Problem with lawForm.getFormValue with textarea

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Matt

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Posts: 13

7/30/2007 7:34 PM

I am using a textarea in a Custom Portal form. When I type something in a blank textarea and blur out of it the lawForm.getFormValue is accurate. But if go to that field again and select some text in the middle of it and put new text in and blur out of it, the lawForm.getFormValue is not accurate. I need some help quick because I implemented some forms with textareas in production and I have shut it down because of this problem.

Example: Textarea is blank
I type "test" in it, TEXTAREA_onBlur is "test"
I go back to the field and select the "es" and type "or", TEXTAREA_onBlur is "tor". I'm expecting "tort"

John Henley

Posts: 3351

7/31/2007 12:53 AM

Matt, I've never been a big fan of OnBlur--for exactly the reason you specify--I just don't trust its reliability. I don't know if it's Design Studio or Portal that's at fault or not, but sometimes OnBlur just doesn't fire. The other thing I don't like about OnBlur is this: what if a user doesn't "visit" the field, and you're depending on them doing so by coding something in OnBlur?

Maybe it's just a bias of mine, since I really learned event-driven programming with Visual Basic, which also had similar quirks. The bottom line for me, and the advice I give to others is this: if you're trying to do any type of validation/edits, further processing, etc. do it in FORM_OnBeforeTransaction. If you're trying to do field defaulting based on another field, do it in OnFocus in the target field.

Matt

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Posts: 13

7/31/2007 12:17 PM

John,

My problem is not with the onBlur. It is with the getFormValue on the textarea after I edit the data on the form like in my example. I would love to show you my example if you have some time. 804-219-1269

Matt

John Henley

Posts: 3351

7/31/2007 2:03 PM

What version of Design Studio are you using?

Matt

Basic Member Send Private Message

Posts: 13

7/31/2007 2:15 PM

3.1.7

John Henley

Posts: 3351

7/31/2007 4:41 PM

Matt, going back to your example....
Example: Textarea is blank
Type "test" in it, TEXTAREA_onBlur is "test"
Go back to the field and select the "es" --THEN DELETE IT-- and THEN type "or", TEXTAREA_onBlur is ???

Matt

Basic Member Send Private Message

Posts: 13

7/31/2007 5:36 PM

It says "tor"

John Henley

Posts: 3351

7/31/2007 7:18 PM

Interesting. I'd go to Lawson support on that one. My guess is that the buffer for the field is being overrun when you do the textual insert or something.

One workaround you can try is to use .getFormElement instead of getFormValue and see if that works...
lawForm.getFormElement("textxx").value

Matt

Basic Member Send Private Message

Posts: 13

7/31/2007 8:19 PM

That looks like that it works. The overrun also happens on setFormValue also.