Friends,I’m working with FORM FORMULAS and, always, when I’ve to change a view’s FORM FORMULA, I’ve to close my notes client and designer for refresh the change.
Is it normal?
Sds., Alaôr Jr.
Subject: Form Formula
Are you saying that when you change the View’s Form Select statements (from “SELECT Form = A” to “SELECT Form = B”), the changes aren’t having an effect unless you close the client and designer? It’s definitely odd that you have to close designer.
Are you sure you are saving the change correctly? To save the view, put focus in the view itself (not the formula window) and hit CTRL-S. That should work. Have you tried this test using a web browser?
Subject: RE: Form Formula
No, he’s talking about Form Formulas – those cute little beasts that take over your entire environment and control which form is used to open documents from a view (and, if you’re not careful writing them, which form(s) may be used to compos documents, and so forth, for as long as that view remains the last view in the UI space to have had focus).
Subject: RE: Form Formula
So, what can i do for solve this problem ?Always close and open my development’s instances (client, design…) ?
Subject: RE: Form Formula
Would that cause you any real problem if you had to? Form formulas SHOULD be very rare in your development – they are hardly ever used because there are other less-obtrusive ways to accomplish essentially the same goal. Form formulas do take over your environment, and unless they are very carefully written, they can cause an armed rebellion among your users. All you need to do (usually) is to close the database in the client, by the way.
Subject: RE: Form Formula
I might be starting a religous discussion, Stan, but I’m curious about
something…
[Form formulas SHOULD be very rare in your development]
Oh, really? For web-based stuff, I find them enormously useful. Why do you
consider them rare?
Subject: RE: Form Formula
In the Notes client, I mean.
I use them regularly on the web, but I’ve never had a UI view with a form formula focussed three tabs back from the current compose action haunt me on the web. (I should say, though, that I never actually USE the views that have form formulas – they’re just another “directory” in the URLs I create.)
The problem with form formulas is that they are pervasive in the client UI and, while it’s relatively easy to write them to correctly default to Form when all of the dictated cases are exhausted, folks tend to forget that the view doesn’t have to be on the current UI tab to hold sway.
One has to keep in mind that a form composed from a document that was opened from a document that was opened from the view is still subject to the view’s form formula as long as that view was the last view opened in that database in the UI. Your entire development has to take into account not just what the user might be doing, but also how they might have gotten where they are. (Maybe that’s the secret to “breadcrumb” navigation – just compose something and you can at least tell what view got you there.)
They are, as I’ve said before, strong Juju, and like any powerful magic, they can have consequences the practioner might not have been able to foresee.