FYI: Trapping an update (Forms 5)

Ok, originally I was going to ask for help in trying to trap the update of one single item, but I figured out an answer and so I wanted to share it with you all.

I have a data block which reads from a VIEW which contains 3 base table columns and one column function for returning text from another data base (via database link).

If user attempts to update the text, I must intercept the change, handle it, and then allow the normal UPDATE to proceed so that other columns may be updated normally. The system must not try to update the column pointing to the column function in the view (would result in "virtual column not allowed here").

It turns out, that a combination of three things works fine:
1. The original text is saved in another item (Control item)

   so that it can be referred to.
2. a Pre-Update trigger on the data block is a good place

   to intercept the update on each record in a tabular canvas. 3. After detecting the change to the specific item and

   handling it myself, setting the Item's property UPDATE_COLUMN    to false effectively tells the update process to skip it,    and the other columns are happily updated just fine.

Robert Proffitt
Beckman Coulter
Brea California
RTProffitt AT beckman DOT com

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Share what you know. Learn what you don't. Received on Fri Sep 17 1999 - 00:09:48 CEST