My test script is not finding items in dynamic web list control - list in code not updated with current info - list

I am having a problem in QTP with selection of a web list box and I have exhausted what I know to do to resolve it. I am hoping someone can help.
There are 5 controls in a container, 2 webedit controls and 3 weblist controls. Together, they allow entry of accounts associated with a customer, and there can be 16 accounts for any customer. There are only ever five controls active at any time, whether editing or entering information for an account. When the information for an account is entered and accepted, it changes to a read-only table row and a new set of controls appears below it for entry of the next account.
The information entered in these controls is the account number, type, description, designation, and status. The status value is contingent on the designation, and the items in the list change dynamically depending on what the user specifies for the designation. The status list is not enabled until the designation is specified.
After some experimenting with timing, I was able to get past an issue where the status list for the first account was seen by QTP as disabled even though it was clearly enabled. I was then able to advance to entry of the second account.
I change the designation on the second account and try to select an appropriate item (specified in a data table) in the status list. My specification from the data table is never found. I figured it was a problem with verbiage differences and also that I should probably anticipate that and address it now, so I wrote a function to accept three parameters, the list and up to two search items. My function searches the listbox passed to it and looks for a match (full or partial) on the search items it receives. Here is where I encountered a significant problem.
The list of the control my function received was from the previous iteration of the test, corresponding to the designation of that account. This is why my function was not finding the selection item. The list on the screen shows the appropriate items, which suggests that I am looking at the wrong object. I also get the ‘object is disabled’ message when I put my data table value directly into the list with the select statement.
The active controls are displayed below the readonly presentation of the previously entered accounts. I am very new to QTP, but I also read documentation. My only theory at this point is that ATP is not passing the right list to my function… that perhaps that how it was learned included the position, which will change each time. However, the spy identifies the screen control as the same item I processed for the preceding account, which makes my theory suspect. In addition, the other four controls, which are not dynamically changing, do not present the same problem. I can put the information in them consistently.
I apologize for the length of this question, but I wanted to be as thorough and clear as possible. Can anyone help me get past this obstacle.

There are many possiblities why it is exposing this behaviour, so let's start with something simple:
Did you try a myWebList.Refresh call before you do something with the listbox? Refresh re-identifies the object.
Have you put a break point (red dot) inside the custom function. Just see what is happening there. With the debug viewer you can enter a realtime command in the scope of that function like msgbox myWebList.exist(0) or myWebList.Highlight
Can you see how the disabled property is propagated to the webpage? If you can 'Object Spy' it as TO property, you can add it in the GUI Map description.
A more sophisticated aproach is to create a Description with the weblist properties. If you can read the disabled property as an RO property from the 'Object Spy', you can use it as an identifier like "attribute/customDisabledProperty:=false".
If you cannot correctly read the disabled property, you can create a description object and do a count on the amount of items that match that description on that page with numberOfLists = Browser("my browser").Page("my page").ChildObjects(myDescription).Count and get the last list with Set lastList = Browser("my browser").Page("my page").ChildObjects(myDescription)(numberOfLists-1)
Keep us informed. Depending on how this works out, we can work into a direction for a solution.

I figured this out early this morning. There are 4 different list boxes used, each made visible or enabled dependent on the selection of the previous list. This is why the spy found the one listed when I was using it and also why the items in the list were not appropriate to what I had selected and also why it appeared disabled to QTP but enabled to me.
I was selecting the same designation when trying to spy it. It was intuitive that the controls were all the same. I am also a windows programmer and I would have populated the same list each time with the appropriate list items, and I presumed that was what the web developer was doing. It was not and it took some time to figure that out. Now that I figured it out, everything is working fine, and I came back to report that. This was a significant, time-intensive lesson.
Thank you very much for your input. It is still useful because I am very new to QTP and every thing I learn is of value.

Related

How can I loop only the page records from the selected one to the latest?

I'm trying to loop all records displayed in a page, from the selected one to the end of the rows:
For example here, as I'm selecting only the 5th row it will loop through 5th and 6th row (as there are no more rows below)
What I've been trying is this:
ProdOrderLine := Rec;
REPEAT
UNTIL ProdOrderLine.NEXT = 0;
But it will loop through all records in the table which are not even displayed in the page...
How can I loop only the page records from the selected one to the latest?
Try Copy instead of assignment. Assignment only copies values of there field from one instance of record-variable to another, it died not copy filters or keys (sort order).
Alas, I have to mention that this is uncommon scenario to handle records like this in BC. General best practice approach would be to ask user to select all the records he or she needs with the shift+click, ctrl+click or by dragging the mouse. In that case you will use SetSelectionFiler to instantly grab ask the selected records.
This is how it works across the system and this how user should be taught to work. It is a bad idea to add a way to interact with record that only works in one page in the whole system even if users are asking for it bursting into tears. They probably just had this type of interaction in some other system they worked with before. I know this is a tough fight but it worth it. It is for the sake of stability (less coding = less bugs) and predictability (a certain way of interaction works across all the pages) of the system.

