Hi Charles,
If you traverse a link to create the record, then you only need to bring
through a single unique primary key field (eg ID field) into the Child Panel,
and on each of the target fields in the child panel include a formula
referencing back through to the source field in the parent panel (via a reverse
of the link that got you to the child panel). Set the formula to only trigger
on Create. You can bring any number of fields into your other panel.
Regards
Brian
PS. There is something funny though about long indexes, I just tried a very
quick experiment to see what would happen. I started with 4 x A50 fields in the
parent panel, 4 x A50 fields plus a G999::IN field in the child panel, and
created a panel link from the parent. Each panel had one index with all fields.
I filled the first parent record with "aaaa...", "bbbb.." etc The data came
through the link ok, but after the first child record when trying to save the
2nd I got a dujplicate record message, (despite my 5th field making the child
record unique), which made me suspect that the either the long index or the
numeric component was at fault. So I converted the 5th field in the child panel
into an A3 field, but I got the same problem. So I lengthen the last A50 field
to A53, so I could add another 3 characters to make the record unique and that
worked. so I could get a unique record with 203 bytes in 4 fields, but not 203
bytes in 5 fields.
----- Original Message -----
From: Charles G. Wolf
To: Dataperfect Users Discussion Group
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 12:47 AM
Subject: Re: [Dataperf] Re: Panel Link Question
Hi Brian,
Actually, I'm adding on the address management panel that I asked you about a
month ago. I need to carry through the old address to the managment panel
prior to changing it, etc. After triming some superflusous fields, I tried
carrying through the following to the child record.
Last Name: A25
First Name: A25
Addr 1: A35
Addr 2: A35
City: A35
State: U2
Zip: N99999-9999
The State and Zip fields would not come through. I didn't think the byte
length of the combined fields reached DP's limit, but I guess it did.
Charlie
Brian Hancock wrote:
Hi Charles,
Although there may be good reasons for this, have you carefully thought
through the purpose of having so many fields carry through to the child panel?
If it is because the unique index (Primary Key) on the parent panel carries
many fields to uniquely identify the record then you should perhaps consider
using a non-data loaded unique field as the unique identifier, such as an
incrementing number field (or Ralph's "Moment" identifier); then the child
panel only needs one field to bind it to the parent, and the data from the
panel is always accessible through the link for either reporting or other
calculation purposes.
Of course there can be good reasons to bring multiple fields through a
panel link, but from what you are saying it does sound a little excessive, and
will mean that there isprobably lots of data reducancy in the database.
For instance you might have a contact register where you have an address
book. It might initially seem fine to have the First and Last Name as the
Primary Key, but then later you find duplicates and so you add, date of birth,
or phone number or address fields to make the index unique. But say you later
add a contact register panel your child panel needs to have each of those field
making up the Primary Key, plus whatever data is coming duplicated in the Child
record. By replacing the data loaded Primary Key fields with say one unique
autonumber field, only one field is needed in link field to the child panel.
Apart from the redundancy issue if any of the data in a parent's Primary Key
field change you have an issue of needing to cascade the data change into the
child panel. For these reasons I always try to have a non-data loaded field as
the unique identifier for a record.
Sometimes you want to pull "default" values from a parent into a child, and
the link fields can help you accomplish that, but in many cases (but not all)
they too can be condensed back into a single identifier and using field
formulas on Create to pull through defaults.
I think you have not so much hit a limit with the capabilities of DP, but
more that there is some work to be done on the application design. I do not
think other database products would make your problem go away.
Regards
Brian
----- Original Message -----
From: Charles G. Wolf
To: Dataperfect Users Discussion Group
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 5:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Dataperf] Re: Panel Link Question
Hi Ralph,
I thought so too, but I added up the field lengths and they only come to
192, including the fields with won't carry through the link.
In the meantime, I think I've discovered I'm doing something wrong in
designing the link. (It's been years since I've done any more than superficial
design work). After creating the child record through the link (manually
filling in the values not carried through the link), upon returning to the
parent record and trying to view the related record, the link doesn't know it
exists. Very strange! I know I'm doing something wrong, but can't put my
finger on it.
Charlie
Ralph Alvy wrote:
There's a limit in terms of amount of data, not in terms of number of
fields. Sounds like you're passing that limit.
Charles G. Wolf wrote:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">
<title></title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<font face="Times New Roman">Hi Everybody,<br>
<br>
Is there a limit on the number of fields that can be carried from a
parent panel to a child panel via a panel link? Fields 1-6 in the
Link Key Field List come through fine, but 7-10 do not. The index
selection matches the first 10 fields exactly, and in order. There
are 12 fields total in the index.<br>
<br>
I've been looking through all the documention I have, including Ralph's
book, but I can't locate the source of my problem.<br>
<br>
Thanks.<br>
Charlie Wolf<br>
</font>
</body>
</html>
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