[Article] Working with record objects

by Karel Broer
Freecolours

As a former Filemaker developer, I disliked words like 'classes', 'objects', 'variables' and other horrible programming words...

Since working with Servoy I began to get a little grip on these things and I especially start to like working with record objects.

"Record objects...?" you say; ".. where the heck do I need that for?" Let me unveil the secrets behind working with record objects, by giving you a few common examples:

Example 1: Assign an organization to a person

First, we start by storing the -selected- person record as an object in a global by doing:

globals.vPersonRecord = forms.mycontacts.foundset.getRecord(forms.mycontacts.foundset.getSelectedIndex())

(You can create this global on the fly, but you can also use Servoy's global media dataprovider.)

Next, show a form in dialog and find an organization. You show the foundset in a list of organizations in the dialog. Then, after performing the search, you want to select an organization from the list and put the organization id in the person record, in a field called 'organization_id'.

To make sure you assign the organization to the right person record, most of the times you now probably perform a search for the person record (or if you are a more enhanced SQL programmer, you perform an UPDATE query).

But we do not need that anymore, we just do this:

globals.vPersonRecord.organisation_id = organisation_id
databaseManager.saveData()

Pretty neat, ain't it?

As long as you perform a 'databaseManager.saveData()' after inserting values in the object, everything goes as smooth as pouring Heineken into a beer glass... :-)

Example 2: Set a related record from the record object in another object global variable

globals.vOrganisationRecord = globals.vPersonRecord.contact_to_organisation.getRecord()
globals.vOrganisationRecord.salesperson_id = globals.vPersonRecord.contact_id //set sales person contact id in organisation record
globals.vOrganisationRecord.field2 = 'blablabla' //other values
databaseManager.saveData()

Example 3: Get records from -many- relations away

Get records from -many- relations away:
globals.vOrganisationAddressRecord = vPersonRecord.contact_to_organisation.organisation_to_address.getRecord()
globals.vOrganisationAddressRecord.street = 'Algolweg'
globals.vOrganisationAddressRecord.nr = ' 9A'
globals.vOrganisationAddressRecord.zip = '3821 BG'
globals.vOrganisationAddressRecord.city = 'Amersfoort'
databaseManager.saveData()

Example 4: I always CREATE a record by doing this

globals.vRecord = forms.mycontact.foundset.getRecord(forms.mycontact.foundset.getSelectedIndex())
databaseManager.saveData()

//insert any value you like
databaseManager.saveData()

That way you're -always- sure you've edited the newly created record.

Example 5

//delete a record
globals.vPersonRecord.deleteRecord()

//duplicate a record
globals.vPersonRecord.duplicateRecord()

Example 6

You could also give a record object to another method as an argument, like:

workFlowMethod(globals.vOrganisationRecord)

Example 7: Retrieve a record object from an other method

var vRecord = arguments[0] //arguments are set as mentioned in example 6

var vOrgID = vRecord.organisation_id
var vName = vRecord.organisation_name
var vSalesperson = vRecord.organisation_to_contact_saleperson.first_last_name

Example 8: Looping through a set of records:

for ( var i = 0; i < mycontacts.foundset.getSize(); i ++) {
    var vRecord = forms.mycontacts.foundset.getRecord(i +1)

    //do whatever, like:
    var vName = vRecord.first_last_name
    var vBirthDate = vRecord.birthdate
    
    databaseManager.saveData()
}

As long as you put the correct fieldnames behind the variable you can alway retrieve ALL record data from the object!

I hope you see the huge advantage of working with records objects!

I wish y'all lot's of fun working with record objects!