More about the Data Entry and Report Example

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More about the Data Entry and Report Example

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The HTML Samples

You are encouraged to study the code for these samples. All of the files (WOs and ASP pages) were created using the web application wizards. Once created, they were loaded intot the studio and customized. Most of these customizations were quite simple. Some of the changes you might want to checkout are:

All samples were created using Template.asp as the<head> template. This template contains all of the style information and provides the login logic used by each page.
The samples use an external CSS file for all styles. The name of this CSS file is defined in Global.asa and stored in a session property. So, changing one line in Global.asa can give your application a completely new look.
Logins are maintained by checking for a valid login name in a database. Once confirmed, the login name is stored as a cookie within the browser. As soon as the user, closes the browser, the cookie disappears.
Reports and Entry capabilities are provided by the same WO. For example, Customer.asp and CustomerList.asp both use the same WO - oCustomer.
Login logic determines if a user has save or delete rights. Notice that the login screen could be hidden from a user. Without the login screen a user would not ever realize that the additional save and delete capabilities even exist.
All of the samples are using Runtime components (labels and input controls). This give you great flexibility. If you change the Data-Dictionaries and recompile your WOs, all pages will acquire the new change.
Try running debug.asp. This toggles a debug mode in the pages. When toggled to ON, these pages will all display the data that has been submitted by the browser. This is both a very useful debugging technique and a great way understand how data is submitted to the server.
Study the samples in following order:
- Customer and Sales Person - both provide basic data entry and reporting.
- Login - See how the login logic works. This provides a great example of creating a custom behavior in a WO. In this case, the only thing the login WO does is to check if a passed login value is valid. Once you understand how easy it is to create your own interfaces, you can do just about anything.
- Vendor - this supports an additional button that lets you run two types of reports - a vendor listing and an parts listing for the selected vendor.
- Inventory - This has a more complicated multi-file data entry set up, and this supports two types of reports.
- Customer Report - This is a drill down report. From customer we drill into a customer zoom (all created using the report wizard). We also create two child reports - one for Order Header and one for Order Detail (using the child report wizard). We then added a few lines of code to the customer zoom so that it calls the Order header child report after displaying the customer zoom data. The Order header report zooms into the order detail report. So, from customer we can zoom into detail, view all orders, and from any order view all detail.
- Order Report - We also added the Child Order report directly to the menu. When called from the menu, all orders are printed in customer groups. When called from the customer report, just the one customer's orders are shown.

Some Additional Samples

Here are a couple of other samples you should try running. Load these ASP files into the studio and study the code:

Customer0.asp

This shows many different examples of using the DDValue property in an ASP page. The same type of control is created using multiple techniques. Study this code carefully.

Customer1.asp

This uses the DDAUTO parameter in DDValue to create all of the controls. DDAUTO tells the WO to create a the most appropriate control for a field based on the field's DD characteristics. This is powerful.

Customer2.asp

This sample lets you see how you can mix server side ASP script (VBScript) and WO processing power. In this case, the controls are all built inside of a single VBScript sub-routine. This subroutine makes the required calls to the WO.

Customer3.asp

This sample will show you how to create a multi page data entry screen. The first page asks for a couple of input items. When you click "next", the partial data will be submitted to the server (calling the same ASP file) and the data will be validated. If valid, the next page is displayed. If not valid, the first page is redisplayed with the errors properly marked.

Vendor0.asp

This shows you how you can quickly prototype a data entry screen and a report using the AutoEntry and AutoReport capabilities of the WO. The entry screen is built using a single WO function call that says "build a data entry page for each field in the file using the DDs to determine how the page should look. The report is built using a single WO function that says "Build a report for all fields in the file". Generally, this type of automated entry is good for prototyping but not flexible enough for an actual application. However, check out the results - they look pretty good.

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