FieldExtensions and FieldGroups

Knowledge Base

This Knowledge Base article is relevant for ForNAV Designer version 5.5 and higher.

 

Until now, it has required some coding in JavaScript to format pairs of captions/values and to hide the caption if the value is blank.

 

For example, in the ForNAV report pack, the standard footer looked like the following:

[

CompanyInformation.PhoneNo  != ” ? CompanyInformation.FieldCaptions.PhoneNo + ‘ : ‘ + CompanyInformation.PhoneNo  : null,

CompanyInformation.E_Mail != ” ? CompanyInformation.FieldCaptions.E_Mail + ‘ : ‘ + CompanyInformation.E_Mail : null,

CompanyInformation.HomePage  != ” ? CompanyInformation.FieldCaptions.HomePage + ‘ : ‘ + CompanyInformation.HomePage : null,

CompanyInformation.VATRegistrationNo != ” ? CompanyInformation.FieldCaptions.VATRegistrationNo + ‘ : ‘  + CompanyInformation.VATRegistrationNo : null,

CompanyInformation.IBAN != ” ? CompanyInformation.FieldCaptions.IBAN + ‘ : ‘ + CompanyInformation.IBAN : null,

CompanyInformation.SWIFTCode  != ” ? CompanyInformation.FieldCaptions.SWIFTCode + ‘ : ‘ + CompanyInformation.SWIFTCode : null

].

filter(function (val) {return val;}).join(‘ | ‘)

 

To make this more readable and editable, we have introduced the concept of FieldExtensions so the expression can now be written like the following:

var joinFormat = ‘ : ‘;

CurrReport.JoinStrings(‘ | ‘,

CompanyInformation.FieldExtensions.PhoneNo.Format(joinFormat),

CompanyInformation.FieldExtensions.E_Mail.Format(joinFormat),

CompanyInformation.FieldExtensions.HomePage.Format(joinFormat),

CompanyInformation.FieldExtensions.VATRegistrationNo.Format(joinFormat),

CompanyInformation.FieldExtensions.IBAN.Format(joinFormat),

CompanyInformation.FieldExtensions.SWIFTCode.Format(joinFormat))

 

To support this, the Field List in the ForNAV Designer has a new node:

 

Dragging in nodes from FieldExtensions creates new controls with the source expression Rec.FieldExtensions.Field that output “<caption>: <value> if the value is not blank, and blank if the value is blank. In addition to this, Rec.FieldExtensions.Field also has the following set of functions and properties:

  • Rec.FieldExtensions.Field.Format(<delimiter>) – replaces the “: ” delimiter.
  • Rec.FieldExtensions.Field.Format(<delimiter>,<format>) – replaces the “: ” delimiter and formats the value using a .net format string.
  • Rec.FieldExtensions.Field.Format(<delimiter>,<format>,<languageId>) – replaces the “: ” delimiter and formats the value using a .net format string and a language ID (lcid).
  • Rec.FieldExtensions.Field.HasValue – returns true if the value is not blank.

 

To help with formatting, you can use a new function: CurrReport.JoinString(<delimiter>, <string>,…). This function automatically compresses the output to remove blank values.

 

To create parity, Rec.FieldGroups.Field now also has the following Format functions:

  • Rec.FieldGroups.Field.Format(<delimiter>) – replaces the new line delimiter.
  • Rec.FieldGroups.Field.Format(<delimiter>,<languageId>) – replaces the new line delimiter and formats the address according to a language ID.

 

The ForNAV Report Pack will be updated in the coming version 5.6 to use these new concepts.