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Dev Studio HTML Composer - Difference between 768 and 7611 makes me feel like a fool

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January 24, 2011, 10:45 AM
Francis Mariani
Dev Studio HTML Composer - Difference between 768 and 7611 makes me feel like a fool
After just about getting the hang of HTML Composer in 7.6.8, I'm poking around in 7.6.11 and I cannot get the simplest form to work.

I created a fex that reads the CAR file, with one parameter COUNTRY.

I created an HTML page and added a form. The submit button points to the fex. The parameter was added as a drop-down list-box. I then configure this list-box to be dynamic, with an embedded procedure reading the car master, with CAR.ORIGIN.COUNTRY as the value and disply fields.

I run the HTML form - nothing in the COUNTRY drop-down list box, not even the ALL option.

I am confused. The Parameters tab has moved from the right side of Dev Studio to the left side, and there's icons that represent parameters and controls. This is new. "combobox1" is connected to parameter "COUNTRY" via an arrow. So, what's wrong?


Francis


Give me code, or give me retirement. In FOCUS since 1991

Production: WF 7.7.05M, Dev Studio, BID, MRE, WebSphere, DB2 / Test: WF 8.1.05M, App Studio, BI Portal, Report Caster, jQuery, HighCharts, Apache Tomcat, MS SQL Server
January 24, 2011, 11:17 AM
Wep5622
Is your server also running 7.6.11? In my experience it won't work if that's still 7.6.8. I think a 7.6.8 server is missing the "something" (1) that accepts the new type of request (2), or it can't parse the new and extended xml message being send to it.

We migrated between those very same versions, it took us a while to get the hang of all the changes.
That said, I find the new approach easier to use, but I haven't used the 7.6.8 approach much. It takes a bit to get the hang of, but now you have a choice between two approaches where you didn't before. Choice is good Smiler

As a piece of advice, don't blindly change every form that uses !IBI.FIL into one that takes advantage of the new embedded procedures. Both approaches have advantages over each other, it depends on the circumstances which is best.
For example, if you're going to perform the same query for several form input elements, then embedded procedures aren't as efficient as !IBI.FIL substitutions. Usually the performance is adequate enough that it doesn't matter, but in those cases it isn't...


Ad. 1: Does it use SOAP?
Ad. 2: It's AJAX - asynchronous javascript and xml, but it it's used synchronously. I suspect this is because the folks implementing it chose to be a bit conventional to reduce the risk that some browsers wouldn't pick it up very well. Of course, one particular browser is sufficiently non-complient to any standards that that choice doesn't matter... If you use anything recent you should be ok (FF3+, IE7+, etc).


WebFOCUS 8.1.03, Windows 7-64/2008-64, IBM DB2/400, Oracle 11g & RDB, MS SQL-Server 2005, SAP, PostgreSQL 11, Output: HTML, PDF, Excel 2010
: Member of User Group Benelux :
January 24, 2011, 11:40 AM
Francis Mariani
Wep5622, thanks very much for your tips.

These two environments are different - I'm using Dev Studio 7.6.8 on server 7.6.8 and DS 7.6.11 on server 7.6.11 so I don't know why I have the problem. I switched to an external procedure with no luck...

Unfortunately, choice is NOT good Mad, because, as far as I know, opening and saving an HTML file in 7.6.11 renders it incapable of being opened in the GUI of a prior release.


Francis


Give me code, or give me retirement. In FOCUS since 1991

Production: WF 7.7.05M, Dev Studio, BID, MRE, WebSphere, DB2 / Test: WF 8.1.05M, App Studio, BI Portal, Report Caster, jQuery, HighCharts, Apache Tomcat, MS SQL Server
January 24, 2011, 01:22 PM
GinnyJakes
Is ibisamp in the path?


Ginny
---------------------------------
Prod: WF 7.7.01 Dev: WF 7.6.9-11
Admin, MRE,self-service; adapters: Teradata, DB2, Oracle, SQL Server, Essbase, ESRI, FlexEnable, Google
January 24, 2011, 01:30 PM
Francis Mariani
Yes, I can run the external procedure on its own - it generates the XML file.

This is all in MRE, if that makes a difference.


Francis


Give me code, or give me retirement. In FOCUS since 1991

Production: WF 7.7.05M, Dev Studio, BID, MRE, WebSphere, DB2 / Test: WF 8.1.05M, App Studio, BI Portal, Report Caster, jQuery, HighCharts, Apache Tomcat, MS SQL Server
January 25, 2011, 01:18 PM
ABT
quote:
as far as I know, opening and saving an HTML file in 7.6.11 renders it incapable of being opened in the GUI of a prior release.


You are not crazy, this is true.

- ABT

P.S. Let me know when you discover the Calendar Control bug. That's a fun one...


