Feature Proposal:

Motivation

I’m trying to build an app in 1.1.2 using DataForms and EditTablePlugin. (EditRowPlugin looks promising, but the extension from Foswiki.org does not work with 1.1.2). I have a column in my table containing a radio button. When the user saves the table, I want for certain form properties to be updated (counts of each radio button choice). I can write a perl save handler to do this, but I want to see if I can implement the entire app in Macros.

So first, do you foswiki gurus know of a way that I can solve this problem using macros? If not, I have some ideas about how this could be done. (NOTE: I am a full-time employee and can’t currently contribute code to your project. I intend to ask for dispensation after Foswiki gets more visibility within my company.)

Description and Documentation

See example.

Examples

%ONSAVE{"arbitrary_name" update_form_property="the_sum" render="true"}%
%CALC{"2+2"}%
%ENDONSAVE{"arbitrary_name"}%

When the page is viewed, the content between onsave/endonsave is rendered if render="true". When the page is saved, the content is evaluated and saved in the dataform property called "the_sum". The "arbitrary_name" is just used to match with the end tag like %STARTSECTION% %ENDSECTION%.

Impact

WhatDoesItAffect:

%WHATDOESITAFFECT%

edit

Implementation

-- Contributors: KipLubliner - 13 Mar 2011

Discussion

What makes you say "the extension from Foswiki.org does not work with 1.1.2"? I can't see any reports in Tasks web that would support that assertion.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 14 Mar 2011

Sorry, 1.1.2 comes with JQueryPlugin 3.75, and when I tried to upgrade it to 4.0, I had two problems: # 4 from Tasks.Item10392, and FullCalendarPlugin didn't work. I rolled back the JQueryPlugin upgrade without investigating further. Perhaps I will be able to try again next week.

-- KipLubliner - 14 Mar 2011

I agree we need some mechanism to do this. Saving the property makes it queryable. Does your use-case require that?

I'd rather we stored the property spec in the DataForm definition. For what it's worth, I created a dynamiclabel field type, which although doesn't make the calculated value queryable (it is evaluated on every view), might be useful in some cases. You just put the %CALC{"2+2"}% (or in %INCLUDE{} of a section that contains it) in the 'values' column of the dataform table.

-- PaulHarvey - 14 Mar 2011

I don't need to query that field but I do need to retrieve the value in FormattedSearch.

I like your approach of storing the spec in the data form definition, it is much cleaner to put it there.

So to sum up: there are two possible types of dynamic properties: those that need to be evaluated when the topic is viewed, and those that need to be evaluated when the topic is saved. For evaluate-on-save properties, we can achieve far better integration with query search.

Perhaps for the evaluate-on-save properties, the dynamic content can go in a META field instead of directly inside the form definition?

-- KipLubliner - 15 Mar 2011

Have a look at SetVariablePlugin. It allows to manage a META properties on save. It might fit your use case here.

-- MichaelDaum - 15 Mar 2011

If you just want $formfield(DynamicField) in FormattedSearch, then the dynamiclabel I mentioned should do the job. It implements a renderForDisplay() method which is called by the $formfield() token to expand the field value, taken from an expansion of any macros in the values column in the dataforms table.

-- PaulHarvey - 15 Mar 2011

Michael: Yes it looks like SetVariablePlugin is exactly what I was asking for I looked through the source because I wasn't 100% sure. This plugin is very good to look at to start to understand the internals.

Paul: Thanks it's good to know that this is also possible.

-- KipLubliner - 23 Mar 2011

Based on the discussion above I believe this is rejected.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 24 Feb 2012