Syntax for referencing another column in the table

[avianmanagement]

In the metedata editor for a table I have two fields

cMicrochip
cfk_dmicrochipreader

I only want cfk_dmicrochipreader to be enabled if cmicrochip is not empty

I have entered in the metadate entry

formitem.enabled
empty(cmicrochip)
F

and another entry
formitem.enabled
!empty(cmicrochip)
T

This does not however seem to work in the section where the field is. I can only assume I have the syntax wrong.

Please can someone tell me how this should look.

[barrymavin]

In the metedata editor for a table I have two fields

cMicrochip
cfk_dmicrochipreader

I only want cfk_dmicrochipreader to be enabled if cmicrochip is not empty

I have entered in the metadate entry

formitem.enabled
empty(cmicrochip)
F

and another entry
formitem.enabled
!empty(cmicrochip)
T

This does not however seem to work in the section where the field is. I can only assume I have the syntax wrong.

Please can someone tell me how this should look.

Reading the metadata doc you use conditional metadata.

formitem.enabled[empty(..)]

You put an OData encoded expression inside the [ ].

OData expressions don’t use standard operators such as = you use eq ne etc

[barrymavin]

Reading the metadata doc you use conditional metadata.

formitem.enabled[empty(..)]

You put an OData encoded expression inside the [ ].

OData expressions don’t use standard operators such as = you use eq ne etc

Use true and false not F and T also

[barrymavin]

Use true and false not F and T also

And to answer you other query. The metadata keys can be anything. formitem. is a special prefix that causes that metadata to be applied to a formitem for that column name.

You can have custom keys such as David.xxx which is custom metadata. You can process these at load time to do clever things.

So as you can see there is a lot that can be done with metadata.

First thing is to sit down and think. Too many developers skip this functionality and opt to code when they don’t need to.

Bear in mind though. Metadata is for apps as the data dictionary is to the database engine I.e validation in the DD is active in Lianja database engine including Lianja SQL server.

[avianmanagement]

Hi Barry,

I still can't get this to work

In the metadata editor for the column I have:

Attribute formitem.enabled
condition [empty(cmicrochip) eq true]
value false,true

On the section it is enabled no matter what the value of cmicrochip is

[barrymavin]

Hi David,

the […] syntax is when you are setting the metadata yourself using ALTER TABLE. If you are using text metadata editor you can omit the [ and ] from the condition.

Also, you don’t need the “eq true” as empty() is a logical condition itself.

[avianmanagement]

OK so now I have in the metadata editor

Attribute formitem.enabled
condition empty(cmicrochip)
value false,true

it still does not work

[avianmanagement]

Looking at this more the obvious way to do it is in code with alter table commands as it's then all in a prg and make it more robust and quicker to implement

[avianmanagement]

Doing this using alter table sets the values in the metatable fine.

However when setting lets say the caption property for it to reflect in the section it needs to be formitem.cpation rather than caption.

Once again am I doing this in the wrong metadate table, or am I missing something here?

[barrymavin]

OK so now I have in the metadata editor

Attribute formitem.enabled
condition empty(cmicrochip)
value false,true

it still does not work

Enabled and visible are only applied in runtime mode not development mode.

Click into desktop app view (runtime mode).

Also... Just to refresh your memory. The "App Inspector" is your friend.

Double click the "Events" tab and it all float in its own window. You can then see what metadata is being applied as it is logged.



Metadata is applied whenever a UI element is refreshed. So conditional metadata can be used to handle context sensitive operations.