Users are PASTING data into a form in DATASHEET mode, so many records are being entered at the same time. For a specific field called ID, I need to validate the ID against another table. In the sense that the IDs they enter should be already available in another table. Drop down box, selection is not possible.
I also need to return the values that are not VALID
What kind of SQL statment or VBA or validation rule should I use?
"In the sense that the IDs they enter should be already available in another table" - you need an event to trigger the check, so perhaps have them enter into a datasheet on a form rather than a back end table then you can use the various on-changed events, search online for them. In that event simply run a one-to-one query. To return "return the values that are not VALID" you simply need an unmatched query, again, search for info, it's widely documented.
Related
I have an Access form that I want to use to update records in a table. The table may have many instances of one serial number, but only one can be active at a time. The two fields are IsActive (Boolean) and SerialNumber (Short Text). I want to prompt the user if they try to create a new record when there is already an active record (IsActive=TRUE) for that serial number. I know I need to use a validation rule, I just have no idea of what the syntax should be.
I tried to use the Expression Builder, but couldn't find anything like my issue.
Background
Each Dataverse table contains a primary name column. When displayed in a subgrid, clicking on the primary name column will navigate to the form so that the user can edit that row. Most subgrids in my application work this way.
The Problem
I have a Course form with a list of participants displayed in a subgrid. The subgrid displays each student's name (as a link) and the grade received in the course. There is no appropriate primary name column for this Participant table. To edit the participant record, the user must select the row in the subgrid, then click the subgrid's Edit button. As a result, this UI is different from all other subgrids in the application and I know that user's will click the student name to try to edit the participant record and be confused when they are presented with the student record.
Am I missing something? Is there a better way to handle this?
It's a common problem I face quite often. Here is usually what I would do.
Make sure the Primary Name Column always contains relevant information to the user to be able to quickly identify a record. Sometimes it requires copying information from one or multiple other columns into the primary column.
In your case that would probably means concatenating the student's name and grade.
How to do that?
Common to all solutions below
Use one of the following solution to copy the content of one or several fields into the primary column.
Make sure the solution you select also updates the content of the primary name column when one of the copied field is updated.
Remove or hide the primary column from the form, the name of the record will be displayed at the top of the form anyway and you probably don't want users to play with it.
Display the primary name column in every subgrid.
I would recommend not adding the fields copied into the primary column in the subgrids to avoid confusion.
Solution 1 - Classic Workflow
Create a classic workflow that runs when a record is created / updated
Pros:
Very quick to put in place
Runs synchronously (users will see the name updated in real-time)
Cons:
Not very practical if you need to add business logic (using different fields as source depending on a certain condition for example)
Solution 2 - Power Automate
Create a Flow that runs when a record is created / updated
Pros:
You can implement complex business logic in your Flow
Cons:
Runs asynchronously (users will have to refresh the page after the creation of a record to see the record's name)
According to Power Automate licensing that flow would certainly be considered as an "enterprise flow" and you are supposed to pay 100$ / month. That specific point must be taken with a grain of salt. I had several discussions with Microsoft about it and they haven't given me a clear answer about what would be considered an enterprise flow.
Solution 3 - Plugin
Create a plugin that executes when a record is created / updated
Pros:
You can implement very complex business logic in your Flow
It can run synchronously
Cons:
Pro-code (I put it as a con since Model-Driven App is a low-code / no-code approach but there is nothing wrong about pro-code per say)
Developing a new plugin for each entity where you need this logic is kind of overkill in my opinion. I would consider developing something very generic that would only require some sort of configuration when the logic needs to be applied to a new table.
I have been working on a project. I always followed this idea. Don't send all the data in one call.
Here is an example,
Suppose there is an API to return all the list of students that can be added to test they need to finish.
So, on UI side every student have one button "add" which will show a pop up if the student is already assigned to take the test. Or it will show a pop up he has already finished the test.
I could join many table and send all the data in one api call while fetchig students. Or
I could send the send the students and then on "add" there is another API to make sure the above mentioned conditioned met.
Which approach is better?
Because If I send all the data in one api call, there might be only few students be assigned the test.
Checking if a student is already assigned or not should happen in the backend, not frontend, and also atomically so as to prevent duplicates - either using a database transaction or a unique constraint.
