[Solved] Standalone Form inactivStandalone Form inactive

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Buz
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[Solved] Standalone Form inactivStandalone Form inactive

Post by Buz »

Once more into the breach, dear friends ...

Thanks to Villeroy, I have standalone forms working without macros. And, for once, a nice simple solution. He is like Atlas: he holds up the world.

However there's one more (last?) problem: when I click on my switchboard button in either standalone mode and open another form, that form has all navigation controls disabled, as well as the navigation buttons and navigation bar in the form. Furthermore, there is no DB access, so my droplist doesn't populate.

Also, when I open the switchboard form in ooBase that open another form using URL, that form also has navigation controls disabled.

I have two switchboard buttons; both called forms exhibit the same behavior in either standalone mode or in ooBase.

The plot thickens After reading lots of posts on this subject without any new insight, I just tested opening the same standalone form using a MACRO and ACTION/URL. Using the latter solution, navigation controls are disabled (View.Toolbars.Form Navigation). But all works using the macro. There is more here than meets the eye, at least my eye.

After further testing: when I open a standalone form now using macros, navigation controls are disabled, contrary to the last test. My guess: I'm missing something simple, but after some hours of research, I don't see it.

Finally, I created a MAIN switchboard form in ooBase that calls a 2nd switchboard which then calls app. forms. If the main form uses a URL, the forms called in the 2nd have nav ctls disabled. But when I switch the MAIN to a macro call to the 2nd, all is fine.

I will appreciate any help in solving what I hope is the last big problem ... for the moment.

Thanks,
Buz
Last edited by Buz on Mon Dec 19, 2016 8:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Standalone Form inactive

Post by Villeroy »

Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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Buz
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Re: Standalone Form inactive

Post by Buz »

My motto:"It's always hard until it's easy". I'm still in the hard part.

Here's my Forms Properties. It looks like the one you referenced, except yours is LL, I'm guessing.
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Re: Standalone Form inactive

Post by Villeroy »

My form is a stand-alone form. It has a data source property.
And it is a subform. It has master and slave fields.
If your form is from a stand-alone form then it's broken.
Open the form navigator, create a new form and drag the form controls from the broken form to the new one.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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Buz
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Re: Standalone Form inactive

Post by Buz »

OK. I did that, creating a new form called "CITY2", then copied/pasted nav controls from ContractorsDroplist, a form with broken controls, asn saved as copy. Then ran it standalone; The new form is still broken. All controls are disabled.

In ooBase, controls work, but I only see one row, so NEXT does nothing, nor do the others. although all buttons press properly. There are several rows in the table.

I just created a new form and added SAVE, NEXT and NEW buttons (rather than copied from a form), then saved as copy. The form works properly in ooBase, but controls are disabled in standalone mode.

Just to be clear: I'm running the new form solo, so it's not called a switchboard form.
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Last edited by Buz on Mon Dec 19, 2016 4:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Standalone Form inactive

Post by Villeroy »

This is essential: [Tutorial] Forms in OpenOffice.org Base
menu:View>Toolbars>Form Design
Button #5 "Form Navigator"
Right-click on [Forms]>New Form
Specify database, source type and source
Drag the control icons below the old form over to the new form
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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Buz
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Re: Standalone Form inactive

Post by Buz »

Thanks for you patience, Villroy. I'm using OO for little more than a week and have much to learn, but I'm working hard at it.

This is getting interesting!

I've attached a form with two sets of controls. The Save, Next and New buttons on top were added using the button tool.
The lower set were copied from a from that doesn't work.

The top set works in ooBase; the bottom set of buttons appear to depress as they should, but do nothing. How can that be?
And neither set works when I run the form standalone.
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Re: Standalone Form inactive

Post by Villeroy »

Screenshots are pointless, particularly when they do not cover any relevant part.
download/file.php?id=24806 is a stand alone form for Bibliography.biblio with an additional record counter on a subform and a screenshot of its form navigator.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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[Solved] Re: Standalone Form inactive

Post by Buz »

I finally found what I need. I tried several options, including installing OO on another computer with HSQL1.8 just in case the problem was related to HSQL4 (it isn't) and downloading a sample .odb to see those forms work as I want in standalone mode (they don't without the fix below).

I would have stumbled on the solution below a LOT sooner if I SAVED AS COPY and displayed my folder as LARGE ICONS (I use DETAILS). The form saved without the change described next is NOT a valid ooBase form; it's just a plain document. No wonder it doesn't work. When we change form properties and save, it shows in the folder as a form because it can now connect to the database. No database and it's a dumb document,

When the form is SAVED AS COPY and then opened standalone, we must first switch to design mode and change form properties. Villeroy, you may have said that but I didn't understand.

Here's what I had to do:

1. Show the design toolbar: View.Toolbars.Form Design
2. Switch to Design Mode
3. Open Form Navigator
4. RIght-click on MainForm
5, Click on the Data tab, then the open dialog box and select the proper database.
6. The Content field has disappeared as a result (I wonder why?), so reassign it from the droplist.
7. Close and Save
8. Turn Design Mode off and all will now work as expected.

And the icing on the cake: this also fixed the problem that started this ... the use of URL to call a standalone form. BUT you must also re-assign the URL so that it points to the SAVED AS COPY form that will be invoked, rather than the one assigned in ooBase,

Turn off the toolbar(s) is you don't want users changing the form.

I'm happy to be done with this!
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Re: [Solved] Standalone Form inactivStandalone Form inactive

Post by Villeroy »

As described in the [Tutorial] Standalone Forms / Switchboard
And my FreeHSQLDB macro suite includes a macro to extract and reconnect all form documents into a specified folder.
FreeHSQLDB v.0.3
-- Added module "FreeForms" which prompts for a target folder where to extract all embedded forms including any subfolders within the forms container. The stand-alone forms are saved with "soft protection" (open read-only without password). The logical forms are either linked to the Base document's registered name or its file URL.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
Ubuntu 18.04 with LibreOffice 6.0, latest OpenOffice and LibreOffice
Buz
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Re: [Solved] Standalone Form inactivStandalone Form inactive

Post by Buz »

Many thanks to you, Villeroy. I'm learning a great deal, largely because you and Sliderule. Both you and he maintain high standards which puts pressure on the rest of us to advance. Especially those of us who are new to OO. I am impressed by the quality you maintain and that of the rest of this forum.

And yes, I read many of your posts. The one you reference here, several times. But when someone is as new at this as I am, he needs to see the finished house so he can walk through it and touch the walls. Your post is terrific, now that I read it again. But I needed the house and you gave me the blueprints. Still you persisted and helped me get through it anyway. Bravo!

Buz
OpenOffice 4.1.3, HSQLDB 2.3.4 embedded, Win 10; LibreOffice 5.2.4
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