------------------------------------
WF Environment:
------------------------------------
Server/Client, ReportCaster, Dev Studio: 7.6.11
Resource Analyzer, Resource Governor, Library, Maintain, InfoAssist
OS: Windows Server 2003
Application/Web Server: Tomcat 5.5.25
Java: JDK 1.6.0_03
Authentication: LDAP, MRREALM Driver
Output: PDF, EXL2K, HTM

------------------------------------
Databases:
------------------------------------
Oracle 10g
DB2 (AS/400)
MSSQL Server 2005
Access/FoxPro
January 25, 2011, 01:26 PM
Francis Mariani
I have one Calendar Control bug in v7.6.8: I have turned NLS on and login to B.I. Dashboard selecting French as language. I have a Calendar Control that shows English month names even if French was selected - I made sure that the language variable IBIWF_language value is 'fr' so it seems there is a bug here. I guess I haven't found the one you did!


Francis


Give me code, or give me retirement. In FOCUS since 1991

Production: WF 7.7.05M, Dev Studio, BID, MRE, WebSphere, DB2 / Test: WF 8.1.05M, App Studio, BI Portal, Report Caster, jQuery, HighCharts, Apache Tomcat, MS SQL Server
January 26, 2011, 05:43 AM
Wep5622
I don't suppose you mean the bug where the calendar icon disappears from the control after you deploy the project? Or do you mean the bug where different methods of entering the date (by typing versus by selecting it from the calendar popup widget) results in differently formatted input dates in your fex? Or yet another one?

We have code like this in our fexes to work around some of the problems:
-SET &DATEFROM = IF &DATEFROM LIKE '__/__/____'
-	THEN EDIT(&DATEFROM ,'$$$$$$9999')||EDIT(&DATEFROM,'$$$99')||EDIT(&DATEFROM,'99')
-	ELSE EDIT(&DATEFROM ,'$$$$9999')||EDIT(&DATEFROM,'$$99')||EDIT(&DATEFROM,'99');



WebFOCUS 8.1.03, Windows 7-64/2008-64, IBM DB2/400, Oracle 11g & RDB, MS SQL-Server 2005, SAP, PostgreSQL 11, Output: HTML, PDF, Excel 2010
: Member of User Group Benelux :
January 26, 2011, 09:59 AM
Francis Mariani
I just don't understand how people successfully develop using the HTML Composer when you have to code to compensate for the bugs - why bother using the GUI at all?


Francis


Give me code, or give me retirement. In FOCUS since 1991

Production: WF 7.7.05M, Dev Studio, BID, MRE, WebSphere, DB2 / Test: WF 8.1.05M, App Studio, BI Portal, Report Caster, jQuery, HighCharts, Apache Tomcat, MS SQL Server
January 26, 2011, 06:18 PM
Hua
Aren't we glad to have people like you always at the front line, tirelessly beating the bugs out of our teritories...but,
They're our best friends! They are royal and accountable no matter what we do, we upgrade, upgrade, buy bigger powerful hw, change platforms, change companies, move to another continent, and they are still right beside us. In fact, we are the benefitiaries of their existence - job security!
Have a happy foolish day Big Grin

Hua


Developer Studio 7.6.11
AS400 - V5R4
HTML,PDF,XLS
February 03, 2011, 11:49 AM
Dan Pinault
quote:
Originally posted by Francis Mariani:
I just don't understand how people successfully develop using the HTML Composer when you have to code to compensate for the bugs - why bother using the GUI at all?


I share your frustration Francis! Unfortunately I do not have the skill set to develop launch pages in the text editor. I sure do spend a lot of time fixing things that the GUI breaks. There are times when the simple act of opening a page in the GUI causes stuff to break. I've even resorted to making a copy of my page, opening the copy in the composer, making the changes I want, and then using WinMerge to compare the new file to the original so I can see where things were changed that I didn't want changed.

I sure wish there was a way I could build my pages in a 'real' HTML editor and then add the WebFOCUS bits after the fact but I haven't found a way to make that work. Importing existing HTML code into the page doesn't work very well.

With regard to your 7.6.11 issues - we abandoned 7.6.11 all together and are going to skip over it in our upgrade path. It just broke too many things and didn't offer enough by way of new functionality to justify the time it would take to make the necessary repairs.

Regards,

Dan


7.7.05M/7.7.03 HF6 on Windows Server 2003 SP2 output to whatever is required.
February 03, 2011, 12:03 PM
Francis Mariani
quote:
I've even resorted to making a copy of my page, opening the copy in the composer, making the changes I want, and then using WinMerge to compare the new file to the original so I can see where things were changed that I didn't want changed.
- Exactly what I do.

quote:
we abandoned 7.6.11 all together and are going to skip over it in our upgrade path. It just broke too many things and didn't offer enough by way of new functionality to justify the time it would take to make the necessary repairs.
- Ouch! This is the version we're upgrading to, there's now way I can sell the powers-that-be to upgrade to 7.7.02 - sounds too scary to them.


Francis


Give me code, or give me retirement. In FOCUS since 1991

Production: WF 7.7.05M, Dev Studio, BID, MRE, WebSphere, DB2 / Test: WF 8.1.05M, App Studio, BI Portal, Report Caster, jQuery, HighCharts, Apache Tomcat, MS SQL Server