Field Evaluation Change? HELP!

[SurferNate]

My NoteLog field is broken on v8.5! I had happily used the trick of two fields and the auto enter calculation to keep timestamped notes. After upgrading to 8.5 this seems broken completely! The fields fail to update and the calculation no longer considers which field was created first.

In other words, the NewNote Field clears but the NoteLog field does not update with the NewNote data!

This is scary. I have quite a few places where this was keeping perfect track of things and now it's not functioning at all.

I haven't read around much yet to see how to deal with this but this is a real problem.

Nathan

Edited July 21, 2006 by Guest

[comment]

What is "the trick of two fields and the suto enter calculation"?

AFAIK, auto-entered calculations have stopped depending on field creation order since version 8.0v2. The method mentioned here should work regardless of field creation order - interestingly, you were the original poster. Are you saying this does not work in 8.5?

[SurferNate]

Thanks I was typing quickly, and no, this is different.

"since 8.0v2" may be my problem.

There is a trick that worked in 7 and 8 as such.

Create Field 1 "NoteLog"

Auto Enter Calculation =

Case(not isEmpty(NewNote) ; NewNote & Get(CurrentDate) & " " & [paragraph symbol] & NoteLog)

Create Field 2 "NewNote"

Auto Enter Calculation=

Case(not isEmpty(NoteLog);"")

If you type something in NewNote, and tab out of the field, NoteLog auto enters the data and then NewNote Clears automatically. This is an old trick I learned from LaRetta and used a lot.

I know I have difficulty communicating these things well.

[SurferNate]

Comment,

In the latest version am I correct to understand that circular references are simply no longer functional?

AND

Does Get(ActiveFieldName) actually produce the expected results now? (it has been very problematic for me in the past)

I can try that though...this one frustrated me because evaluation based on creation order was a behavior that was very reliable and useful.

[comment]

I am not aware of any problems with Get(ActiveFieldName) - now or in the past. However, the method using Get(ActiveFieldName) is trying to control the results of re-evaluation, based on WHICH field was modified. It is NOT controlling the order of evaluation.

If I understand correctly, your current method requires the NoteLog field to evaluate BEFORE the NewNote clears.

And it seems that you never updated your version 8, so it's only now that you have run into the problems described in these threads:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/170367/

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/174693/

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/174768/

To put it in a nutshell: starting with 8.0v2 you have no way of controlling the evaluation order, so your current method does not work. That does not mean that "circular references are simply no longer functional". But circular references that depend on evaluation order cannot be trusted to work reliably. See if you can find an alternative method in one of the above threads.