View an object instance with indirectly related data

joselv

I have an old version of my application (not build in AIM) that allows me to view a record for a particular well. That view allowed me to include information that is not directly related to the well but is indirectly.

For example, each Well is attached to a 'Facility' through the selection made via a dropdown for the well. That corresponding facility has data related to it that ties back to the well. So a well will have projects and reports that belong to that well, but are attached to the 'Facility' which is attached to that well. Make sense? There are reasons why it has to be setup this way.

What I need to do in my new version (build in AIM) is replicate what I had in the old version. See pics below to get an idea.

Old Version

New Version

Can anyone tell me how I can include this indirectly related data in my object? I don't need to edit this data, I just need it to make it viewable to the user. If the user is looking a well, he/she needs to see all the info about that well but also the data that is attached to the well's corresponding 'Facility'.

Any ideas? :mrgreen:

BenHayat

If I understand you correctly and there is a relationship between a "well" and "Facility" (Facility being sort of the parent object) you can easily create "Shortcuts" in the Well object that shows Facility data right inside of your Well object without doing anything at runtime. Those data will show as read-only on the Well form.

joselv

Yes, you are correct. There is a relationship between Well and Facility.

I will play this those shortcuts. Thanks!

BenHayat

joselv wrote
Yes, you are correct. There is a relationship between Well and Facility.

I will play this those shortcuts. Thanks!

Just create a new attribute and the type is Shortcut. Then put the path in there. For example
SC_FacilityName: Facility_BO.Name

And then use SC_FailityName in the Well object, as if it was a Well's own data.

joselv

No luck. I added the shortcut but it just shows up as a label.

In the application, if I go to a Facility, I can see the related data for that Facility. Like below.

When I add the shortcut to the form nothing shows up. 🙁

What am I doing wrong??

joselv

I'm stuck. Is there any way to add the results of a query to an object form?

If I could attach the results of a query to my Well form, then I could have the results filtered by the 'Facility' that is selected in the Well dropdown box.

BLOMASKY

A BO can be related to other BO's.
There might be only ONE (example, a report is related to only ONE well, A well is related to only ONE Facility. an Order is related to only ONE customer, etc.)

There might be 0 to MANY (a customer might have MANY orders, a Well might have MANY reports

The relationships might go up many levels. (An order is related to only ONE customer. That customer is related to only ONE salesPerson).

The good news is that Aware makes it Easy Peasy to connect the information.

If it is a "TO ONE" relationship then a shortcut in a BO will do the job. Assuming a report is for ONE well and a well is for ONE facility, in the report BO, you can have a shortcut, called FacilityName with the shortcut = ob_Well.ob_facility.facilityName (I am using Mark's naming convention where "ob" stands for owned by, you can use ANY naming that works for you.
You can now use the "FacilityName" attribute just like any other one. Can be on a form, in a query, used in a calculation....

If it is a TO MANY relationship (i.e. a Well will have multiple reports) Then you have a few ways to display this, since when you select a well, there is more than one record. In a form, assuming that the "to many" attribute can be displayed as a table, so either below (or next to) the other form data, all of your reports will be displayed.

If you are using a Visual Perspective (which I use a lot, for the flexibility in display, layout, etc.) you can have a query (of reports) and a Well form. The query will have a filter like: "Report.ob_Wells = Wells"

Hope this helps a tad

Bruce

joselv

Bruce,

Thanks for the input. You gave me some points to think about.

I went back and made some significant changes to my data model to account for my ability to use BO Groups in AIM. I was able to create a 'Facility' BO Group for all of my objects that represent a facility. The BO Group does not solve my initial problem but your response has given me the idea on how - the use of a VP that I can attach related panels to.

I'll have to go dive into the docs and figure out how to do it but that looks like that is how I will achieve what I want. I was only looking at VPs as a way to customize how the USER sees the application.

Thanks again!

pureist

I think DISPLAY LAYOUT is more along the lines of what will solve your issue.
However, I don't get why it won't work as you want it to if you have Reference Attributes linking all involved objects together, even if 3 or 4 removed.
It looks like a big app, thus is worth getting it right.
Thus, it might be worth your time preparing and attaching to a Post a zip file (the only type of attachment allowed) containing a stripped-down BSV showing how it doesn't do what you want it to, but with an explanation of what you want it to do.
Then you can get input which is more to the crux of the issue from others.

joselv

purist,

I will research display layout. Thanks!

I am going back to my data model and re-thinking some things. Once I get something I will do that. I'll post up a sample of that I'm trying to do.

Thanks!

pureist

Run the below bsv.
You don't need to do anything except observe the Dashboard tab up to when it is loaded.
It's not sophisticated. It just has a layout derived from a DISPLAY LAYOUT.
Then go back to the configuration tool and follow through from the Visual Perspective vpAdministrator how the layout of the Dashboard tab comes into being.
All this AFTER you've read about DISPLAY LAYOUT.
It'll start you thinking about the possibilities DISPLAY LAYOUT opens up, particularly opening tabs whose Layouts are specific to an Object/type of Object.

items.zip

67.53kB

pureist

..the possibilities DISPLAY LAYOUT opens up, particularly opening tabs whose layouts are specific to an Object/type of Object.
..WHICH can be achieved by running a process (whose Output is directed to a New Tab) which calls DISPLAY LAYOUT using the relevant layout applicable to the object.
AND importantly, DISPLAY LAYOUT 'makes the context of the current process available to commands invoked by the layout (such as processes, queries etc).'
Considering each content panel of a tab could contain the output of a process, and each process could invoke DISPLAY LAYOUT, you can achieve a 'Russian Doll' effect in that one tab could effectively contain many tabs of content including those tabs' content panels, and each of those tabs' content panels could then contain many tabs of content.. etc.
You could go crazy thinking about it. And no screen would be big enough that characters could be big enough to read if you kept nesting.
AND, you can obviously change the layout in a content panel at any time in response to user interaction by displaying a different layout in the same content panel, replacing the previous layout, as process output can be directed to 'same panel'.

joselv

pureist,

Thanks for the sample. I'm going to spend some time studying this. I'll report back on progress soon.

Thanks again!

Jose