Field Rules Honored During Xbasic Data Entry

Description

When you do data entry using Xbasic, only a limited number of Field Rules (so called 'engine level' Field Rules) are honored. Rules for calculated fields and auto-increment fields are honored, but rules such as capitalization, validation, posting, cross-file validation, etc. are not honored. These Field Rules are only honored when you do data entry interactively, using a Form or Browse layout.

.enter_record(), .change_record() and .delete_record() Methods

Three methods, <Tbl>.change_record(), <Tbl>.enter_record() and <Tbl>.delete_record() allow you to enter/edit/delete records using Xbasic, while still honoring Field Rules. These methods can be used instead of the older <Tbl>.enter_begin() and <Tbl>.change_begin() methods. The example below shows an Interactive Window session (assume that the table has defined Field Rules that specify that Lastname is required, and that the Company can't be 'alpha'):

t = table.open("customer")
'DIM a dot variable with properties that match the fieldnames you want to enter
dim r as p
r.firstname = ""
r.company = "alpha"
 
DIM v as p
v = t.enter_record(r)
?v.has_errors
= .T.
?v.error.size()
= 2

?v.Format("$(field) = $(error)"+crlf())
= CUSTOMER1->COMPANY = company can't be alpha
CUSTOMER1->LASTNAME = Field is required: LASTNAME

Notice from the above example that the .enter_record() method returns a dot variable that contains information about any Field Rule violations that occured. Similarly, the example below shows how to use the .change_record() method:

'DIM a dot variable with properties that match the fieldnames you want to change
dim r as p
r.firstname = ""
r.company = "alpha"
v = t.change_record(r)
?v.has_errors
= .T.
?v.error.size()
= 2

?v.Format("$(field) = $(error)"+crlf())
= CUSTOMER1->COMPANY = company can't be alpha
CUSTOMER1->LASTNAME = Field is required: LASTNAME

As the examples show, a dot variable is created with properties for all of the fields that you want to enter/change. In the above examples, we enter or change the 'firstname' and 'company' fields in the customer table. Once the dot variable has been created, the <Tbl>.enter_record() or <Tbl>.change_record() method is called. These methods take as their argument the dot variable with the field values.

The methods return a dot variable. The dot variable has an 'has_errors' property which lets you know if the method succeeded or not. If not, then the errors are returned in an array called 'errors' which is a sub-property of the dot variable. The dot variable that is returned by the .change_record() or .enter_record() method is actually an object (the 'validation' object), and it has a .Format() method, which allows you to format the error message into a friendly text or html format ready for display to the user. The format() method can use these placeholders:

$(field)

Placeholder for the fieldname for which the error occurred

$(error)

Placeholder for the plain-text error message

$(errorhtml)

Placeholder for the HTML formatted error message

In the above examples, you can see that we call the .Format() method with this argument:

"$(field) = $(error)"+crlf()

The crlf() is necessary because the .Format() method does not put in line breaks between each message. The string "$(field) = $(error)" contains two placeholders which get replaced by each field for which an error occurred and by the corresponding error message.

Validating Data Before Committing It

In the above examples, the validation occurred at the time we actually tried to enter the record, or save the changes. However, the <Tbl> object also has a new .validate_record() method that allows you to validate the record against the Field Rules when you are using the older <Tbl>.enter_records() and <Tbl>.change_records() methods.

<Tbl>.validate_record() returns a default formatted error string if there are any errors. You can pass in an optional format string to the .validate_record() method to control the formatting of the error message. The syntax for the format string is the same as the .Format() method of the validation object, described above. Example (assuming the same field rules are defined as in the above example)

DIM t as p
t = table.open("customer")
t.enter_begin()
t.company = "XYZ Compay"
?t.validate_record()
<tr><td>customer->LASTNAME</td><td>Field is required: LASTNAME</td></tr>

Notice that if you do not pass in a format string to the .validate_record() method, it returns an HTML table with the error messages.

Posting Rules Now Honored During Xbasic Data Entry

The following Interactive Window session (for AlphaSports) shows that Posting Field rules are honored when data entry is performed using Xbasic; rather than only being honored when doing edits using the user interface.

pt = table.open("product")
? pt.PRODUCT_ID
= "P001 "
? pt.QTY_IN_STO
= 140

pi = table.open("invoice_items")
pi.enter_begin(.t.)
pi.INVOICE_NUMBER = "1001"
pi.PRODUCT_ID = pt.PRODUCT_ID
pi.QUANTITY = 10
pi.enter_end(.t.)

? pt.QTY_IN_STO
= 130

pt.close()
pi.close()