Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: list boxes not stable

On 06/23/2011 06:21 AM, Andreas Säger wrote:
> Am 22.06.2011 09:59, Tom Cloyd wrote:
> > My list box disaster just don't quit.
> >
> > To this point, I've learned that the only quick, simple way to get a
> > list box onto a form is to use the list box wizard. Last night it
> > worked. Tonight it worked. Then, it stopped.
> >
> > I now have a form with 5 list boxes. Three have spontaneously, quite
> > without reason, disabled themselves. They passively display the value in
> > their source table pointed to by the key value in the linked main table
> > fie.d. BUT, the display is now a ghostly gray. I have had to change the
> > background color just to see it at all. They also no longer are a part
> > of the tab order and you cannot click into them at all. Also, the drop
> > down no longer works at all. It is now just a data display field, not a
> > list box. Worthless. I have poured over their properties for over an
> > hour, trying to find the problem. No luck.
> >
> > Another formerly working list box appears still to work, but will not
> > update the main record field to which it is linked (this is the problem
> > I was having last night, before I started using only the wizard to make
> > list boxes).
> >
> > Finally, I find that I can no longer CREATE functioning list boxes,
> > using the wizard, which puts me out of the list box business altogether.
> >
> > I just rebooted, hoping it might help, but it didn't (small chance!).
> >
> > You can download this troubled database for examination HERE
> > <http://www.tomcloyd.com/misc/storage_containers.zip>. Look at the
> > "storage containers > items" form.
> >
> > You'll see that my subform is working fine, The three brown-background
> > list boxes are now duds. The "quadrant" list box appears to work but
> > actually does nothing to the main table. The "macro-container" list box
> > is recently created, and does exactly what the brown boxes do: nothing.
> >
> > Any ideas, anyone?
>
> This type of database uses to work very well for me, particularly the 
> list boxes use to work flawlessly.
> Your relations appear somewhat messed up (at least unclear to me). 
> This may impose some difficulties entering valid data.
> Each container is of one type, thus the 1-n relation.
> Each of the items belongs to one container, but the form design 
> indicates that you want many of the same items distributed in 
> different containers. So you need a list of containers, a list of 
> items and an inventory list mapping many item-IDs to many 
> container-IDs. The mapping table constitutes the subform with a column 
> filled by list boxes so you fill many different items into the main 
> form's selected container (see my example file linked in the other post).
> Each room belongs to one container, I think. But why does it share the 
> same foreign key with a location table? Is there a location (place) in 
> the room or is it the geographical location of the whole container?
>
> The main cause of your list box problem is that your main form is 
> based on a view. Views are always read-only.
>
> [Tutorial] Read-Only in Base :
> http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=83&t=26448
>
> Base is very picky in this respect. But with the given tool set it is 
> always(?) possible to get a writable main form from one table and as 
> many writable subforms as needed so you can edit arbitrary complex 
> relations across table boundaries.
Andreas,

I am grateful for your post, which I encountered at a particularly 
interesting time.

Considering the possibility that the suggestion made by someone else 
that LO base had become corrupted (in other words, that regressions had 
appeared) as a result of the transition from Open office to LibreOffice, 
and that with no dedicated Base programmer on board with Libreoffice we 
weren't likely to get a fix quickly, I just installed OpenOffice on 
another computer, and verified that I COULD get a view to supply data to 
a list box, as long as the main table involved was not a view. I took 
this to be the behavior BEFORE the transition to LibreOffice.

I was preparing to have both LO and OO installed on all 3 of my 
computers, and use the latter for Base work. Not an entirely happy prospect.

Then I saw your post, and verified that the behavior I just saw in OO is 
also in LO: I CAN have sorted tables (views) supply data to list boxes, 
as long as the underlying main form is a table, not a view. Sorted list 
boxes are a necessity for my database applications.

So...I can now simply go ahead with using LO. A great relief.

Now the priority is to get the documentation to be specific as to how to 
make this thing work. That said documentation did not so spell things 
out was the cause of my great chase through the wilderness in recent 
days. This need not have happened.

We don't need to fix the program - just the documentation.

Andreas, thanks again (and thanks too for all others who have stuck with 
me through this journey).

Tom Cloyd, MS MA
tc@tomcloyd.com
(435) 272-3332
St. George/Cedar City, Utah

--
Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to users+help@global.libreoffice.org
In case of problems unsubscribing, write to postmaster@documentfoundation.org
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted