Dataform1datagrid sort/filter options

[Dan Jinks]

I just converted a four page form. On page three of the form, there was a datablock, which I deleted. It was causing SIMPOL Personal to close if I loaded the form with the data files open. After I deleted the detailblock objects, I could load the form with all files already open. So I studied up and found the dataform1datagrid object, which should work well as a detailblock substitute for my purposes. I added one and set the fields and linked to the master table. Just have a few questions that I have been unable to answer: 1. Is there a way to set the sort order of the grid to the contents of one of the columns? 2. Can I hide or minimize the row number column on the left of the grid? 3. Is there a way to filter the grid to display only certain rows, based on the contents of one of the grid’s columns? -Dan

[Michael]

On 13/07/2011 06:22, djinks wrote:
> I just converted a four page form. On page three of the form, there
> was a datablock, which I deleted. It was causing SIMPOL Personal to
> close if I loaded the form with the data files open. After I deleted
> the detailblock objects, I could load the form with all files already
> open.
>
> So I studied up and found the dataform1datagrid object, which should
> work well as a detailblock substitute for my purposes. I added one
> and set the fields and linked to the master table. Just have a few
> questions that I have been unable to answer:
>
> 1. Is there a way to set the sort order of the grid to the contents
> of one of the columns? 2. Can I hide or minimize the row number
> column on the left of the grid? 3. Is there a way to filter the grid
> to display only certain rows, based on the contents of one of the
> grid's columns?
>
> -Dan

Hi Dan,

Most of the things you want to do aren't covered yet. It may actually be
easier to use a detail block, but a lot depends on what you need from
it. Is the detail block unlinked, or linked. If linked, why are you
filtering it?

Ciao, Neil

[Dan Jinks]

Thanks for your response Neil,
The detail block would be linked to the master record. I'll try that
out. I switched to the grid because the detail block (as converted)
would close SIMPOL Personal, if I loaded the file associated with the
detail block before opening the form. I'll create one and see how that
goes.

I want to filter the detail block records to reduce clutter when looking
for a particular category of records. The detail block file is a notes
file. The notes have different categories (billing time and work
description, telephone numbers,email address , quotes for work, other,
when looking through the notes, I want to click an option button to look
at just a single category. I the case of quotes or billing notes, I
want them sorted descended by date.

-Dan

On 7/13/2011 6:03 AM, Neil Robinson wrote:
> On 13/07/2011 06:22, djinks wrote:
>> I just converted a four page form. On page three of the form, there
>> was a datablock, which I deleted. It was causing SIMPOL Personal to
>> close if I loaded the form with the data files open. After I deleted
>> the detailblock objects, I could load the form with all files already
>> open.
>>
>> So I studied up and found the dataform1datagrid object, which should
>> work well as a detailblock substitute for my purposes. I added one
>> and set the fields and linked to the master table. Just have a few
>> questions that I have been unable to answer:
>>
>> 1. Is there a way to set the sort order of the grid to the contents
>> of one of the columns? 2. Can I hide or minimize the row number
>> column on the left of the grid? 3. Is there a way to filter the grid
>> to display only certain rows, based on the contents of one of the
>> grid's columns?
>>
>> -Dan
>
> Hi Dan,
>
> Most of the things you want to do aren't covered yet. It may actually be
> easier to use a detail block, but a lot depends on what you need from
> it. Is the detail block unlinked, or linked. If linked, why are you
> filtering it?
>
> Ciao, Neil

[Michael]

On 13/07/2011 15:06, djinks wrote:
> Thanks for your response Neil, The detail block would be linked to
> the master record. I'll try that out. I switched to the grid
> because the detail block (as converted) would close SIMPOL Personal,
> if I loaded the file associated with the detail block before opening
> the form. I'll create one and see how that goes.
>
> I want to filter the detail block records to reduce clutter when
> looking for a particular category of records. The detail block file
> is a notes file. The notes have different categories (billing time
> and work description, telephone numbers,email address , quotes for
> work, other, when looking through the notes, I want to click an
> option button to look at just a single category. I the case of
> quotes or billing notes, I want them sorted descended by date.

