Form not working

[breicher]

I created a database for tracking PC inventory and trouble tickets last summer. It took a fair amount of help from users here to get the web portion going and now I've been away from it that I'm not even sure where to start looking on this issue.

at http://helpdesk.chesaningschools.net/FMPro?-db=Helpdesk.fp5&-format=helpdesk.html&-lay=Technicians%20View&-view

(password is support) I've got a form that brings up a room list based on the building selected. That list should come from a filemaker database called room. I've attached all of the related files. If someone could help me get this resolved I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Brad

filemaker.zip

[Garry Claridge]

Two ways exist for dynamically filling the Room select list:

1. Query the database each time the building changes; or

2. Use Javascript to do the change.

With Javascript you would pre-load a Javascript array with all of the values, then use an "onchange=" within the Select tag to reload the Option list.

Good Luck.

Garry

[Garry Claridge]

I see that you are using the Javascript method. I will have a closer look over the next couple of days.

All the best.

Garry

[Garry Claridge]

Found the problem :

Two of your room values have carriage returns in them (which breaks the Javascript):

Big Rock > "lab"

High School > ""

Works fine after they are removed. However, you can add some Javascript to test for them and remove them.

All the best.

Garry

[breicher]

Wow, thank you so very much. I'll give it a try tomorrow morning.

Thanks!

Brad

[breicher]

That was it! Thanks so much.

One last question. When I select High School the room list moved to below the building list. What is causing that?

Thanks again,

Brad

[breicher]

That was it. Thank you so much.

One last question. When I select High School the room list moves. What is causing that?

Thanks,

Brad

[Garry Claridge]

It dosen't move on my browser (Safari). It is just a spacing thing because of the longer names in that list. Make that cell, of the table, a bit wider!

All the best.

Garry

[Garry Claridge]

To speed-up the page loading you may want to have a look at what is happening on the "Technicians View" Layout. You can even use a cut-down version for the web.

Also, you may be able to cut-down on the amount of data loading into the browser by abbreviating the Javascript. A bit like this:

[FMP-InlineAction: -db=Room.fp5, -sortfield=Building, -sortfield=Room, -max=all, -findall]

[FMP-Record]if ("[FMP-Field:Building]" == cB) { aR[i++] = "[FMP-Field:Room]"; } else { if (cB != "") { aBR[j++] = aR; var aR = new Array(); i = 0; }; cB = "[FMP-Field:Building]"; aR[i++] = "[FMP-Field:Room]"; };[/FMP-Record]

[/FMP-InlineAction]

Garry

[breicher]

To speed-up the page loading you may want to have a look at what is happening on the "Technicians View" Layout. You can even use a cut-down version for the web.

I'm not sure what you are saying. What is happening?

[Garry Claridge]

The page is taking about 10 sec to load into my browser. However, it is doing a fair amount of work.

If the loading time is a problem, ways exist to attempt to speed it up a bit. One of those is to cut down on the amount of characters sent to the browser. Another way may be to remove any unneccessary "Calculation" fields from the Layout.

All the best.

Garry

[breicher]

I made the change in the java script but that didn't make much difference in speed. Is there anything else you can suggest?

Thanks,

Brad

[Garry Claridge]

Change this line:

aBR[j++] = aRs;

to

aBR[j++] = aR;

However, that should not make a difference to the speed.

I also took the "-lay=Technicians%20View&" out of the calling URL.

I'll have a look at ways of optimizing the Javascript.

All the best.

Garry

[breicher]

Gary, the page loads almost instantly on the machine that is hosting it. Does that mean anything?

Thanks,

Brad

[Garry Claridge]

I've just tried it again (across the Internet) and the speed is not too bad. It is not significantly different to the loading of other pages. It maybe something to do with having IWP on.

All the best.

Garry

Edited September 20, 2005 by Guest

[breicher]

What is IWP?

[CyborgSam]

IWP = Instant Web Publishing. The term is sometimes used generically to denote any version of FileMaker doing any type of web publishing. I'll let the purists argue amongst themselves about this evolution of language...

[Garry Claridge]

When you goto the "Application" preferences to configure the "Web Companion" plug-in you will see a checkbox for enabling/disabling "Instant Web Publishing".

IWP is the system FM uses to generate its own pages. Whereas Custom Web Publishing (CWP) is the system for publishing your own pages with CDML tags.

All the best.

Garry

[breicher]

I disabled IPW and there was no difference in load time. I turned it back on because my techs often use to access my databases from machines without the FM client.

Brad