Issue in My Set Design

[cdibi]

I am having trouble passing a customer # in my database. Here is what I am doing. I have 2 sets as follows:

#1 Customer Info -> Invoices (To view and create customers and review past invoices)

#2 Invoices -> Customer Info (To create new invoices)

For a little background, we use this for our service department. We store a lot of information in the Customer Info table beyond name. We have all the information on the product they purchased, serial #, etc. We are generally using a form based on set #1 looking up customers or adding them. I then have a create invoice button from that form which opens a form based on set #2. I want to be able to pass the customer # to this invoice form in set#2 and fill the customer # in the invoice table without having to look it up again. We already have that information from the previous form.

The only way that I could get this to work was to open the set #2 field rule design and set the default value for customer # to a global variable. The variable gets filled when you push the button to create the invoice. It does work, but Alpha does not like it. When I open the field rules for the invoice table individually, I get an error message saying "Cannot use function in this context".

Is there a way to do what I want other than the work around I found which doesn't seem to Kosher?

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Issue in My Set Design

Here's a nice example of how to pass values between forms.

[cdibi]

Re: Issue in My Set Design

Stan, Thank you. I had the right idea using the global variable. I just injected it into the table the wrong way. It also helps to know the code!!! The only problem I have is that the THIS.new_record() line in the ONINIT of the "items" table does not put the form into the enter mode like it's supposed to. You have to press the enter button. The example#1 in the link you sent does the same thing. Any suggestions or is there another way to make it go into enter mode immediately?

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Issue in My Set Design

Chris, the OrdHdr1 form in the simple example works correctly Not necessary to press ENTER key to put form in enter mode. However, I've found that OnInit scripts occasionally cause problems (with complex forms or lengthy scripts). Timing issues seem to arise. So, rather than do the heavy lifting in the OnInit event I prefer the approach illustrated by the OrdHdr2 form in the example Stan referenced for you. The called form is loaded but not shown. Field values are set in the called form while it remains hidden. Then the called form is displayed to the user.

[cdibi]

Re: Issue in My Set Design

Tom, I misspoke when I said you need to hit the enter key, I meant you need to press the new record button. My goof. Anyways I took your advise and used example #2. It worked perfect for my 1st set. On the second set I'm getting an error when the script trys to feed the field the value:

spa_invoice:Cust_Number.value = parentform:Cust_Number.value
parentform:Cust_Number.value not found

I've checked the spelling and capitalization of the Cust_Number field in the parent form 20+ times. It just won't see it for some reason. I tried going into the table structure of that field and re-typing the name as shown and still the same error. I even tried using different capitalization styles and no luck. I don't get it. It works perfect in my other set which uses the same names. Any idea????

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Issue in My Set Design

Chris, two ideas:

a) if your script is running from a subform, "parentform" references the subform itself. Is that what you mean, or do you need to reference the "topparent" ?

b) is the calling form in enter or change mode when the script runs? Have you just entered a cust_number when the script runs ? i.e. before the record is saved? If so, change your script to commit the current record before it runs, and use the text property of the field object instead of it's value. i.e. parentform:Cust_number.text
[ This assumes that your cust_number is actually character data, and not numeric. ]

To answer your question authoritatively we need to see your script running in context. Post a model of your database here with instructions for us to follow to see the error message displayed.

[cdibi]

Re: Issue in My Set Design

To answer your question authoritatively we need to see your script running in context. Post a model of your database here with instructions for us to follow to see the error message displayed.[/QUOTE]

Tom, the script is not running from a subform, is not being called in the enter or change mode, and cust_number is a character field. I'm using the find to get to a particular record and then pressing a button that runs the script. The general layout is a Customer form linked to an invoice header by cust_number. I have 2 identical sets for 2 different types of customers and one works and the other doesn't. It seems to me that it can't find the name Cust_Number for some reason.

What is the easiest way for me to post my data base? Just zip the whole database? Thanks in advance for your help.

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Issue in My Set Design

What is the easiest way for me to post my data base?

Often that's easiest. If your database exceeds the maximum upload file size limit you will need to discard records and pack your tables. A better solution often is to copy your database to a new folder, drop the tables and sets not needed to illustrate the problem, and then obscure "real" data with dummy information, in a sufficient number of records to illustrate the problem. Then "backup" this "sanitized" copy to a zip file and upload it here.

However you create the backup or zip file be sure to include written instructions in the zip or in your posted message telling us how to open the database and what steps to follow in order to see the issue.

[cdibi]

Re: Issue in My Set Design

OK, here it is:


Start at the Main_menu form. If you click on pools and then click "Create Work Order" you will see that the script works perfect. Now exit out and go back to the main menu and click spas and the "Create Work Order". You will now get an error. I've spent hours trying to figure it out. I'm sure that I'm missing something simple.

On a side note, I copied a script from the message board called a4_keys which is in the code section. It allows you to use the F, C, & E keys mimicking A4. I tried to apply it to a form in the "On Key" event and it does not work at all. Where should this script be applied in a form?

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: Issue in My Set Design

Chris, your struggle here results from missing the important fact that each object in your layout has a name. That name often is the same name as the fieldname in your table structure... but NOT ALWAYS. In this case you chose to give your object a name that's NOT the same as the table fieldname.

Consider the line that's throwing your error:

spa_invoice:Cust_Number.value = parentform:[COLOR="Red"]Cust_Number[/COLOR].value

This line will throw the "not found" error you see whenever the object name (shown in red) cannot be found in your layout.

In this case even though you checked the object 20 times, you missed the important difference between:

Cust_Number

and

CustNumber

In short, your script is failing because it's asking Alpha to retrieve the value from an object it can't find because your script thinks that object is named "Cust_Number" when in fact that object is named "CustNumber"

[cdibi]

Re: Issue in My Set Design

Tom, once again thank you! I never really looked at the "object" names. I assumed everything worked off the field name. I would have never figured that out.

One last quick question concerning the method I am using to pass the field value. What is the purpose of the local variable on the second form that we are filling? The value is already going into the field that we want. I tried it without the variable and it seems to work fine, but is there an underlying reason for it? If I do use it, it has to be displayed on the form or I get an error saying that the variable is not found at the point that the script is trying to fill it.