Today's $15 Programmer Challenge

Jaymer

ver 7
I'm happy to send a $15 bill (or paypal) to the first person submitting a solution to this problem. (i.e. a working modified BSV)
Download my sample BSV from http://www.jaymer.com/misc/dropdown.bsv

It involves a simple DropDown list and its Default Value.
I can't seem to make it work.

The requirements are in the attached .png and on the Customer edit form.
Add some test data (2 minutes), and then the real test is on the Add Customer screen.
In less than 5 minutes from now, you can see what the issue is.
I've documented what I could.
Obviously, you're going to modify whatever you need to so feel free to change structure, attributes, etc.

thx
jaymer...

pureist

But how will you get the US mint to print a $15 bill?
If I don't have PayPal and can only receive cash, then you won't be able to pay until they start printing them. i could be waiting a long time.
If I take you to court, you will simply argue in your defence that you have tried everything within your power to pay, but you simply cannot get the mint to print the $15 bill the subject of our contract, and thus, you should be excused from paying it and honoring our contract.
And the judge will probably side with you on account it is a frivolous amount.
Thus, I propose an amendment to our contract:

I will receive a $15 bill in payment for the bsv
In circumstances where you don't or can't pay the $15 bill, then you will instead send me a $1000 bill.

intra

Like this??

pureist

Are you simply saying that when entering a new Customer instance, upon selecting an instance of Rep, the value of the State attribute of the new Customer instance being entered should automatically be assigned the value of the DefaultState attribute of the instance of Rep selected?
Correct?
AND, that if the user then wants to change the (default) value of the State attribute of the new Customer instance being entered, then the dropdown/pop-up list to select from should only contain instances of State which have a Region attribute value which matches that of the Region attribute value of the instance of Rep which has been selected for the new Customer instance being entered?
Correct?

pureist

and.. do you want to have another object, 'Region', which has a Reference Attribute, 'States'?
it could maybe provide for more flexibility down the track, and save the user having to type or select select a Region when they enter a new instance of State

pureist

and.. do you really want to have an attribute in Representative called 'Region'? (so that the DefaultStates to select from is also filtered/narrowed down?)
OR, are you happy to just have an attribute in representative called 'DefaultState', and the user would select from a full list of States? (and thus the attribute 'Region' only appears in State BO)

Jaymer

Dear pureist
Due to deflation and annoyance and gp, you'll only get a $13 bill. Thank you

Jaymer

Correct
correct
no new object
Yes I really do

My real application is a lot more complicated than this, but i find this simple customer example would prove a point.
I cannot get the Dropbox to load and display the filtered states, with the deafault, without having to manually click on it

pureist

You won't achieve what you want by using the 'Choices are determined by' setting (per below image), as there appears to be a bug in those, whereby if you define dynamic query criteria which is obtained at runtime, the dropdown never shows any records, even though records are returned by the query if it is run elsewhere with the same runtime obtained dynamic criteria.
Using the options ('Existing Query' or 'Custom Query') in the 'Choices are determined by' setting only works if there is no criteria specified.
The work-around it to make State a Reference Attribute of Customer and set its Presentation\Display as 'Dropdown' and specify a Filter\Exiting or Custom Query there with dynamic runtime obtained query criteria.
LMK if you wanna see how.

pureist

in light of your last post, the same principle applies, except to Representative, not Customer

Jaymer

You'll notice the dynamic choices DO appear in edit mode.
But if rep changes to a diff region, the list is not refreshed.
I was hoping there was some ,js I could inject to fix the choices.

I thought my example drop down WAS using a custom query to limit the States already. But YES, submit something if you think it solves the challenge.
Thx

pureist

Jaymer wrote
You'll notice the dynamic choices DO appear in edit mode.
But if rep changes to a diff region, the list is not refreshed.
I was hoping there was some ,js I could inject to fix the choices.
I thought my example drop down WAS using a custom query to limit the States already. But YES, submit something if you think it solves the challenge.
Thx

Your issue which you originally described in red text and which you have repeated above is occurring because of the reason I already explained in my previous post. It's a bug.
The work-around is to use a reference attribute instead, which you have done, called 'state reference'. BUT in its Reference element presentation dialog, you haven't specified any Filter query like you have in the previous text box attempt.

Jaymer

It still does not solve the challenge.
Even without its custom query to limit by region, there's no way to make it automatically display, especially with the default selected WITHOUT clicking on it. Forget about regions for a second, and just realize you can get a state as soon as you enter the rep. It's not even possible to have that state be the default/suggested/selected value in the reference drop-down box.

And yes, I thought it was bug too which is why I decided to stop banging my head against the wall and see if someone else had come across this simple design need.

pureist

you can.
you can make both the filter on Region work in Representative so that the instances of DefaultState to select from only contain those in the same Region as that defined for the Representative, AND you can select the Representative in the Customer and the Default State of the Representative will appear in the State field of the Customer.
refer image below. will finish off a bsv and send it in the AM.
the bug is after that if you want to change the State for the Customer from the default.

Jaymer

That looks promising!!!

pureist

this post is in case in the future it is useful to someone to know the outcome of this topic, which uncovered the following issue and work-around:
Issue:
When a Plain Text Attribute has Choices which are determined by a Query (Existing or Custom) the query will return zero records (and thus the dropdown will have no items) IF the query contains dynamic criteria obtained at runtime.
However, IF the query does not contain any criteria or if the criteria is static, then the query will return records.
On the other hand, IF a Reference Attribute is set to display as a dropdown and it has a Filter query (Existing or Custom) which contains exactly the same criteria as for the Plain Text Attribute Choices Query, then records ARE returned, EVEN IF the same Existing query is used as was used for the Plain Text Attribute which has Choices determined by a Query.
Work Around (when needing query to obtain dynamic criteria at runtime):
Use Reference Attribute's is set to display as a dropdown, as, per Support:
"Dynamic choices were never supposed to work like that [for Plain Text Attributes]."

BenHayat

pureist wrote
this post is in case in the future it is useful to someone to know the outcome of this topic, which uncovered the following issue and work-around:
Issue:
When a Plain Text Attribute has Choices which are determined by a Query (Existing or Custom) the query will return zero records (and thus the dropdown will have no items) IF the query contains dynamic criteria obtained at runtime.
However, IF the query does not contain any criteria or if the criteria is static, then the query will return records.
On the other hand, IF a Reference Attribute is set to display as a dropdown and it has a Filter query (Existing or Custom) which contains exactly the same criteria as for the Plain Text Attribute Choices Query, then records ARE returned, EVEN IF the same Existing query is used as was used for the Plain Text Attribute which has Choices determined by a Query.
Work Around (when needing query to obtain dynamic criteria at runtime):
Use Reference Attribute's is set to display as a dropdown, as, per Support:
"Dynamic choices were never supposed to work like that [for Plain Text Attributes]."

Good job Purist, for spending the time and chasing it.