How can I load a combo box with data from a single field ?

Jaymer

Assume a simple text field: North,South are the allowable options.

I don’t want to do a Reference table and always have the system joining to that table.
I don’t want to hardcode in the ‘Choices’ in the config tool.
I don’t want to create a Table, a Grid, a Menu Item just for someone to enter 2 records into a table that will RARELY change.

What I DO WANT TO DO is have a field in SystemSettings that contains the string (or similar):
[North,South]

And the in the Attributes, I set this to Dynamic Choices to point to the 1 record and the Field that contains my string.

If a user wants to change the allowable choices, they just edit this simple string on a form.

So is there a way to set the choices of a combo box with values in a string?

nhofkes

Jaymer Would be nice to have this feature. As far as I know, this can’t be done within standard AwareIM at the moment. But I think you could achieve it with a custom init script for the form that displays the combo box.

Having said that, I am not sure whether it makes a big difference whether to read the SystemSettings table or a separate table with just 2 records. In both cases the Aware server must make a request to the database. Except that the SystemSettings will load faster as it is more regularly used, so probably cached by the database server. But you may have other considerations than this.

If I have a bit of time, I’ll see if I can create something with Javascript.

nhofkes

Hi Jaymer, it wasn’t as easy as I hoped it would be, but I managed to get this working.

What AwareIM calls a Combo-box can actually be a Kendo DropDownList or a Kendo ComboBox, depending on whether the string can be edited by the user. My assumption is that you want a dropdown list, meaning that the user can only select one of the allowable values and not anything else. Here are the steps to achieve this:

Start by creating the field that holds the string with the allowable options, for example in SystemSettings. In the code example below, I used a field named “ComboBoxSource” in SystemSettings. This can be a plain text field of sufficient length to hold all allowable values, separated by comma’s.
Create the field through which the selection is made, in the BO where you want to use it. For example, if you have a database of sales representatives and you want to indicate whether he is working in the north or south, the field would be added in the BO of the sales rep. In the code example below, I use the attribute name “ComboBoxSelector” for this field. It is a text field but it must have pre-defined choices, for example one, two, three - see the screenshot below. Don’t worry, these choices will not actually be used but they are needed to have AwareIM use the correct setup for the Kendo Combobox widget. In this example I inserted three choices, but one would in fact be sufficient. Make sure to tick “Other values are allowed”. Leave the other two options unticked.

Put the ComboBoxSelector field on the form for the relevant BO.
Optional: put the following code in the init script for that field - this removes the clear button from the combobox.

config.config.clearButton = false;

Put the following code in the render script for the form that holds this field (not the render script of the field itself). This script sets the choices for the ComboBox field through the AwareIM field’s “choicesChanged()” method. Make sure that the references to the two AIM attributes (field names for the dataSource and Combobox field) are exactly the same as defined in the configuration tool.

   // Reference to the datasource for the ComboBox. This should be a comma-separated list of values.
   const dataSource = "<<SystemSettings.ComboBoxSource>>”;
   
   // Name of the AwareIM field (attribute) that holds the ComboBox field.
   const COMBOBOX_FIELD_NAME = "ComboBoxSelector”;
   
   let field = parser.getField(COMBOBOX_FIELD_NAME);
   if (field) {
   let combobox = field.getWidget();
   combobox.input.prop("disabled", true);
   let choices = dataSource.split(",").map((choice) => choice.trim());
   if (choices.length > 0) {field.choicesChanged(choices);}
   } else
   { console.error(`Field with name '${COMBOBOX_FIELD_NAME}' not found.`);}

nhofkes

Note that it is sufficient to insert the allowed options as a comma separated list, for example “North, South”. If desired, it would also be possible to use another separater than a comma, if the line

let choices = dataSource.split(“,”).map((choice) => choice.trim());

is updated accordingly.

As mentioned above, the ComboBox dataSource is changed using the choicesChanged() function in AwareApp_ComboField. If Aware would change that parser in the future, the script may no longer work.

This forum software doesn’t properly facilitate to insert inline code, but I hope it’s clear enough. Note that the contents of the datasource attribute are inserted through the line “«SystemSettings.ComboBoxSource»”, with angled brackets.

Jaymer

Awesome. will give it a go. Thx

Jaymer

works perfectly, 1st time.

there is definitely a use for this in Aware.

The ability to dynamically build a list of options for a simple Combo/Dropdown is great for some needs. Static choices are good, but sometimes you need to eliminate some, maybe based on user level, or order status, etc.

THANKS !!!