How to disable Create Record button in reference

Fred I just checked the whole post. Actually Paul was right that a child record should not exist without a parent record (at least this is what was taught to us when we studied our very first RDBMS - Foxpro)..

However my requirement is different.

Scenario:

I have a Sale Orders Form with 4 buttons on it ("Save as Draft", "Confirm Sale Order", "Create Invoice" and "Cancel Sale Order").

Requirement - 1:

Initially when we create a new record in the Sale Orders table, both "Confirm Sale Order" and "Create Invoice" buttons should be greyed out/disabled.

Business Process Flow:

A Sale Order cannot be converted to invoice until it is confirmed. User can continue to work on the Sale Order , so he can save the SO in Draft mode. Once the SO is confirmed by the manager/admin, "Save as Draft" button and "Confirm Sale Order" buttons become greyed out/disabled and "Create Invoice" button gets enabled.

From here the admin/manager can either create invoice or cancel the SO. If he wants to make any changes to the already confirmed SO (before creating the invoice -- Say a new item needs to be added to the SO), he has to click the "Edit" button on the Sale Order Form.

This means that the Sale Order Form will only be editable by default initially when a new SO record is created. Once the SO is saved as Draft or Confirmed, every time the SO is opened from the list, the whole form should be only READ only mode and the person has to click the "Edit" button to make it WRITABLE.

Requirement - 2:

Whatever is the current status of the Sale Order, I need to display that status on the form. From my findings I realise that I can't use Free Text element as a label to show the status, 'cuz I con't control it in the script to change the status dynamically based on the buttons clicked. So I have to use a Formula field instead.

What I am not able to understand here is that how can I change the status of the Formula field itself from a script based on the action taken by another element on the form (eg: When I click the "Save as Draft" button, I want the status to change to "DRAFT MODE" and when I click on "Confirm Sale Order", I want the status to change to "SO CONFIRMED").

I hope you can visualise what I am trying to say. Nevertheless I am attaching my database file for your perusal so that it becomes easy for you to understand. Please refer to the Sale Orders table.

Requirement - 3:

Is it possible in Ninox to export a particular table from a database and import that table with data or just the structure into another database. I am developing on my local copy of database in macOS and also developing on a customer module for my office in their cloud version. I want to use the base customer module that I have created for my ERP in the office module instead of creating the customer module from scratch to save time, but I can't find a way to copy the table structure from my module to the office online cloud workspace.

Please note: I cannot create a copy of my whole database and import it into my office Ninox cloud workspace as I have already done that initially and done some development on the office side as well, so I can't lose that work by importing the whole database from my local Ninox.

Thanks,

Vermaji

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

Mel Charles Thank you for thee reply.

For Point No 1, I guess it is not possible to place two objects (say one in color and one on in grey with no code) on top of each other 'cuz Ninox uses GRID to place the elements on the form screen. It would be great if you can share it (in case you have done this in Ninox).

For Point No 2, I am now using a formula field to display dynamic status of the Sale Order combined with a hidden field that is only accessible in code.

However, the problem still remain that how can I disable/grey out a button based on the action performed on another button or some business process requirement.

For Point No 3, I tried to follow the solution provided by Fred however for some reason my Mac app is not showing the Import Data dialog. It shows a blank popup that stays on the screen forever.

Fred Thank you for your reply. I tried this but I just get a blank popup that stays on the screen for as long as it wants to stay (Image attached) Don't understand what is wrong where.

If this works, then I will be happy 'cuz that is what I wanted... Working on the cloud version in the office and then download import the desired table with data on the local Ninox on Mac at home.

Fred Hello Fred, I did email to them. It wasn't happening with all the DBs, just this one. I tried to delete a few fields on the form one by one and then it worked. Couldn't make out why it was happening, but it worked by trial I guess.

1. Looks like even after 13 versions, Ninox is still buggy.

2. It's a shame that after so many years of development the database still doesn't support the very basic UI designing elements and normal/simple programming constructs like changing the background color and text color of the elements through the code.

3. Uses a broken column designing way to layout elements own the screen due to which we cannot design layout the elements freely on the screen. There are much better alternatives like CSS Grid etc.

4. They have clearly lost the essence of the formula field by allowing it to practically accept anything inside itself. Drop an Image element in the Formula field and it will show the image. I mean why would I want to drop the Image element inside of a formula field when I can drop the Image element itself on the screen, 'Cuz we cannot style the Image element.

5. Why would I care about the new 400 icons and a new color palette when the tool cannot provide a right and fulfilling basic development environment. They should stop working on the cherries and actually start worrying about the cake.

I believe that if Ninox is not good at writing UI elements that work in a normal way, they should only provide CLI/text based interface to work with the database and leave the UI to some other better frontend app like Oracle, MySQL and other companies do. I have come far in writing my database app, but now I feel that Ninox is becoming a headache as I am going more and more deeper in designing my ERP database app.

Every time there is a compromise 'cuz Ninox cannot do this or Ninox cannot do that... Can't design the screen as I desire, so compromise and design in some another way. I can go on and on and on, and throw out my frustration, but I guess, it is not going to put any sense in their heads, only my head will start to ache, so I make peace with myself.

I have started to feel that though there is a higher learning curve in Filemaker, but it is a perfect low code tool to create database apps. It gives you immense power, freedom and control to design and write your apps the way you want. 

John Halls Foxpro was one of its kind dbms. I started to learn logic building in Foxpro. That's where I started to learn programming. I remember my end of term Foxpro project I took up.. It was DOS screen with 35 DOS commands replicated in Foxpro. Then came the Oracle 7, the master of all databases at that time. Memories refreshed !!