Find out passed parameters

March 26, 2004, 11:04 AM

I have a report that uses parameters passed from a selection page (form submitted by method post to WFServlet) to make another (hidden) form. The report page contains a form and several loops like the example below.
It checks if the passed parameter has multiple values and loops the right amount of times.

...
-SET &XIND = 1;
-IF &YTIME0.EXISTS THEN GOTO TIME_LOOP ELSE GOTO TIME_NO_LOOP;
-TIME_NO_LOOP
-IF &YTIME.EXISTS THEN <INPUT type="hidden" name="YTIME" value="&YTIME">
ELSE GOTO TIME_LOOPX
-GOTO TIME_LOOPX
-TIME_LOOP
-IF &XIND GT &YTIME0 THEN GOTO TIME_LOOPX;
<INPUT type="hidden" name="YTIME" value="&YTIME.&XIND">
-SET &XIND = &XIND + 1;
-GOTO TIME_LOOP
-TIME_LOOPX
...

Problem: I want to make this an independent, included fex, which I can use with many forms and reports. How can I find out how the parameters in each submitted form are named? There are different amount of multiple selection lists (which are named differently) in each selection page.

March 30, 2004, 03:39 AM

susannah

what an interesting question. well, here's an inelegant approach:
In your fex, lines 2,4,8, and 9 have the variable &YTIME in them, and that's the var you want to change, right?
so, replace these 4 lines in this fex with &vars themselves.
&LINE1, &LINE2, &LINE3 and &LINE4, like this:
-SET &XIND = 1;
&LINE1
-TIME_NO_LOOP
etcetera.
Now, in this fex create each of these &LINES, having passed not only the values but also the NAME of the key variable from the previous form.
-SET &LINE1 = 'IF &' | &MYNEWVARNAME | '.EXIST THEN...etc.
Get the idea?

March 30, 2004, 04:06 AM

Muurinen

Thank you for your quick and not so inelegant tip Susannah!

So I can make another loop for &LINE1,2,3 and 4 where I populate them with every known parameter.

But if I don�t know the names of the parameters? How can I make a loop to populate &MYNEWVARNAME with passed parameters from the previous form?

Like this:

loop for &MYNEWVARNAME
...loop for &LINE1,2,3 and 4
......loop for the form data (original message)
......end loop
...end loop
end loop

If the form was submitted via method GET then the submitted non-hidden parameters could be parsed with javascript, but the method POST is a bit trickier...

I hope somebody has already won this battle.

Thanks in advance
Mikko Muurinen

March 30, 2004, 08:28 AM

<Grzegorz>

Mikko,

Below is the skeleton of one of the possible solutions (if I correctly understand your question).

< !-- A launch page: --><br /><html><br /><head><br /><title>Launch Form</title><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />function doSubmit(frm) {<br />  if (!frm.PARAMNAMES) return true;<br />  var names = frm.PARAMNAMES;<br />  var optcnt = 0;<br />  for (var i=0; i < frm.elements.length; i++) {<br />     var element = frm.elements[i];<br />     if (element.name == "PARAMNAMES" || <br />         element.name == "IBIAPP_app" ||<br />         element.name == "IBIF_ex"    ||<br />         element.type == "submit") continue;<br />     var option = new Option(element.name);<br />     option.selected = true;<br />     names.options[optcnt] = option;<br />     optcnt++;<br />  } <br />}<br /></script><br /></head><br /><body><br /><form name="launchWF" action="/ibi_apps/WFServlet" method="post" onsubmit="doSubmit(this)"><br /><input type="hidden" name="IBIAPP_app" value="tests"/><br /><input type="hidden" name="IBIF_ex" value="catchparams"/><br /><input type="text" name="INPARAM" value="a value"/><br /><select name="MULTISEL" multiple size=2><br /><option value="MOPT1" selected>opt1</option><br /><option value="MOPT2" selected>opt2</option><br /><option value="MOPT3" selected>opt3</option><br /></select><br /><select name="SEL"><br /><option value="SOPT1">opt1</option><br /><option value="SOPT2">opt2</option><br /><option value="SOPT3">opt3</option><br /></select><br /><input type="submit" value="Run Report"/><br /><div style="display:none;"><br /><select name="PARAMNAMES" multiple><br /></select><br /></div><br /></form><br /></body><br /></html>

-* CATCHPARAMS: focexec, dealing with parameters.<br />-*<br />-IF &PARAMNAMES.EXISTS  EQ 0 THEN GOTO :NOPARAMS;<br />-IF &PARAMNAMES0.EXISTS NE 0 THEN GOTO :STARTLOOP;<br />-SET &PARAMNAMES0 = 1;<br />-SET &PARAMNAMES1 = &PARAMNAMES;<br />-:STARTLOOP<br />-REPEAT :OUTERLOOP FOR &CNT FROM 1 TO &PARAMNAMES0;<br />-TYPE --------------------------------------------<br />-SET &PARAMNAME = &PARAMNAMES.&CNT;<br />-SET &LINE = '-TYPE ' | &PARAMNAME | ' = &' || &PARAMNAME ;<br />&LINE.EVAL<br />-SET &LINE = '-IF &' || &PARAMNAME || '0.EXISTS EQ 0 THEN GOTO :ENDPAR;';<br />&LINE.EVAL<br />-SET &LINE = '-TYPE Number of multiple items: &' || &PARAMNAME || '0';<br />&LINE.EVAL<br />-* Handling multiple parameter value<br />-SET &MCNT = 0;<br />-SET &LINE = '-SET &' || 'MSTOP = &' || &PARAMNAME || '0;';<br />&LINE.EVAL<br />-:LOOPMULTI<br />-SET &MCNT = &MCNT + 1;<br />-IF &MCNT GT &MSTOP THEN GOTO :ENDMULTI;<br />-SET &LINE = '-TYPE ' | &PARAMNAME | ' = &' || &PARAMNAME || &MCNT;<br />&LINE.EVAL<br />-GOTO :LOOPMULTI<br />-:ENDMULTI<br />-*-----------------------------------<br />-:ENDPAR<br />-:OUTERLOOP<br />-:NOPARAMS

The idea is to add to HTML form one multiple select element, named PARAMNAMES and the doSubmit() function invoked on the onsubmit event. doSubmit function checks all the form elements, filter them and if the element is "recognized" as a parameter, its name is added to the PARAMNAMES list, so it will be passed as the CGI request (regardless if the method is POST or GET).
The FEX can handle the list of the parameter names, and then dynamically construct its own code (which makes the "real" work) using .EVAL.

Hope this helps
Grzegorz