Oracle APEX - Reusable Pages?

We have some tables in our database that all have the same attributes but the table is named differently for each. I'm not sure of the Architect's original intent in creating them in this way, but this is what I have to work with.
My question for all the expert Oracle APEX developers: is there away to create a reusable page that I can pass the table name to and that table name would be used in the reporting region and DML processing of that page?
I've read up on templates and plugins and don't see a path forward with those options. Of course, I'm new to webdevelopment, so forgive my ignorance.
We are using version 18.2.
Thanks,
Brian
For reporting purposes, you could use a source which is a function that returns a query (i.e. a SELECT statement). Doing so, you'd dynamically decide which table to select from.
However, DML isn't that simple. Instead of default row processing, you should write your own process(es) so that you'd insert/update/delete rows in the right table. I've never done that, but I'd say that it is possible. Basically, you'd keep all logic in the database (for example, a package) and call those procedures from your Apex application.
You could have multiple regions on one page; one region per table. Then use dynamic actions to show/hide the regions and run the select query based on a table name selected by the user.
Select table name from a dropdown or list
Show the region that matches the table name (dynamic action)
Hide the any other regions that are visible (dynamic action)
Refresh the selected region so the data loads (dynamic action)
If that idea works let me know and I can provide a bit more guidance.
I never tried it with reports, but would it work to put all three reports in a single page, and set them via an Item to have Server-Side Conditions that decide what gets shown in the page? You'd likely need separate items with a determined value for the page to recognize and display.
I know I did that to set buttons such as Delete, Save and Create dynamically, rather than creating two or more separate pages for handling editing of certain information. In this case it regarded which buttons to shown based on a reports' primary key being sent to said "Edit" page. If the value was empty, it meant you wanted to create a new record (also because the create button/link sent no PK). If said PK was sent (via a edit button/link), then you'd have the page recognize it and hide the create button and rather show the edit button.

"general" variable in oracle apex

I'm developing an application in Oracle Application Express (APEX).
First page contains list of projects as a tabular report.
Clicking any of the rows forwards to the next page, where records can be edited. I've implemented it with following settings:
Link column: link to custom target
Target: Page in this application
Until this is fine.
My problem is how to pass actual report to the next page?
My table, which is the basis of the report has primary key (ID), and also owner & title combination is unique. Currently ID column is not included in the report.
Also the second page doesn't currently contain field showing ID, as this information isn't important to the users.
I know I could set ID column in report, and create a read only (even hidden) text box in the next page, however I'm looking for a more elegant solution. What is the standard way to solve this?
I wonder if you are asking: "How do I pass a value from page 1 to page 2 so page 2 can use the value to do a query and present the results. If so, here is how it's done.
On page P1, the report, for example, select the attributes for the report region under the region in the Rendering pane on the left of the page designed.
Under Attribute Properties on the right side, look for Link Column and set it to "Link to custom target". Then click Target.
Select the page and then in the Set Items section, on the left, under name, select the PK ID field to receive the passed value ex: P2_ID. On the right under Value select the field to pass the value, ex: #P1_ID# and click ok.
Now, when the link on page 1 report is clicked, the P1_ID is saved into Session state by Apex and passed to P2 which then performs a FETCH using the passed value.
You can read more about Session State here. Also, be aware there are security settings which affect what params can and can't be passed in the URL.
Clicking "Session" in the developer toolbar will enable you to see the session variables being passed.
If you mean "How do I store values in the app that can be accessed anywhere in the app - like a global variable" Then look at Application Items.
As always, please include version numbers in these posts.
When you create a target page let's say Page 3
And you create some items, let's say P3_ITEM_1,P3_ITEM_2, etc
You can assign values to each of them through the url in the original page
The complete APEX URL Syntax looks like this:
http://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=AppId:PageId:Session:Request:Debug:ClearCache:Params:ParamValues:PrinterFriendly
Let’s take a closer look:
http:// – the protocol, can be http or https
apex.oracle.com – your domain/host/server, whatever you want to call it. Can also be localhost.
/pls – indicates that you are using Oracle HTTP Server with mod_plsql. If you are using APEX Listener or Embedded PL/SQL Gateway this part is obsolete/missing.
/apex – the entry from your dads.conf file (this a file on your application-server or EPG where the target database is configured) – in case of EPG its just one entry pointing to localhost, in case of an OAS you can have multiple entries, each pointing to an other database
/f?p= – procedure “f” is called and parameter “p” is set to the complete rest of the string. Remember: APEX uses mod_plsql. “f” is a public procedure, this is the main entrypoint for APEX. Or you could say: “f” is APEX.
AppId – the number or the Alias of the Application
:PageId – the number or the Alias of the Page
:Session – unique Session ID, can be 0 for Public Pages or empty (then APEX creates a new Session)
:Request – a Request Keyword. This is basically free text, just a string you can specify to react in a process or region condition on. e.g. you could pass the keyword “CREATE” and have a condition on the delete button of your page saying “dont’t display this button if request is CREATE”.
In other words: use the REQUEST to control the behaviour of your page.
When pressing a button, the button sets the REQUEST to the button-value (e.g. SAVE), so that you can control the processes in the page processing (Submit) phase.
:Debug – set to YES (uppercase!) switches on the Debug-Mode which renders debug-messages and timestamps in your Browser window. This helps to detect wrong behaviour of your page or performance issues and everything else. Every other value then YES turns the Debug-Mode off
:ClearCache – you can put a page id or a list of page ids here (comma-separated) to clear the cache for these pages (set session state to null, …). But there is more: RP resets the pagination of reports on the page(s), a collection name deletes the collection, APP clears all pages and application-items, SESSION does the same as APP but for all applications the session-id has been used in.
:Parameters – comma seperated list of page-item names. Good practice is to set only those page-items which are on the page you are going to. Accepts page-items as well as application-items.
:ParamValues – comma separated list of values. Each value is assigned to the corresponding Parameter provided in ParamNameList (first value assigned to first parameter, second value assigned to second parameter, and so on…).
The trick here is not having values which contain either a comma “,” or a colon “:”. Both would lead to side-effects and errors, as APEX gets confused when parsing the URL. Using a comma works, if enclosed by slashes: e.g. \123,89.
:PrinterFriendly – set to YES (uppercase!) switches the page into PrinterFriendly-Mode, uses the Printerfriendly template to render the Page. You can also hide regions or other elements in PrinterFriendly-Mode using the PRINTER_FRIENDLY variable in a condition.
In your case you'd use Params:ParamValues like this:
P3_ITEM_1,P3_ITEM_2:someValue_1,someValue_2
Documentation

