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Focal Point Forums WebFOCUS/FOCUS Forum on Focal Point DEFAULTing an &VAR with another &VAR.. cool trick
Focal Point Forums WebFOCUS/FOCUS Forum on Focal Point DEFAULTing an &VAR with another &VAR.. cool trick Read-Only TopicGo | Search | Notify | Tools |
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| Expert |
at Summit, i learned this -DEFAULT &STARTDAY = &YYMD.EVAL ; -TYPE &STARTDAY sometime back, one of us had wanted to initialize a startdate with a variable value like a system date, and then allow the launch page to override it. And I learned how to do this at dinner at Summit from the FocWizard himself. Its just the .EVAL that makes it work! So simple, but who knew?
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| Virtuoso |
O Sussanah.... that was me who asked this and I knew the .eval but the thing is I still want the prompt to appear with that calculted day, so the enduser can overwrite that value, I'm afraid that does not work. it needs some javascripting...
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| Expert |
rats. well, lets see if Focwizard has his ears on...and see what he can do for us... I've got it working fine from a ss launch page...not autoprompt, tho .. hmmm.This message has been edited. Last edited by: susannah,
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| Member |
Unfortunately, that's a problem with how AutoPrompting is done. It only does a SCAN of the lines, NOT an execution, looking for amper variables which have not been initialized. Since a '.EVAL' function would require execution, it's not done. This is the same reason, if you code: -INCLUDE &FILE the contents of '&FILE' can NOT be scanned, as the value of &FILE is only known at execution time. The closest I can get to doing what you want, is to set a -DEFAULT for the variables you want, with the values you want, PRIOR to execution (perhaps created by a batch job each night). For example, if I want 'STARTDATE' to default to a value of YESTERDAY, I can run a batch job, which creates a FEX (I'll call it DEF_STARTDATE), which looks like: -DEFAULT &STARTDATE= whatever ; Where 'whatever' has the VALUE needed. If run on 07/06/25, and you need it to have the prior days' date, it would say: -DEFAULT &STARTDATE = 070624; Then, any procedure which NEEDS this default, could code: -INCLUDE DEF_STARTDATE since we CAN look at 'real' included files. | |||
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| Expert |
What about something like this: - filedef a temp fex file - write into the fex file - include the fex file SET DEFCENT = '20'; FILEDEF DEFAULT1 DISK DEFAULT.FEX -RUN -WRITE DEFAULT1 -DEFAULT &|DATE1='&MDY.EVAL' -INCLUDE DEFAULT1 TABLE FILE GGORDER PRINT * WHERE ORDER_DATE LE '&DATE1' END 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 | |||
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| Expert |
so,Francis, can the user override the &DATE1 from a launch page or from a prompt? (i'm prompt-impaired in devstu, at the moment).
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| Expert |
My guess is Yes, because the -DEFAULT line that's generated by the -WRITE and -INCLUDE is a normal one, with no .EVAL in it. 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 | |||
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| Virtuoso |
The point about autoprompt, as FocWizard said, is that there is only a scan of the code prior to the autoprompt generation. The code is not run, ergo a -WRITE or FILEDEF etc cannot be completed before the autoprompt kicks in. What will happen in this case is that the user would enter a value and then the -WRITE and -INCLUDE kick in when the code does run, after the autoprompt. The only way is to have a pre-existing file to -INCLUDE. Then the user will get a value displayed that can be overridden by the user. Alan. WF 7.705/8.007 | |||
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| Expert |
Understood. But why would the pre-existing -INCLUDE execute before the auto-prompt? And what, really, is the use of auto-prompt? Most of the users I have worked with would be bewildered if they get a screen of the type that auto-prompt generates. Wouldn't it be nicer to develop an HTML page that collects the required user input? 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 | |||
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| Virtuoso |
The pre-existing -INCLUDE is brought in as its content is part of the host process, and may effect what the autoprompt needs to generate. And whilst I agree that an HTML page is superior, the number of posts that it generates tells us that many find it useful. Alan. WF 7.705/8.007 | |||
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| Expert |
Alan is absolutely correct in that the HTML page is superior (or preferable for some) over the auto-prompt screen. That said, my current Client's user base is very used to the auto-prompt screen (and in fact loves it?) but there are occasions when the need to chain some inputs is required. So what I have done is mimiced the auto-prompt screen with a combination of base page with a frameset and a parm screen so that the chaining can be achieved without too huge a change to the experience - we all know that Users hate change!! There is even the option to run in new window, blat the output frame of a report, or refresh the page. The end users know little difference but they moved over to it easily. T
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| Virtuoso |
Back to the original question, how to set a date as a default value for automprompt. Taking another slight step on the techniques that FocWizard and Francis have come up with, a method by which you can now calculate a date (or other values) and have it displayed as a default in autoprompt, without having to run to batch type approach, though it is a bit of overkill. In the server edasprof (ibi\srvnn\wfs\etc\edasprof.prf), add FILEDEF DEFAULT1 DISK DEFAULT.FEX -RUN -WRITE DEFAULT1 -DEFAULT &|DATE1='&MDY' -*You can also do date calculations here as well. In your focexec -INCLUDE DEFAULT1 . . WHERE dateField EQ '&DATE1'; . . (Thanks to Francis and FocWizard) Alan. WF 7.705/8.007 | |||
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| Expert |
A good solution Alan, that I hope to never have to use, since I hope I'm never asked to use auto-prompting! Cheers. 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 | |||
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| Virtuoso |
I like that solution Alan, especially if I can calculate the actual and previous month and write more than one versions of the default fex. this can be done unattended and daily (monthly) I would put those fexes in my baseapp.
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