When the Add button is clicked then in any case a backend call will need to be made (to perform the actual Add). If the add failed, the backend can interpret the "unique constraint violation" database error and return a "student is already assigned" message.
For the rest of the question, the rule is simply: don't fetch more data than is required by the UI.
If the Add button is always shown regardless of whether or not the student is already added, there is no need to retrieve this information beforehand.
But it might be useful to give a visual indication of which students are already added, in that case obviously there's no choice but to retrieve and return this information to the UI.
Fortunately GraphQL is precisely the tool for this job - it makes it possible for the UI to request exactly what information is needed for a given page, without having to code each and every possible query by hand.
There is custom field "Lock Flag" in Account BC, namely in S_ORG_EXT_X table. This field is made available in Opportunity BC using join to above table. The join specification is as follows: Opportunity.Account Id = Account.Id. Account Id is always populated when creating new opportunity. The requirement is that for newly created records in Opportunity BC if "Lock Flag" is equal to 'Y', then we should not allow to create the record and we should show custom error message.
My initial proposal was to use a Runtime Event that is calling Data Validation Manager business service where validation rule is evaluated and error message shown. Assuming that we have to decide whether to write record or not, the logic should be placed in PreWriteRecord event handler as long as WriteRecord have row already commited to database.
The main problem was how to determine if it is new record or updated one. We have WriteRecordNew and WriteRecordUpdated runtime events but they are fired after record is actually written so it doesn't prevent user from saving record. My next approach was to use eScript: write custom code in BusComp_PreWriteRecord server script and call BC's method IsNewRecordPending to determine if it is new record, then check the flag and show error message if needed.
But unfortunately I am faced with another problem. That joined field "Lock Flag" is not populated for newly created opportunity records. Remember we are talking about BC Opportunity and field is placed in S_ORG_EXT_X table. When we create new opportunity we pick account that it belongs to. So it reproduceable: OpportunityBC.GetFieldValue("Lock Flag") returns null for newly created record and returns correct value for the records that was saved previously. For newly created opportunities we have to re-query BC to see "Lock Flag" populated. I have found several documents including Oracle's recomendation to use PreDefaultValue property if we want to display joined field value immediately after record creation. The most suitable expression that I've found was Parent: BCName.FieldName but it is not the case, because active BO is Opportunity and Opportunity BC is the primary one.
Thanks for your patience if you read up to here and finally come my questions:
Is there any way to handle PreWrite event and determine if it is new record or not, without using eScript and BC.IsNewRecordPending method?
How to get value of joined field for newly created record especially in PreWriteRecord event handler?
It is Siebel 8.1
UPDATE: I have found an answer for the first part of my question. Now it seems so simple to me that I am wondering how I haven't done it initially. Here is the solution.
Create Runtime Event triggered on PreWriteRecord. Specify call to Data Validation Manager business service.
In DVM create a ruleset and a rule where condition is
NOT(BCHasRows("Opportunity", "Opportunity", "[Id]='"+[Id]+"'", "AllView"))
That's it. We are searching for record wth the same Row Id. If it is new record there should't be anything in database yet (remember that we are in PreWriteRecord handler) and function returns FALSE. If we are updating some row then we get TRUE. Reversing result with NOT we make DVM raise an error for new records.
As for second part of my question credits goes to #RanjithR who proposed to use PickMap to populate joined field (see below). I have checked that method and it works fine at least when you have appropriate PickMap.
We Siebel developers have used scripting to correctly determine if record is new. One non scripting way you could try is to use RuntimeEvents to set a profileattribute during the BusComp NewRecord event, then check that in the PreWrite event to see if the record is new. However, there is always a chance that user might undo a record, those scenarios are tricky.
Another option, try invokine the BC Method:IsNewRecordPending from RunTime event. I havent tried this.
For the second part of the query, I think you could easily solve your problem using a PickMap.
On Opportunity BC, when your pick Account, just add one more pickmap to pick the Locked flag from Account and set it to the corresponding field on Opportunity BC. When the user picks the Account, he will also pick the lock flag, and your script will work in PreWriteRecord.
May I suggest another solution, again, I haven't tried it.
When new records are created, the field ModificationNumber will be set to 0. Every time you modify it, the ModificationNumber will increment by 1.
