Question Dynamic DISPLAY and SET/UPDATE

[KMoody]

Progress: 10.2b SP7
OpenEdge Architect: 3.4.2.R342_v20090122-9I96EiWElHi8lheoJKJIvhM3JfVsYbRrgVIWL
OpenEdge OS: Windows 7 Professional 2009 SP1

I’d like to create a function which receives a record or list of records. If a user has Can-Read rights to a field in that record, then the program displays the field. If the user has Can-Write rights to the field, then the user can also update that field.

1. Is it possible to pass a record/record list to a function? If not, could I pass a query instead?
2. How can I set up dynamic displays and updates/sets? I tried the following, but neither worked:

FIND item WHERE part-num = "2000".
DEF VAR dx as char init "part-num item-description".
SET item STRING(dx) WITH FRAME dtehdr.

FIND item WHERE part-num = "2000".
DEF VAR dx as char init "part-num item-description".
SET item VALUE(dx) WITH FRAME dtehdr.

 

[Stefan]

1. yes, yes
2. yes, but not with static update / set - you will need to create dynamic fill-ins (see create widget statement)

 

[KMoody]

Thanks, Stefan.

So there's no way to pass a variable array or a string list of fields to an update or set statement? You have to handle it through the fill-in widget? If so, I'd like to understand why this is the case.

 

[GregTomkins]

I'm sure Stefan has a better answer, but here is mine: SET and UPDATE are from Progress 1995, before any dynamic or GUI features existed. When it sees SET/UPDATE it is statically laying out a frame and so forth at compile time. I suppose they could have implemented it the way you imply but instead they chose to create a whole new SET/UPDATE alternative (if you will) using static/dynamic widgets.

In general, Progress differs from C#/Java in that most things (widgets, fields, temp-tables etc.) have both a dynamic and a static version, whereas in C#/Java it is roughly true that everything is dynamic. The 'static stuff' is much older and in some ways clunkier/less flexible, although I would argue that it's also more reliable since it benefits from fairly thorough compile-time checking. IMO there is a place for both, we generally prefer dynamic objects for GUI but static temp-tables except where there is a clear need otherwise. YMMV of course.

 

[KMoody]

Thanks, that's very helpful. I think I misunderstood what widgets are. I thought of them as GUI pieces that only drew on existing OpenEdge features; it seems they're much more than that!

 

[GregTomkins]

I would say "widgets are GUI pieces" is true, but "drew on existing features" is false (if by "existing features" you mean SET, UPDATE etc.)

 

[TomBascom]

1985

 

[KMoody]

Just in case anyone else out there has the same question as I did: I found a very helpful article called "Create, Update and Delete Records Using Dynamic Buffers."

Thanks again, everyone.

 

[Rob Fitzpatrick]

Just in case anyone else out there has the same question as I did: I found a very helpful article called "Create, Update and Delete Records Using Dynamic Buffers."

Thanks again, everyone.

Link: http://knowledgebase.progress.com/articles/Article/20150