Problem with IWP adding new record via portal? 2 problems...

[Marshall Reeves]

Hi all,

I have a solution that has been running fine on FMSA 7 for a long time. Recently upgraded to FMSA 8 and thought it was fine, but discovered a weird problem today.

One layout in the database has a basic "time log" type portal on it. It shows a given day on the layout, and the portal shows any activities for that day. Each record in the portal has a text field for "activity type" (choose from a dropdown that is populated from a value list) and a field for hours (also from a value list).

Below the portal is a button linked to a script. The script only has two commands:

1. Commit Record/Request

2. Open Record/Request

When viewed via IWP, this has the effect of:

1. Saving any changes to the data on the portal.

2. Adding a new blank line for another "activity" entry in the portal.

Worked find in 7.0, but now in 8.0 when a user clicks on the button, the field for the activity type is change from whatever value is there to a simple - character (dash). This only happens for any activity type that had a - in the actual text. If the activity type had no dash character in it, then it stays as it should.

For example, if the user had an entry in the portal that was activity type "Consultation - private", then hitting the Submit button would cause this entry to change to just a -. If the entry said "Private Consultation" then it stays that way.

Problem 2: On a similar note, I have notice that the time box is getting changed as well. Entries that read ".5" (for half an hour) are getting change to "5" as if the period is getting stripped out. Since I have a consistency validation that limits employees to entering in only 9 hours a day, this often causes the validation to fail and they get stuck in a loop on the web page where they can not even delete the record or change the offending times to under 9 hours total. The only apparent way out is to stop/start the database again.

Anyone else encountered anything like this? Searches on the forums and elsewhere on the web are turning up nothing...

thanks,

Marshall

[Marshall Reeves]

More info on problem 2: I discovered today that the decimal point in the time column is not actually getting dropped. It's weirder than that. What is happening is that any values less than 5, which have a decimal point in them (1.5, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5) all get changed to 5 when I commit the record in IWP. Any values less than 5 which are whole numbers (1-4) do not get changed. Any values great than 5 (including those with .5 in them) do NOT get changed.

So, what does Filemaker have against 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, and 4.5?

Anyone else seeing this? It's really a simple situation and strikes me as strange that this kind of bug would make it to production? Remember, the layout is just a simple portal with a simple field in it for hours, based on simple value list of decimals from 1 to 9, in .5 increments. And it worked fine in FMSA 7.0, but wonks out in 8.0.