Prompter popup option with key/value pairs

[Bernhard]

Hi all,

first – I’d like it very much how fast I’m able to develop database applications using Tap Forms.

In my current application I want to have the user choose records by their title field using a Prompter popup. In the Prompter callback I want to access the choosen record by form.getRecordWithId(). Because I only get the title in the callback I have to use form.getSearchNamed() and search.getRecords() to get access to the choosen record.

Now my question is: Would it be possible to change the Prompter class so it will take key/value pairs as options and return the choosen key/value pair in the callback?

Thanks a lot,
Bernhard

[Brendan]

Hi Bernhard,

I’m not entirely sure how that would work for your situation other than to program Tap Forms specifically to allow a string / record ID key/value mapping. But then how does Tap Forms know to relate your title field to the record ID? Generic key/value mapping is one thing, but when it relates specifically to fetching a record, it’s tricky.

However, in the latest beta update I added a new search API that lets you do a generic text search on your records. Like typing into the main Search field. You can now do form.getRecordsForSearchTerm();. You’ll get back an array of records. If there’s only 1 result, you know you’ve got an exact match. Or you can just pull off the record from the first element of the array to get the first occurrence. And if you pass in double-quotes in your search, then Tap Forms will do an exact match search, but the result will still be an array of records. Just one record in that case.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Sam Moffatt]

Depending on how you’re composing the strings to put in the field to begin with, you can build the inverted index yourself and then use that to back reference the original document ID with the result you get back from the prompter. I’ll dig a little longer to see if I can find an example of code that does something like that.

[Bernhard]

Sounds good – thanks for the advice!
For the record, here is how it works:

var customerRecordIds = [];

// Callback function of the Prompter call.
function chooseCustomerCallback() {
	createInvoice(customerRecordIds[choosenTitle]);
}

// Do something with the record after the user choose one.
function createInvoice(recordId) {
	var customerRecord = form.getRecordWithId(recordId);	
	...
}

// The entry function of the script
function Erstelle_Rechnung() {	
	var titleFieldId = 'fld-aa817f3bd885458883d3e25802fd4037';
 	var customersForm = document.getFormNamed('Kunden');
 	var customers = customersForm.getRecords();
	var companyTitles = [];
	
	for (var index = 0, count = customers.length; index < count; index++) {
		const title = customers[index].getFieldValue(titleFieldId);
		companyTitles.push(title);
		// Remember the Record ID of this customer record to be used later.
		customerRecordIds[title] = customers[index].getId();
	}

	var choosenTitle;

	let prompter = Prompter.new();
	prompter.addParameter('Kunde', 'choosenTitle', 'popup', companyTitles)
		.show('Message prompt', chooseCustomerCallback);

	return null;
}

Erstelle_Rechnung();

[Bernhard]

@Sam: Sounds good – thanks for the advice!
For the record, here is how it works:

var customerRecordIds = [];

// Callback function of the Prompter call.
function chooseCustomerCallback() {
	createInvoice(customerRecordIds[choosenTitle]);
}

// Do something with the record after the user choose one.
function createInvoice(recordId) {
	var customerRecord = form.getRecordWithId(recordId);	
	...
}

// The entry function of the script
function Erstelle_Rechnung() {	
	var titleFieldId = 'fld-aa817f3bd885458883d3e25802fd4037';
 	var customersForm = document.getFormNamed('Kunden');
 	var customers = customersForm.getRecords();
	var companyTitles = [];
	
	for (var index = 0, count = customers.length; index < count; index++) {
		const title = customers[index].getFieldValue(titleFieldId);
		companyTitles.push(title);
		// Remember the Record ID of this customer record to be used later.
		customerRecordIds[title] = customers[index].getId();
	}

	var choosenTitle;

	let prompter = Prompter.new();
	prompter.addParameter('Kunde', 'choosenTitle', 'popup', companyTitles)
		.show('Message prompt', chooseCustomerCallback);

	return null;
}

Erstelle_Rechnung();

[Bernhard]

@Brendan: I think of something like the behaviour of the HTML SELECT tag:

<option value="key1">Value 1</option>
<option value="key2">Value 3</option>
...

For the Prompter class that means smething like:

var options = [
{ key: key1, value: 'Value 1' },
{ key: key2, value: 'Value 2' },
];

prompter.addParameter('Name', 'name', 'popup', options)
		.show('Message prompt', chooseCustomerCallback);

Or instead of changing the options structure an additional parameter to prompter.addParameter() for just the keys may be the better idea.

[Brendan]

Hi Bernhard,

Yes, that definitely makes sense in the way you’ve explained it for the key/value options. However, that still doesn’t get you to a record ID unless you happen to know what the internal record IDs are that you could put into the keys in the dictionary.

[Bernhard]

Hi Brendan, you are right – one have to know the record IDs. For that you already provided the record.getId() method so no trouble here :-)

[Author]

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