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setOptions ignores me

System

This one is driving me nuts --

I have a DCT which populates a drop-down list via a callServer. This callServer returns a list of 4 items that populate the drop-down list. However, about 50% of the time, the options are NOT set. When I do an alert to tell me parent.getScriptFrame().IWDatacapture.getItem("/root/Meetings/EventSubType").getOptions().length, it tells me 4 every single time, which is wrong half of the time.

What gives?

Below is the JS code in my callServer:

[HTML]

var options = new Array();
option[0] = new Option("Annual Executive Retreat","retreat",false,false);
option[1] = new Option("Charter Advisory Meeting","advisory",false,false);
option[2] = new Option("IT Executive Briefing","briefing",false,false);
option[3] = new Option("Member-hosted Forum","forum",false,false);
parent.getScriptFrame().IWDatacapture.getItem("/root/Meetings/EventSubType").setOptions(options);
parent.getScriptFrame().IWDatacapture.getItem("/root/Meetings/EventSubType").setReadOnly(false);

[/HTML]

So, why would I consistently get inconsistency?

Dave

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Comments

nipper

Is this the only callserver you are running ? I found that in one case I added a callserver to an event that already had one, this type of behavior was what I saw.

Are you executing another function within the formAPI & can you kick off an alert ?

Migrateduser

Yes, this is the only callServer when this DCT opens up. There are other callServers being made but those have to do with different events. I had put alerts just about everywhere but what made me declare myself "nuts" is when I was alerted that the length of the drop down list array was 4 when it was clearly not.

By the way, I left out that I'm on TS 6.5 SP2, Win2003.

nipper

BTW, when I did this I had better luck returning a string to the FormAPI code and doing the setOptions in there, rather than running the JS directorly from the callserver

Migrateduser

Actually, the code was that way initially and it was only recently that I moved it to the callServer. My results are haphazard either way.

I just tested this thing again using alerts and a log file. I had one success (i.e. where the drop-down list was populated) and one failure (where FormAPI appeared to do nothing at all). The log file and JS alert from both were identical.

This makes no sense. Someone's lying to me.

Migrateduser

Are you doing an IWDatacapture.redraw(); after the change?

Migrateduser

Good question -- redraw was already in the code before but I believe that redraw has been deprecated since TS 6.1. Can someone confirm or deny this for me?

Migrateduser

I just researched that and found out the same.

Is it intermittently failing during the opening up of a new DCR?

I guess what I'm asking is, when are the calls taking place?

Maybe you could place the setReadOnly line above the setOptions and give it a try.

Migrateduser

I'll try that and then let you know.

Yes, I am intemittently having successes and failures with this and the code gets executed when the form loads up. I've tried inserting JS delays, thinking that maybe something wasn't "caught up" but to no avail.

Also, I'm testing with one new DCR and an existing DCR. Neither one has a better success rate than the other.

Dave

nipper

Can you build a simple DCT with simple JS to see if this works consistantly ?

ISCBorisB

Good question -- redraw was already in the code before but I believe that redraw has been deprecated since TS 6.1. Can someone confirm or deny this for me?

Your array has been declared as options - plural.
Entries are option - singular. Is it just post typo?

var options = new Array();
option[0] = new Option("Annual Executive Retreat","retreat",false,false);
. . .
parent.getScriptFrame().IWDatacapture.getItem("/root/Meetings/EventSubType").setOptions(options);

Migrateduser

Y'know, I've noticed a far better success rate since I moved the setReadOnly line below the setOptions line (taalgaard's suggestion). I'm not sitting here with a graph or anything but this may have been the key. If not, I'll definitely reply with a post.

Migrateduser

ISCBoris,

It might have been but I was getting some successes sometimes. I actually changed the array name to "opts" anyway, since I was insure if option or options was a reserved word. In fact, I'm pretty sure that "options" is a reserved word in JS, so I shouldn't have been using that to begin with.

Migrateduser

Boris,

I just remembered that I had actually typed in those lines manually because it's getting that value from a Perl loop earlier in the script. I didn't want to post the entire thing and display irrelevant information, so that's where my human error occured.

The array was declared "options" and that's how I assigned the values. I think the problem was in setting readOnly after populating the list. It seems to me that I should be able to populate the drop down list whenever I want to but I know we're at least partially dependent on Javascript quirks and browser misgivings.

Dave

ISCBorisB

Boris,

I just remembered that I had actually typed in those lines manually because it's getting that value from a Perl loop earlier in the script. I didn't want to post the entire thing and display irrelevant information, so that's where my human error occured.

The array was declared "options" and that's how I assigned the values. I think the problem was in setting readOnly after populating the list. It seems to me that I should be able to populate the drop down list whenever I want to but I know we're at least partially dependent on Javascript quirks and browser misgivings.

Dave

For what it's worth... I've modified your code slightly so that Form modifications are done from *inside* - call-back function actually.
In my environment that seems to have 100% success rate for existing DCRs. It is a problem still for "New Form" :-(
By the way, nothing changes (same manifestation) if I remove "Read Only" altogether, eg if I make it a regular item

# callServer, Spawned JS
var opts = new Array();
opts[0] = new Option("Annual Executive Retreat","retreat",false,false);
opts[1] = new Option("Charter Advisory Meeting","advisory",false,false);
opts[2] = new Option("IT Executive Briefing","briefing",false,false);
opts[3] = new Option("Member-hosted Forum","forum",false,false);

api = parent.getScriptFrame();
api.drop_down_callback(opts);

. . .


// FormAPI "Call Back" Function
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function drop_down_callback(dd_options) {
 var drop_down = IWDatacapture.getItem("/root/Meetings/EventSubType");
 drop_down.setReadOnly(false);
 drop_down.setOptions(dd_options);
}

image.JPG

pdasarat

Dave, Probably this might be the most irrelevant post, but just to debug any client side code, I use firefox and use "Firebug" extension. Excellent debugging tool.

Please ignore if you already know about this tool, else defiantly give it a try.

Pradeep

innerouter.rptdesign

Migrateduser

Oh, I completely agree with you! IMO, Firefox is a much better tool than IE but for something like this, I don't bother with it here because I think that the JS errors that would come up would be either so vague (i.e. 'Permission denied.' or 'Object undefined') or so deeply embedded (i.e. 'no items in array at someSpecialEmbeddedIwovFile.js'). At least, that's been my experience with trying to JS debug TeamSite. I'm usually much better with alerts.

Dave

pdasarat

Then you should defiantly try the Firebug extension http://www.getfirebug.com
With this you actually set breakpoints, debug Javascript, CSS, HTML's. Pretty impressive and very intuitive. You should defiantly give it a try, alerts would become something of the past.

Pradeep

ISCBorisB

Oh, I completely agree with you! IMO, Firefox is a much better tool than IE but for something like this, I don't bother with it here because I think that the JS errors that would come up would be either so vague (i.e. 'Permission denied.' or 'Object undefined') or so deeply embedded (i.e. 'no items in array at someSpecialEmbeddedIwovFile.js'). At least, that's been my experience with trying to JS debug TeamSite. I'm usually much better with alerts.

Dave

Does it still ignore you? I was able to make it work in both existing DCR and new Form with the call-back I described in #15.
(New form issue I've mentioned there was unrelated to options)

Migrateduser

It is listening to me now and I did two things to get it to do so and in this order:

1. Move the setOptions call back to the FormAPI section instead of in the callServer -- but it was like this initially
2. Call setReadOnly to false before calling setOptions

I think that #2 is what actually did the deed in this case. Although, I'm almost positive that, some time ago, I had been able to populate a drop-down list while it was disabled.

Dave