Method:Classic General Q&A

Re: Suggestion re: object names referenced in actions

smohyee — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:58:36 GMT

"It seems to me that this issue could be easily resolved by having the dropdowns in the designer display two columns, one with the caption and one with the field name, similar to what can be done with dropdowns in operational screens."

Seconded! If this is feasible, it would provide both pieces of information on our objects in an elegant way, using a feature that is already a part of Method (the multiple column dropdown).

Re: Suggestion re: object names referenced in actions

Rolf — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 05:15:08 GMT

Paul,

Like smohyee, I have the same issue, and for potential problem fields, I generally leave the caption unique until I've finished my customization, and then I change it to the name I want at the end.

It seems to me that this issue could be easily resolved by having the dropdowns in the designer display two columns, one with the caption and one with the field name, similar to what can be done with dropdowns in operational screens.

A somewhat related issue on the designer screen is that one cannot see the actual field name of a cell without opening it in the editor. If it could be displayed while one hovers over the cell, that would be very handy I think.

my two bits worth,

Rolf

Re: Suggestion re: object names referenced in actions

Method_Paul — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 23:36:16 GMT

Thanks @smohyee. We fully agree. We actually have this spec'd out for our V2 of the designer. We don't plan on making the change for the current version - it will remain fairly static until V2 comes out later this year.

The way we planned it was that:

1) By default the name is hidden, and is the same thing as the caption (or label). Keeps things as simple as they are now.

2) You can do an advanced property to override the name to something other than the caption.

3) No two objects can have the same name. So if you had a second object with a caption of "City" it would automatically override the name to be something like "City(2)". And you could further override it to call it "BillCity".

Paul

Suggestion re: object names referenced in actions

smohyee — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:10:37 GMT

When I'm using the "Retrieve Value from Table" action to place information in a field on my screen, I notice that the objects on the screen are referenced by the label, and not the object name (or field name).

So, for example, on the Invoice screen, both the Bill To Address and the Ship To Address sections have fields with identical labels, like "City", "State", etc. When I am using an action that places a value in the screen, I cannot differentiate between the two "City" labels. If the action referenced the object name, then there would be a clear differentiation - one would be called "BillAddressAddrCity" and one would be called "ShipAddressAddrCity".

Would changing the way actions reference objects negatively affect another scenario? I haven't fully thought it through, but I'm thinking about objects not related to table fields, like grids or buttons, whose object names are just "Grid1" or "Button2", which are not as clear as their labels, eg "SalesOrderLineItems" or "Save".