POSS.BUGS: Buttons Which Run a Process Don't Appear on Forms

pureist

Full description:

Buttons Which Run a Process Don't Appear in Top & Bottom Panel Toolbars of Forms (Toolbars don't appear at all if they only contain buttons which run a process); and,
Buttons in HTML Form Cells which run a process additionally behave like 'Close' form buttons (if there have been changes to attributes a dialog appears asking if you want to save changes . the form however is not closed)
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I'm hoping someone could run the attached simple bsv and confirm what I think might be bugs before I report them, because they seem quite critical in nature it seems they would have been reported and rectified before now, if they are really bugs. Thus I might be wrong:

run the bsv
Form of object 'Thing' will load in Main tab of Main frame via a process (initiated from the Content Panel) containing, ENTER NEW Thing AND VIEW
BUG1: the Form is missing a Button (starts a process) in the Panel Toolbox (Title Bar)
BUG2: the Form is missing the Top Panel Toolbar (which contains a Button starting a process)
BUG3: the Form is missing the Bottom Panel Toolbar (which contains 2 buttons: 1. a Button which Starts a Process; AND, 2. a Button which Runs a Query)
But more strange is the behavior of the HTML Cell Button:

....a.) the button ONLY starts a process which increments the 'Counter' attribute of LoggedInRegularUser (which can be seen in the query in the right frame)

....b.) If there have not been any changes to the form attributes the Process is completed ('Counter' attribute is incremented)

....c.) However:
.........=>BUG4: if there have been changes to attributes a dialog appears asking if you want to save the changes (as if you had clicked a 'Close form' button)
..........->BUG5: if you select 'Cancel' the process is aborted altogether
..........->if you click 'No' the process is completed ('Counter' attribute is incremented) BUT BUG6: the fields of the form are cleared
..........->if you click 'Yes' the process is completed ('Counter' attribute is incremented) BUG7: AND the form is saved!! (AND thus the attributes are cleared as they usually are after a form is saved)

..........Conclusion: A button on a form which starts a process is also behaving like a 'Close Form' button

The 'Display Thing Main Form' menu button in the left frame directly opens (via 'Create object') the Main form of object Thing in a new tab. ie. the form is not opened via a process. Irrespective, the missing Buttons/Toolbars described above are still missing.
now enter some information and click the HTML Cell Button, and click 'Yes' to save changes.
the 'All Things' query will refresh and the new saved instance will be visible.
click the instance in the query and its form will open in a new tab
now the formerly 'missing' buttons are visible
now change some data and click any form button (since they all run the same process) and, 'BUG4: if there have been changes to attributes a dialog appears asking if you want to save the changes (as if you had clicked a 'Close form' button)', occurs again

NOTE: the buttons which are missing by way of the toolbars being missing all run the same process as the HTML Cell Button.. ie. increments the 'Counter' attribute of LoggedInRegularUser

formbuttonbugs.zip

37.07kB

formbuttonbugs.zip

37.07kB

kklosson

Try changing your process to:

Create Thing
VIEW Thing

Not a bug.

pureist

yes, I'm aware that if an existing instance is being edited, then the buttons which were missing will appear, as per point 10. onwards in the original post. But I don't get how this is not a bug:

How does it make sense that buttons which run processes never appear on forms of new object instances?

....this means that nothing can be done, not even run a Query, from a form of a new object instance (unless you specially create a HTML Cell Button)

....and if it were the case that buttons which start processes should never appear on forms of new object instances, then HTML Cell Buttons which start processes also should not appear, just like Toolbar buttons and Toolbox Buttons are not appearing

How does it make sense that the user is always prompted as to whether they want to save changes when they click a button on a form which runs a process, including when editing the instance? (even when the process might do something that has no bearing/doesn't hinge whatsoever on the data that saving the changes would affect)

BenHayat

pureist wrote
yes, I'm aware that if an existing instance is being edited, then the buttons which were missing will appear, as per point 10. onwards in the original post. But I don't get how this is not a bug:

How does it make sense that buttons which run processes never appear on forms of new object instances?

....this means that nothing can be done, not even run a Query, from a form of a new object instance (unless you specially create a HTML Cell Button)

....and it it were the case that buttons which start processes should never appear on forms of new object instances, then HTML Cell Buttons also should not appear, just like Toolbar buttons and Toolbox Buttons are not appearing

I have had this conversation with support almost 2 years ago, and it's not a bug, it's done intentionally to prevent certain problems that a developer may run into if allowed. It's more of a protective "feature".

pureist

okay. seems strange, but if that's the way it is then so be it.
But how do you reconcile:
"2. How does it make sense that the user is always prompted (pestered/annoyed) as to whether they want to save changes when they click a button on a form which runs a process, including when editing the instance? (even when the process might do something that has no bearing/doesn't hinge whatsoever on the data that saving the changes would affect)"
..Because if the user clicks 'No' don't save changes (cause they are not sure they will want to), not only does it not save the form (but correctly completes the process), it also reverts all data in all fields of the form back to the original before any changes, which is almost certainly not what the user would want.
..AND Because if the user clicks 'Yes' to save the changes, then the form is saved (as well as the process is completed correctly) and the form is cleared if a new instance, YET the user would most likely have wanted to continue working on the form, though now has to search for the object instance and load the form again to resume editing!
On the face of it, this does not make sense.. (even if you can crudely work around it by using VIEW at the end of the process which was run by clicking the button)

BenHayat wrote
pureist wrote
yes, I'm aware that if an existing instance is being edited, then the buttons which were missing will appear, as per point 10. onwards in the original post. But I don't get how this is not a bug:

How does it make sense that buttons which run processes never appear on forms of new object instances?
....this means that nothing can be done, not even run a Query, from a form of a new object instance (unless you specially create a HTML Cell Button)
....and it it were the case that buttons which start processes should never appear on forms of new object instances, then HTML Cell Buttons also should not appear, just like Toolbar buttons and Toolbox Buttons are not appearing

I have had this conversation with support almost 2 years ago, and it's not a bug, it's done intentionally to prevent certain problems that a developer may run into if allowed. It's more of a protective "feature".