Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
Progress Dynamics Basic Development

Using the SmartDataField Maintenance tool

The preceding discussion and examples have shown you how to replace a field in a static viewer with a dynamic combo or lookup object. You might also want to define combos and lookups out of the context of a static viewer, either because you want to place them in a dynamic viewer, or you want to define them independent of any particular viewer. To do this, from the AppBuilder main window, select Build SmartDataField Maintenance.

The Progress Dynamics SmartDataField Maintenance tool appears.

This tool presents you with all the same elements in the Combo and Lookup Properties dialog boxes, and you can create and edit dynamic combos and lookups here in the same way as described earlier.

Note: When you want to edit SDF properties from a container, right-click and choose Instance Properties or Edit Master. Do not open the property sheet and click Edit. Use care when using Edit Master. If you change a property for the master, then that value will be applied to all instances currently open in AppBuilder, even if those instances have overrides. Close all instances that you do not want affected before using this feature.

Where Used and Synch instances buttons

The Master Properties view in the Smart Data Field Utility contains two features to help you manage master and instance properties. The Where Used button provides a message box with a list of the objects that contain an instance of the SDF. It is only available for SDFs that have been saved as SmartObjects.

The Synch instances button is a tool to allow you to force data-related instance properties to match the master. Click the button and the following message appears:

Click Yes to synch the properties.

Map fields tab

This tool allows you to create mappings between data source fields and viewer fields. It is a feature used to improve performance. See the performance section of OpenEdge Development: Progress Dynamics Administration for more information.

Other tab

On the Other tab, the lookup has some different options:

Maintenance SDO — If the user can create or edit a record in the parent table from the dynamic lookup, enter the name of the parent maintenance SDO. A toolbar with an update button band is added to the dynamic lookup window. Choose the lookup button to display a list of available SDOs.
Maintenance Object — The name of the maintenance window object to launch when the user creates or edits a record in the parent maintenance SDO. Choose the lookup button to display a list of available objects.
Note: Only containers that contain a viewer and toolbar without an SDO are valid containers for this functionality. When creating this kind of object, use the ‘rywinFolder’ object as a template.

Notice the set of check boxes on the right. When a dynamic lookup results in more than one matching entry, a dialog box automatically appears to allow the user to select the desired matching value. This automatic behavior can now be suppressed or modified with the following attributes:

PopupOnAmbiguous — If YES, the dialog box pops up on LEAVE of the field when the typed value matches more than one record. The default value is YES. If set to NO, the value is left as typed in or it is blanked out (depending on how the BlankOnNotAvail property is set).
PopupOnUniqueAmbiguous — If set top YES, the dialog box pops up on LEAVE of the field when the typed value uniquely matches a record, but the search returned other nonunique matches. The default value is NO.

For example, suppose a user types Smith and the search logic is a BEGINS query. The application returns the following:

Smith
Smithers
Smithson

With the default behavior of NO, one, and only one, record matched the typed value exactly. Dynamics assumes that it has found a unique match and does not pop up a browse to display the other potential matches. If you would like Dynamics to pop up a dialog box in this case, override this property and set it to YES.

PopupOnNotAvail — If set to YES, the dialog box pops up on LEAVE of the field when the typed value matches no records. The default is NO. If set to NO, the value is left as typed in or is blanked out (depending on what how BlankOnNotAvail property is set).
BlankOnNotAvail — Controls whether or not an invalid value should be blanked from a lookup on LEAVE of the field.

Map fields tab

This tool allows you to create mappings between data source fields and viewer fields. It is a feature used to improve performance. See the performance section in OpenEdge Development: Progress Dynamics Administration for more information.