Dropdownbox selection criteria

[jac53]

Hi Alex:
I followed your recommendation of creating an RPG variable for the selection criteria in a dropdownbox and binding the same variable in the choices selection criteria and it did not work. If I use constants works fine.

Any hope in the next release?

[Rob]

We tested this and it seems to be working correctly. Perhaps display the criteria as an output field on the page so you can confirm that the contents are correct. Make sure that the criteria field is longer than 10A. Perhaps 100A to make sure you never run out of space.

Please let us all know what you find here.

[jac53]

You are right Alex it is working, I was doing something wrong
Thx

[CT-Joe]

Is there a way to use a "variable" MEMBER of a file in the Choices Database Field in a Dropdown box...and if so, how is it formatted?
I converted a Choices Database Field to a variable name (as well as the Choice Options Field - although this could remain hardcoded)...and I can access the Base (*FIRST) Member of the file by just putting the file name in the variable field I am using.
The problem is...I create a JobNumber-Named Member for each spawn of the screen in the CL program...and need to access that member as the data in the dropdown is built dynamically.
I have tried OVRDBF in the CL...but this only works for the RPGLE program...and has no sway over the DSPF.
I have tried to format the Choices Database Field as:
FILENAME(MEMBER) and FILENAME/MEMBER
but neither of these formats seem to work (tried hardcoding them first).

[Rob]

For this I recommend you populate the dropdown with RPG code instead of client side SQL.

Bind the choices and choice values properties of the dropdown to 256A (or larger) fields. I will call these two fields CHOICE and CHOICEVAL.

In RPG populate these fields with comma separated lists.

eg CHOICE = ',One,Two,Three,Four,Five,Six';
CHOICEVAL = ',1,2,3,4,5,6';

(the leading comma will make the first option blank)
In reality you will probably need to build these fields in a loop.

eg CHOICE = %Trim(CHOICE) = ',' + MYDATA;

You can then retrieve MYDATA from an override or any other RPG process.

[CT-Joe]

Thanks Rob.
I guess I will go that route. I wasnt using client side SQL...actually building a workfile in the *INZSR of my program to use for the dropdown (as data was coming from multiple sources and some had to be reformatted). Instead of loading it into a file...I will just load an array within the program (to correspond to the "CHOICE" variable field I will build).

I have also tried to CRTDUPOBJ to put my file in QTEMP (since it would be specific to this job)...but that too does not seem to tie out the Database Driven Dropdown Box to my file data that I have built in the QTEMP version of the file (and QTEMP has been added as the *FIRST library in my list).