Set a DataValidationManager ruleset, trigger it from PreSetFieldValue event of Account field on Opportunity BC. Check for the LockFlag = Y AND (ModificationNumber IS NULL OR ModificationNumber = 0)) and throw error. DVM should throw error when new records are created.
Again, best practices say don't use the ModNumbers. You could set a ProfileAttribute to signal NewRecord, then use that attribute in the DVM. But please remember to clear the value of ProfileAttribute in WriteRecord and UndoRecord.
Let us know how it went !
I'm trying to build a FileMaker Pro 11 layout that excludes records containing a certain value. The relevant data is in table Invoice. I want to filter so that Invoice records whose "Invoice Check Grouping" field is blank are not displayed on the layout.
I've added a global field to the invoice table called "Blank Invoice Check Grouping" to use as my filter criteria. I've created a self-join relationship to the Invoice table, joining "Invoice ID" to "Invoice ID" and joining "Invoice Check Grouping" to "Blank Invoice Check Grouping". The resulting table is named "Invoice Check Groupings".
The layout which I build based on table "Invoice Check Groupings" shows all records in Invoice--it does not filter out those with blank values. What am I doing incorrectly?
Thanks,
Ben
Layouts show records in a table (or more accurately, a table occurrence) and don't directly deal with related data. As mentioned by #pft221, you can use relationships for filtering, but only when viewing data through a portal.
If you always want a particular layout to show data based on a particular find, you can do so with a script and a script trigger. First set up a script to do the following:
Enter Find Mode[]
Set Field["Invoice Check Grouping"; "*" // Find all records with any data in this field
Perform Find[]
Note that you can also embed the find request within the Perform Find script step, but I tend to script finds in the above manner as it's easier to see what the find request is in the script and variables can be used in the find request.
Now you need to set your layout to execute this script whenever it's loaded. Go to the layout and enter Layout Mode. Select Layouts>Layout Setup from the menu bar. Click the Script Triggers tab and check the box for OnLayoutEnter and select the script you wrote above. Now whenever the layout is entered, that script will run and exclude the records that have that particular field being empty.
There are many ways to filter records, depending on what you are trying to do and what you are trying to display for your users.
The most common and simple way you can filter records is through a simple Find in a list view. I'm unclear from your question, but my best guess is that you're already using a list view and misunderstanding how FileMaker's relationships and Table Occurrences (TO's) work.
To Filter with the "Find Records" method:
Create a new List View layout of any Table Occurrence of your Invoice Table -- most likely you will want to use the default Table Occurrence that FileMaker created for you when you created the table.
Place the fields that you would like to display on that layout, including the "Invoice Check Grouping" field.
Switch into Find Mode
Put a '*' character into the "Invoice Check Grouping" field
Perform the Find
You should now see a list of all Invoices where the "Invoice Check Grouping" field is not blank. (You can find additional interesting search criteria in the "Insert: Operators" drop down of the title bar.)
Now you may actually be looking to filter related records through a portal but, given that you've set up a self-join on the Invoice index on the Invoice table my guess is that, at best, this would show either 0 or 1 record for each Invoice record you display in your main layout.
To Filter Records with the "Portal Filter" method:
Let's assume, though, that you have a Client table where you'd like to see only the records with a non-blank "Invoice Check Grouping" value. The table set-up would be as follows:
Client
Client ID
[... other client info ...]
Invoice
Invoice ID
Client ID
Invoice Check Grouping
[... other invoice info ...]
With a relationship in the relationships graph:
Client::Client ID ------< Invoice::Client ID
From there you would set up a Form layout on the Client TO and create a portal showing records from the Invoice TO. From the options for the portal you would select "Filter Portal Records" and use a formula similar to:
not IsEmpty(Invoice::Invoice Check Grouping)
Finally, it's worth noting that a portal filter isn't appropriate for all display situations or calculations. You can set up a similar filter completely through your relationships graph (as I believe you have already tried to do.) This will work, once again, for viewing records through a portal but not for the records displayed by a layout itself.
The answers above don't actually help Ben with his question. They are workarounds.
I have the same problem as Ben, and I don't think there is a solution, even now in Filemaker 12. There is I think no way to define a relationship that will omit the related records where the match fields are empty.
Two options come to mind:
On a specific layout, you have more fine-grained control in the portal definition itself, and can use this to exclude the records
You can now use SQL queries to achieve this result within Filemkaer.