Issue with bookmarks

[datanibbler]

Hi,

I have an issue with the bookmarks in one of my apps:

I have two bookmarks in the app, one of them consists of just two selections, the other one consists of three selections.

Whenever I activate one of those bookmarks, however, it seems that only a part of the selections is made (well, it doesn't seem, it is so) - I have to click the bookmark once more, then it works.

<=> The troublesome thing about this is, this is a background-app (it is not supposed to be viewed directly), but only the table_chart is

        supposed to be automatically generated by another tool - I can set up a report with a bookmark it is supposed to activate when it

        is generated and that seems to work, I have to check.

The thing, it seems, is this: I have to clear all selections and then activate one of the bookmarks, then it works fine.

<=> When I have one of the bookmarks activated and then just click the other one, only a part of the selections is made.

The question is - I have two reports attached to this app and each one uses a different bookmark - can I tell them both to first clear all selections and then activate the bookmark?

Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

DataNibbler

[marcus_sommer]

Hi DataNibbler,

how do you activate these bookmarks?

- Marcus

[datanibbler]

Hi Marcus,

I'm just experimenting with that. For testing purposes, I will activate them manually and later - they will be activated, but automatically - that second tool we have can open an app, export a report or a chart and save it as pdf or xls or send it via email - I hope a report can be exported as Excel, I'm just testing. So I want to create two reports and set them up to activate one of the two bookmarks when they are generated.

=> That way I can, if it works, have automatic Excel-exports of the chart in two variations every day without touching the app itself.

[datanibbler]

The crucial question right now is whether that secondary tool of ours can export reports as Excel - I cannot give a bookmark to a chart, but I can set it up in a report - and that way I could have the two reports with opposing bookmarks in the same app - but for that I have to wait for a colleague as I cannot launch that tool myself. I don't have the access_rights 😉

Then I can still check whether the bookmarks are handled correctly by just activating the bookmarks manually and printing the reports and just comparing.

'Best regards,

DataNibbler

[marcus_sommer]

Hi DataNibbler,

this meant you will use a lot of macros for this, right? Then I wouldn't be invest much efforts with the bookmarks and simply clear and select those fields which you needed directly - by 3 respectively 2 selections for each report is this very quickly implemented and is far away from cluttering the code.

- Marcus

[datanibbler]

Hi Marcus,

no, I'm not using macros - well, not myself, but I guess that tool we have does use macros.

There is also the possibility of selecting manually and just setting up the reports to use the current selection, yes - but that way, two reports in the same app cannot use different sets of selections, or can they?

[marcus_sommer]

Hi DataNibbler,

which tool do you want to use - a third party product or an own programming (which type)?

- Marcus

[datanibbler]

Hi Marcus,

we have a third-party-product - we have been using that for quite a while - that just does the following:

- open and run the app at a certain time (it's launched by the Windows scheduler)

- extract all reports from the app

- sends these reports via email or saves them to a specific filepath.

It can also grab charts and save those as xls or send them same as reports, that would actually seem simpler as the object to export is a chart.

I chose reports just as a way to handle the necessary selections (2 and 4, respectively for each of the two exports), one of which is contradictory - for one export I want items with a positive quantity, for the other one with a negative quantity. Reports popped up in my mind as one possibility to do so because I can set them up to activate a bookmark when they are generated.

However, if I realize that does not work, there are probably other possibilities.

I will set up the app to run at 02:15am or so tomorrow - that secondary tool will, if it works, draw that report at 2am and in the meantime nothing will happen as the shift begins at 05:30am only. Then I can redo the selections tomorrow morning and compare if the report, if it was sent, is correct.

So I guess we'll have to wait and check one thing at a time. I'll be back here tomorrow when I know whether the export runs okay and then we can see about the bookmarks.

However - did you ever have that issue (that one bookmark is not applied completely unless all selections are cleared beforehand)? Do bookmarks work reliably with reports when they are set up?

Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

DataNibbler

[marcus_sommer]

Hi DataNibbler,

I haven't seen such behaviour with bookmarks before. Two points which you could check respectively play with is to look if the bookmarks have enabled the option "Add to existing selections" and/or that the order of the selections which are bundled within the bookmarks make any difference - I imagine that a bookmark worked technically like a chain of single selection-triggers which are (unfortunately) not executed mandatory in a sequentiell order. In this case you could also try to apply two bookmarks after another - the first cleared all selections or made your main-selection and the second one set all selections respectively add the missing one to the first selection.

- Marcus

[datanibbler]

Hi Marcus,

I have now ticked that checkbox to add the bookmarks to existing selections - it wasn't before.

That didn't yet do the trick. I cannot imagine how the execution order of the selections contained in the bookmarks should make a difference, there is only one selection per field. I'm also using a status_box to check that all the selections are in place and correct.

Right now I'm trying to remove the dynamic selection that I need by just filtering in the script. That seems to work, we'll see. Then I'll do some testing with just printing a report (with the bookmark set in the report, but with all selections cleared in the app itself) and comparing that with what my table in the app displays when I have all the selections in place.

I'll be back and tell you how it goes.

Best regards,

DataNibbler