2. Suggestions
  3. Too many proposed features?
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Too many proposed features?

 		10/22/2007 12:30:18 PM
Suggestions
D
 dratman author

Reading through all these (excellent) suggestions, it appears to me that there are too many of them here -- too many to all be implemented, and even if they could be, PHP/ASPRunner could become bloated with too many features, and might become confusing and less reliable.
Instead, perhaps Sergey might consider adding more extensibility, rather than trying to add all these features. By extensibility, I mean the ability for designers to easily add their own customized capabilities.
Adding one's own customization means we need more "hooks" -- for example:

  1. The ability to execute an external program on the PC before and/or after each build, so that we can do file manipulation, routine backup, or version control operations.
  2. The ability to add queries before and after the main query. For example, a query might make changes to a table which is part of the main query -- for example, a table which is joined in.
  3. The ability to access PHP variables, and template variables, at run time. The event slots provided are fine, but it's not clear what the code can access during those events.

    Can we modify field values during an event, and if so, how?

    Can we get certain field modifications written back into the database table, and if so, how?

    Can we make (temporary) changes to templates and style sheets from PHP -- are templates and style sheets available as strings, in certain variables?

    -------------------
    Maybe all of the above (1 - 3) are already possible, I don't know. In that case, I need more information and examples to show what is possible and how to do it.
    Then if Sergey can't provide a feature, he could instead suggest how we might add it ourselves, using the access I mention above.
Sergey Kornilov admin 10/22/2007

Ralph,
you making a valid point - extensibility is more important than stuffing more and more features into the software.
Most of requested in 2-3 features are available already via Events. I recommend you to check the updated manual in ASPRunnerPro/PHPRunner. Take a closer look at event parameters and feel free to ask questions if something is not covered in the manual.
D
 		dratman author 10/23/2007

Ralph,

You are making a valid point - extensibility is more important than stuffing more and more features into the software.

Most of requested in 2-3 features are available already via Events. I recommend you to check the updated manual in ASPRunnerPro/PHPRunner. Take a closer look at event parameters and feel free to ask questions if something is not covered in the manual.


Thank you, Sergey. I had not studied the updated manual. Now I see that there are many hooks available, excellent.
Here is a different question.
I want to get counts of customers' vehicles by means of a Group By. I am using a custom query like this for the CUSTOMER table.

------------------------

select

CUSTOMER.Cust_No,

`First_Name`,

`Last_Name`,

`Address_1`,

`City`,

`State`,

`Zip`,

count(CUSTOMER.Cust_No) as call_cnt

From `CUSTOMER` Join `VEHICLE`

On (CUSTOMER.Cust_No = VEHICLE.Cust_No)

Group By CUSTOMER.Cust_No

------------------------
This works, and I see what I want -- just one row for each customer, regardless of how many vehicles he has.
However, I do not get a pagination control on the List page for CUSTOMER. The pagination control is appearing on all my other list pages. It must be because of the Group By clause -- probably something about primary key.
Here is another approach. Outside of PHPRunner I tried a manual query as follows:

------------------------

create table CUSTOMER_X as

select CUSTOMER.id,

CUSTOMER.Cust_No,

`First_Name`,

`Last_Name`,

`Address_1`,

`City`,

`State`,

`Zip`,

count(CUSTOMER.Cust_No) as call_cnt

From `CUSTOMER` Join `VEHICLE`

On (CUSTOMER.Cust_No = VEHICLE.Cust_No)

Group By CUSTOMER.Cust_No

------------------------
The above query creates a new table called CUSTOMER_X.
I can now use that table instead of CUSTOMER from PHPRunner without requiring a Group By in the query, and everything should be fine.
I'm just wondering if it is really necessary to build a temporary table like that.
D
 		dratman author 10/24/2007

Following up on my previous message, I took another look at my List page. I just noticed that the detail records, and a count of those records, pop up when I mouse over the link to a joined view! That's amazing. Is that feature documented somewhere?
On another subject, there should be only be one instance of the PHPRunner program open under Windows. The .phpr file can get messed up if two instances of PHPRunner are active at the same time. That caused some confusion and trouble for me before I realized what was happening. I don't know the details about how to prevent more than one instance of a program running under Windows, but here is a link that might help:
http://www.vikramlakhotia.com/How_to_allow...pplication.aspx
Thank you.
Sergey Kornilov admin 10/24/2007

Ralph,
I'd appreciate if you ask these questions in PHPRunner forum.
D
 		dratman author 10/24/2007

Ralph,

I'd appreciate if you ask these questions in PHPRunner forum.


Right, sorry, I'll do that.