Adding Tasks for a Open Form Go To in the Builders

If you want your Go To in SmartList Builder or your Drilldown Builder to open the form AND load related data, you will need to add Tasks to your Go To.  Your Go to will need to reproduce the same steps, in the same order, that users do to pull up data on that form. 

Your Go To needs to enter data, leave fields, check boxes, select radio button options and pick options from dropdown fields just like a user would.  Each of these tasks has its own tricks:

• Fields that you enter data into:
  • Trickiest part is figuring out the name of the field that you enter the data into.  They will appear on the Field dropdown in the order that you tab thru in on the window.  But the name may not be what you expect.  You may need to try a couple fields or if you have access to Dexterity, Modifier or the Support Debugging tool you can find the exact name of the field on the window. 

  

  • Use the “Set value of a field and run the field script” task type
• Dropdown fields:
  • Each option on the list is represented with an integer (1,2,3, etc). Typically they are numbered in the order they appear in the dropdown, but you may not be seeing all the options. 
  • Note – Some fields may have a Dexterity feature selected to display the options in alphabetical order – which means that you will have to use another method to determine what integer represent each value. (There is always trial and error!)
  • Create a calculated field to hold your desired integer value to pass to the Go To.
  • Use the “Set value of a field and run the field script” task type
• Radio button options – these are the little circles that you can only pick one of the several circles:
  • Each circle is numbered in the order that you tab thru them, starting with zero.
  • You need to find the name for the Radio Group field and pass the correct number for your option to that field
  • Again create a calculated field to hold your desired integer value to pass to the Go To.
  • Use the “Set value of a field and run the field script” task type
• Selecting or un-selecting Checkboxes – These are a bit problematic. 
  • Better minds than I have been stumped by this in SmartList Builder.  One solution is to use VBA to check a Checkbox to make your GoTo’s work (Mariano)  In this discussion, macros were discarded as a solution because it will toggle the field, first time it will uncheck, but the next time it will check.   I have tried using every type of calculated field and SQL table field, etc with no luck, except:
  • I have found is that you can use a GP Yes/No field to trigger a checkbox! … now since Yes/No is, unfortunately, NOT a calculated field type, you must have a Yes/No field on your GP tables that always stores the correct value.   Try “Voided” or “Inactive” for No and, maybe, various “Keep History” fields for Yes.  It is a little odd, but try it – it might just work for you!    (And sorry – a SQL yes/no or bit field won’t work.)
  • Use the “Set value of a field and run the field script” task type
• Show/Hide Details
  • Use the “Run field script” task type
  • Field will be named something like:
    • “Scrolling Window Expand button” or  “Scrolling Window Shrink Button”  or sometimes just  “Scrolling Window Shrink”
    • “Show Summary Button” or “Show Detail Button”
    • “(L) Expand Button” or “(L) Shrink Button”
    • Typically will NOT be the field with Switch in the name – this is just an image field  (unless there is no Button field – then the programmer may have attached the field script to the image field.  A field “(L) ShrinkExpandSwitch” with scripting is part of the Dexterity samples)
• Buttons
  •  Use the “Run field script” task type
  • Button names typically have the words on the button and “Button” in the field name like “Save Button”  or “Hold Button” or “Redisplay Button”
  • Blue Arrows are buttons called “Expansion Button” with a number.  You may need to use Trial and Error to determine the correct one to trigger (unless you have access to Modifier or Dexterity to see the exact field name).

As always – remember to build your Go To step by step and to test after each step – if you make a mistake nothing will happen when you select your Go To.

Hopefully, this list will help you add Go To’s for many parts of GP.  Let me know if you discover any more Tricks and I will update this post.  In the next posts of the series I will be using these steps to build sample Go To’s for many of the common GP screens.  

Until then – Happy Building!
Devon

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