Hi all.

We're reinstalling webfocus on another windows client.

Not quiet a smooth ride but we're getting there.

Just one thing we can't see/find/fix. I hope someone here recognized it.

When we have an HTML-page with input parameters. Some of them may be left empty. ( the fex know what to do with that... ).

In the old situation, everything worked fine.'
In the new situation, after the html the 'auto amper-prompt' pops up !?!

We've checked the prompt settings ( 'the regular' and the 'mre' one ).

Any clues?!?!?

Greets, Dave

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dave,

Are the DEFAULTS still in the fexes? have you tried simply "re-linking" the HTML's to the fexes?

J,

There are no defaults.
( we don't need/use them... )

usually we do it like this:

-SET &WHERE_CUSTOMER_ID = IF &CUSTOMER_ID EQ '' OR ' ' THEN '' ELSE 'WHERE CUSTOMER_ID EQ ' |  CUSTOMER_ID;

remember, it does work on the current environment.

Yes, I've relinked it... ...and even made a complete new fex & html on the new server.

same problem.



...wasn't that -default stuff an issue with upgrade to WF8? ( which we're planning too ).
I vaguely remember now there might be an hotfix difference between the current and the new server.

I don't know why it was working before for you, but for me the autoprompt still shows up if you give the user the no selection option but don't use default.

Maybe "In the new situation" the handling of blank values has changed, and your blank parameters are no longer included in the call.

As I understand it, the autoprompt comes up after the UI calls the fex. The Lord High Executioner prescans the fex, and compares the set of passed parameters with the list of uninitialized &vars referenced in the fex. If any referenced &vars that are not previously assigned a value (by -SET or -DEFAULT/DEFAULTH) in the fex, are not received as parameters, they go into the autoprompt list. If the autoprompt list is populated, EDA presents an autoprompt page, rigged beneath the sheets so that it will pass the original request PLUS any new parameters supplied via autoprompt.


If your UI page unfailingly passes the parameter (whether blank or otherwise), then

-DEFAULT &CUSTOMER_ID = '';

(or -DEFAULTH) is harmless.

On the other hand, if the parameter is omitted when its value is blank, the -DEFAULT is appropriate and will save the day.

I would compare the settings in the Admin Console of both environments:

Configuration > Parameter Prompting > ibif_wfdescribe

and

Configuration > Client Settings > Managed Reporting > IBIMR_prompting

Verify that these two options are set to the same value in both environments.

quote:

And what I don't understand. If a parameter is passed from the HTML to the fex, even left empty, it STILL exists. Being an empty string ''.

The mapping of parameter phrases in the url ("...&alpha=FOO&beta=&gamma=BAR") to Focus &vars does not happen by itself, it's the responsibility* of the "CGI" piece in the "client" -- so how it reacts to an empty parameter (&beta=&) -- whether or not it sets &beta=''; -- might be inconsistent. Shouldn't be, but ....

*and it's not precisely one-for-one. For instance, generates "indexed" vars when it encounters duplicate parm names ( mapping P=abc&P=def to &P1='abc'; &P2='def'; &P0=2; ) and it treats some parameters as execution directives rather than application data

This message has been edited. Last edited by: j.gross,

@Jack

Thanks for the extra info...
...although I should have known it's passed by URL from the HTML (doh!) it didn't pop to the top of my mind...

my mind might need new indexes?

Hi Dave

I heard that when you have the message viewer on (selected) on the run button in DevStudio and you have autoprompt setting on this may occur. Something to check - hit the down arrow on the run button in DevStudio and select "Message Viewer OFF".

Hope that helps!!! Barry

If you turn autoprompting off, and place

-? &
-EXIT

at top of the fex you'll know for sure what it's receiving

(or, without touching configuration, change the fex to contain just those two lines)

Good tip BarryS...

...but IBI ( .NL ) found it.

It is ( as expected ) hotfix 5 !

We now use a .js file from the old version which does the trick.

Of course totally undesirable to mix files (7702B & 7702D), but for now it works.

Issue is forwarded from .nl to .com / .us



...so. Not solved. Just a workaround.

Did IBL/NL identify the nature of the failure in pre-HF5 JavaScript files? Have they delineated the circumstance that results in the unwarranted autoprompting?

AFAIK, the decision whether to issue an autoprompt screen occurs on the server, so how does JavaScript (executed in the browser) come into play?

@Jack

I don't know the details. Our admin had contact. All I know they said to replace a .js with the same one from the 'other' server with the previous version.

Might be something the HTML page does with 'empty' parameters. ( on the user browser ).

Greets,Dave

The javascript interprets the IBI xml stuff at the bottom of the launch page and is for a large part responsible of what gets sent from the launch page to the server. For example, this might well have to do with the introduction (and default to) the _FOC_NULL value.

hi Wep,

Yes, I read something being available in the 'new html composer' being a document properties "filters".

Could me related...
...although _FOC_NULL has been around for some time now ( perhaps not officially, but it work fine, better than _FOC_NONE ;-) )

Greets,Dave

Hi all...

We're migrating from to WF8 and now the same issue appears again.

Still no solution from IBI.

Stated workaround actually works but is VERY creepy : replacing WF8 .js files with WF7 versions is NOT what you want to do.

Anybody any news?

Hi Dave

Open a Tech Support case and ask for Barry. We can have a remote and will look at the issue with you.

Thanks Barry

Is your autoprompting set to the default XMLPROMPT (which prompts even when there is a -DEFAULT, apparently) or to the less intrusive XMLRUN?

Wep,

it's a XMLRUN ( we've tried all sorts ).

...and we don't use -DEFAULT

Which was fine in 7702B and with the above fix also in 7702D.


We do stuff like this:

-SET &DYN_WHERE = IF &UI_FILTER EQ '' OR ' ' THEN '' ELSE 'WHERE SEATS EQ ' | &UI_FILTER;

TABLE FILE CAR
   SUM SALES
   BY  CAR
&DYN_WHERE
END

We did it this way so the user may leave unused filters ( inputboxes ) empty.

....and yes, we know all kind of workarounds. It's just that a big part of our fexi are designed this way. It would be a **** of a job to rewrite all the code just because WF8 doesn't support something that was fine in WF7.

And it isn't even code-thightning. ( I'm logging those to help all you guys planning to migrate to WF8 ;-) )

Greets,dave



update: 100 points for the one who knows which, obviously unbelievable rude word, I used that was automatically replace with ****

Hello there. Do I get 100 points?

Hi Dave,
It is a colossal pain. It is code-tightening, and, IBI now prompts for any variables, as well as, those that are generated via the form, i.e., check the box to Send Display Value to use in a Parameter sheet for Excel output,
9 out of 10 times, the autoprompter would pop-up with NO variables to enter, so, we had to search and guess why. Because of this, it's taken over a year to convert from WF7 self-serve to WF8 Content/MRE...

Thank's for letting me vent, it's been a long year...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tom Flynn,

It's interesting that I have not seen this behaviour at all. I have never seen the WF 8.0.08 auto-prompt page.

We initially went to 8.04, then 05, now we are on 07 and waiting for 8.1. Convinced the client not to upgrade any further until things got sorted out.
Sounds like IBI may have relaxed the ampere variable issues with 08 and up, but, really don't know...

BTW, if you have InfoAssist, must have the setting set to XMLRUN, we had it OFF in self-serve.
Our fix was to use -DEFAULTS, then change the ones that are not on the form to -DEFAULTH

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tom Flynn,