_get(tableFilename,"alltrim(customer_id)","customer_Id",".t.")
                            customerIDList = crlf() + customerIDList 'add a blank entry  as the first item in the list.
                            
                            [B]customerIdList = a5_html_list_populate(customerIDList,"")[/B]
                            
                            
                            %>
                            http://support.alphasoftware.com/alp...POPULATE().htm

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Drop down boxes

                              Andrea,

                              You are a gem.

                              I will study this later. Thanks so much!

                              Gary
                              Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.

                              Comment

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