topic Function to find out whether a field is locked in QlikView

Function to find out whether a field is locked

stevedark — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 12:33:38 GMT

Hi,

I've a requirement to find out whether a field is currently locked, in order to display a Lock / Unlock button.

Obviously I can use a variable on a toggle, but this can be foxed by a user locking or unlocking the selection themselves without using the button.

There doesn't seem to be any way using GetCurrentSelections() to discern if a field is locked or not.

Has anyone got a clever way of doing this?

Cheers,

Steve

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

tresB — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 12:41:20 GMT

Is macro an option?

temp=ActiveDocument.Fields("Member").GetLocked

if temp then msgbox("Locked!")

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

stevedark — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 12:56:40 GMT

Thanks, but I'm not sure how I can apply that to a show hide criteria on a button?

Guess I would need to fire the macro on a trigger and set the value of a variable?

I'm with Henric Cronström on Macro's though - and try to avoid them at all costs.

Steve

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

Tue, 18 Aug 2015 12:47:50 GMT

Hi Steve, i have the same requirement, could you solved it?

Thanks in advanced!!

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

stevedark — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 13:53:40 GMT

Hi there,

I never actually tried implementing the Macro code in the end. The requirement went away instead. It would appear there is no easy way of doing this - but a macro fired on change on that field to set a variable with the current lock state should work.

Good luck!

Steve

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

Wed, 19 Aug 2015 07:26:20 GMT

i'll try , Thanks!!

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

stevedark — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 14:57:54 GMT

Don't you find it annoying when you are searching for a solution for something, and the only thing you can find is yourself asking the same question three years before!

Just bumping this thread up the queue, in case there is a new function in V12 that gives this.

Any suggestions?

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

marcus_sommer — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 15:22:34 GMT

Hi Steve,

I don't believe that there is a function which could be used for it. But maybe it could be implemented with a multi-step approach with the following logic:

- read the field-selections into a variable and prevent an update for it afterwards maybe with a second variable and if-loop

- fire a selection-action to this field with = null() which would normally clear the field unless it is locked

- compare the first variable with the current selection of this field

It's not tested just an idea but maybe it could be made workable in some way.

- Marcus

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

stevedark — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 19:26:25 GMT

I thought about something like that, but this would have to fire all the time and feels like it could get a bit heavy on CPU, just to have a toggle button that goes between Locked and Unlocked.

My other thought was expanding on Treseco's variable code, having a macro that sets a variable to true or false. This could get triggered on every selection change. Again, I'm not sure if triggering a macro that frequently would be a good thing.

Delivered without a toggle, just a button to lock and then the unlock is done through current selections (only had the one day on site to deliver a solution). Feels like there should be a better way though.

Great to finally meet you last week, by the way. Hope your travels back went smoothly.

Steve

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

marcus_sommer — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 07:21:36 GMT

Hi Steve,

yes all the travels were quite smoothly and the weekend in Copenhaven was really great. Great too, was to meet you and all the other Luminaries there in Lund - it was very special.

Maybe there is another way to get the information if a field is locked or not. Within the xml-header of the qvw the various states of the fields are stored. This meant this information could be available while opening the qvw but I'm not sure if you could fetch any changes to them without storing the qvw again.

I don't know how qlik handled such changes to the properties - just in RAM during the run-time or puffering them into any temp-file or maybe within the prj-folder (whereby I believe they are updated through the storing, too). But maybe there are some options to them within Easter Egg ...

FieldDescription:

LOAD InternalNumber,

Name,

IsSystem,

IsHidden,

IsSemantic,

DistinctOnly,

Cardinal,

TotalCount,

PossibleCount_OBSOLETE,

HasInfo_OBSOLETE,

IsLocked,

AlwaysOneSelected,

AndMode,

IsNumeric,

%Key_DocumentSummary_3E3ED09C8BC69525, // Key to parent table: DocumentSummary

%Key_FieldDescription_8942ED1DAD568474 // Key for this table: DocumentSummary/FieldDescription

FROM [QVW.qvw] (XmlSimple, Table is [DocumentSummary/FieldDescription]);

- Marcus

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

stevedark — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 07:29:25 GMT

Not sure what the IsLocked or AlwaysOneSelected flag would do in the context of field settings in the QVD. Perhaps it is a hint to what should happen with that field if it is later created as a list box. If the QVD was created from a load script that would not be possible to set these flags (as far as I know). Perhaps it only kicks in if you export a QVD from the UI, rather than the script?

One only hic could answer, I suspect...

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

juan_c_martinez — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 11:42:44 GMT

Hi Steve,

In attached document a macro to get the list of locked fields and its documentacion.

Br,

Juan

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

Or — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 12:03:09 GMT

Since this got necro-bumped, and it's kind of interesting, I figure I may as well ask.. why check the lock state in the first place? There are field event triggers for OnLock and OnUnlock, and they're catch-all (they will trigger when the field is locked by an action, a manual lock, or a "Lock all"). You can use these with whatever action you prefer - minimize/maximize, set variable, or whatever else fits.

It's not technically the same thing as checking the state, but it feels like this achieves the same thing without the need for a macro or long-form workarounds that impact performance.

I'm not sure if this is something that was added semi-recently, but it feels like these triggers have been around for a while.

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

juan_c_martinez — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 13:39:33 GMT

Hi Shoham,

True if the fields you can track lock status are known, but if not, the evens lock or unlock field can’t set for all fields in the model. This macro operates for any field in the document.

Br,

Juan

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

Or — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 14:06:34 GMT

Why not?

https://community.qlik.com/docs/DOC-19141

Doesn't take more than minor customization and while it requires a macro, you only have to use it once in developer mode, so this is AJAX-friendly.

The only reason I can think of to stick with a macro solution is if you are dealing with multiple fields being locked and you need to know all of them and actually use those field names in actions. In that case, it might be a cleaner approach than using variables - but even then, I think variables would get the job done. For the use case described above - knowing if a single field is locked - the field event trigger seems very appropriate.

Re: Function to find out whether a field is locked

krumbein — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 10:54:08 GMT

The following is technically also not exactly what you were looking for, but might just cover what the user actually wanted

It will contain a macro though 😉

I was also trying to show an lock/unlock button in dependence of the lock state. Then I realized, that what we actually need is the ability to unlock, when it is locked and to lock when it is unlocked, right? And the field is shown right there next to the button anyway, so the lock state itself is in plain sight.

So I switched one button with a toggle functionality. The macro in the background will check if the field is already locked and unlock it, if it is and lock it, if it isn't. It is rather simple, but here it is anyway

sub ToggleFieldLock(fieldName) ' get the field to work on set field = ActiveDocument.Fields(fieldName) ' if it is already locked if(field.GetLocked) then ' we want to unlock it field.Unlock else ' otherwise we lock it now field.Lock end if end sub

Sandro