I see. Currently there is no filtering capability for detail blocks (it
would be fairly slow the way Superbase did it, since you are already
constrained by the link order). It would probably be more efficient in
SIMPOL to just use a query and run it to print preview. Still, I
appreciate the advantages of then being able to click on a button next
to the results to do something. Let me think on it. If this is the only
significant issue to your conversion, then it shouldn't be difficult to
eventually come up with something. The detail block code is quite
involved, but we can always do more with it.

Ciao, Neil

[Dan Jinks]

Here is what I am trying to do:
http://www.jinksinc.com/Downloads/NotesDetailBlock.png

I have most of it working, as you can see, but it took a lot of work
because SIMPOL Personal kept closing on me or the form would not load in
the application (based on addressbook). The option buttons will be used
to filter on a specific category of notes. They and the date filter
fields are not working, but the detailblock does load data and you can
scroll through it.

My observations:
1. My form was four pages long, so I needed to uncomment the lines
related to Previous/next page tools and add the following line just
before "prepconnexform(appw)"
enablepagetools(tb, appw.form)
You should probably add it to the sample project, but commented out

2. The sort field of the detailblock is not working for me. Sometimes
SIMPOL Personal closes when I return from the Forms Designer. When it
stays up, and appears the form to work, closing the form and reopening
it will close SIMPOL Personal. I can get good results with the Forms
Designer and even with detailblocks up until I add the sortfield.

3. Saving the form changes in Forms Designer does not always change the
date time stamp on the SXF file. I learned to always use File Dave As
to make sure the data was saved. I'm not sure the changes were not it
the file, but the time stamps were not getting changed if I clicked the
save toolbar icon and the changes were not always present when I
reloaded the form. Anyway, I have had less confusion about what was
saved since I started using File Save As, often incrementing the file
name to give me plenty of incremental file copies.

4. I started with a converted four-page form, but never got the
detailblock to work well on page three. In the end, I decided to make
the detailblock a separate form, so I made a copy of the form and
deleted all objects on pages 1,2,4, then cut and pasted the objects from
page three to page 1. I did this because there is no way that I have
discovered to delete a page in the Forms Designer. I finally edited the
SXF file to remove the unwanted pages. Not a biggie.

Page four was a single record edit form used when I clicked on a row
from the detail block. I'll make it a separate form also.

5, I still need a way to review with filters the various notes I have
for a client. A query might be a good starting point, but I will want a
way to select a record for editing. I looked at the Quick Report
tonight, but cannot determine how to use a LIKE operator in the filter.
That would require a library I think. Can Quick Report use a library
function? How would I load that into Personal for testing? I tried
this tonight
CONXNOTE.Last_First >= "Parr, MD" AND CONXNOTE.Last_First <= "Parr, MD, z"
but the parser gave an error:
where clause: identifiers not found or not unique:Parr, MD (0) Parr, MD,
z (0)
Further, I did not see an option to sort the quick report descending.
Did I miss something there?

If I could get a reliable quick report established, I could run queries
into a volitile file and display them in a detail block, all filtered
and sorted. Then I can click a row to trigger a new form popping up for
editing the record.

On 7/13/2011 10:41 AM, Neil Robinson wrote:
> On 13/07/2011 15:06, djinks wrote:
>> Thanks for your response Neil, The detail block would be linked to
>> the master record. I'll try that out. I switched to the grid
>> because the detail block (as converted) would close SIMPOL Personal,
>> if I loaded the file associated with the detail block before opening
>> the form. I'll create one and see how that goes.
>>
>> I want to filter the detail block records to reduce clutter when
>> looking for a particular category of records. The detail block file
>> is a notes file. The notes have different categories (billing time
>> and work description, telephone numbers,email address , quotes for
>> work, other, when looking through the notes, I want to click an
>> option button to look at just a single category. I the case of
>> quotes or billing notes, I want them sorted descended by date.
>
> I see. Currently there is no filtering capability for detail blocks (it
> would be fairly slow the way Superbase did it, since you are already
> constrained by the link order). It would probably be more efficient in
> SIMPOL to just use a query and run it to print preview. Still, I
> appreciate the advantages of then being able to click on a button next
> to the results to do something. Let me think on it. If this is the only
> significant issue to your conversion, then it shouldn't be difficult to
> eventually come up with something. The detail block code is quite
> involved, but we can always do more with it.
>
> Ciao, Neil

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