Making a Row Read Only in a tabular form based on table value

I have a tabular form which is updated throughout the year and i wanted to prevent users from editing certain rows. Currently the 'row type' is hard coded however I want the application admin to control which 'row types' are readable / write at certain times. My answered question, click here.
Currently a dynamic action is fired which prevents the rows that contain the type 'manager figure' and 'sales_target' being edited.
I have created a table with the three row types against each customer. Each status is set by a number: 0 to 3 (These i will decode into something meaningful for users).
0 - Row with that row type is read only.
1 - Users can enter into the row with that row type.
2 - row is read only with that row type.
3 - row is complete and set to read only.
I have created a new form (new tab) for the admin user to maintain each status.
Currently for Customer 'Big Toy Store' rows should be set as follows:
Manager Figure row should be read only (since set to 2)
Sales should be readable (since set to 0)
Sales target should be writable (since set to 1)
Please can i be pointed in the right direction, ive looked into jquery but struggling to work out how to pass the output of an sql query to it, so it can be used to determine which rows should be read only.
Link:apex.oracle.com
workspace: apps2
user: developer.user
password: DynamicAction
application name: Application 71656 Read only Rows for Tabular Form
I'm not sure that a tabular form is a good format to work out this idea. As you can see, you require quite a bit of javascript to produce the results you want. Not only that, but this is all client side too, and thus there are some security risks to take into account. After all, I could just run some Firebug and disable or revert all things you did, and even change the numbers. Especially with sales figures, which is something you most definitely do want altered by everybody and is also the nature of your question, security is important.
There are more elegant ways here for you to control this, and not in the least to reduce the amount of highly customized javascript code. For example, you could do away with the tabular form, and instead implement a modal popup from an interactive report. Since the modal popup would be an iframe and thus a different page, you can create a form page. On a form page you have a lot more control over what happens to certain elements. You can specify conditions, read-only conditions, or use authorization schemes. All things you can not evidently use in a tabular form.
I'd think you'd do yourself a service by thinking this over again, and explore a different option. How much of a dealbreaker is using a tabular form actually?
You need the user. You need to know what group he belongs to, and then this has to be checked against the different statusses and rows have to be en/disabled. Do you really want this to happen on the client side?
I'm not saying it can't be done in a tabular form and javascript. It can, I'm just really doubting this is the correct approach!

Is there a table which holds all possible states of a determined work Item type in TFS?

I'm developing a Time Tracking system in TFS so we can control how much time is spent in each task. I'm doing it by checking changes in work items states, and recording the time between states.
I'm using WCF and TFS2010 alert subscription.
Then I noticed the State column in the WorkItem table holds a string, instead of an ID pointing to a State.
With that in mind, I noticed I would have to parse each state and check if it corresponds to some string. And then, some day, someone might want to change the State name. Then we're doomed.
But before I hardcore (or put in some random config.xml)... let me ask, is there a table which holds all possible states of a determined work Item type in TFS?
The states of work item types are stored in the process template files. You can export the work item type to an xml file using witadmin.exe and see the allowed values of the "State" in there.
Programmatically, you can use the Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client namespace to get the WorkItemType object of your work item type, look for the FieldDefinition object of the "State" in the FieldDefinitions property, then get the possible states from the AllowedValues property of FieldDefinition class.