Preserving date picker with a ref column

Joseph_Seddik · 03-28-2022 11:55 AM

A Date-type column displays a date picker in a form.

When I change its type to Ref to a calendar table, the column displays a dropdown list instead.

As a workaround I added a separate hidden Ref column copying the value of my visible date column; to establish the reference while keeping the date picker available for the user.

Is there another way? Thanks.

SkrOYC

I don't think so, it's a kinda weird need to be fair.

Are you trying to use the date as a key based on what we talked on the other post with your Dates table?

I think you could have a hidden physical column with an Initial Value of [YourDateColumn] that serve as Ref and is listening to Reset on Edit of the [YourDateColumn] column.

Better than that? No idea

Joseph_Seddik

@SkrOYC Weird need for what 🙂 Are you telling me to abandon the date picker or the reference 😀 Just joking.

Yes, I've been using dates as keys from the beginning. It is for my Tour Operator ERP app, I'm linking some 20 tables to one Agenda view which is just a date column, and calculated weekday, week number, month and year columns. The idea is that a click on an Agenda row, will show all relevant activities that occurred or planned to occur on this day, like: transactions, payments, reservations, movements, baggage, deposits, car transfers, orders, services, etc. It is already implemented with the workaround of a hidden normal copy column holding the reference.

Why? 1. So users will continue to have a date picker in the form, and 2. I can have the agenda view.

What's wrong? Nothing, I'm routinely optimizing and now I'm just trying to remove unnecessary columns to reduce db size as much as possible.

________

I didn't understand the last part about the Reset on Edit, what would that be needed for? Would you please explain? Thank you!

SkrOYC

@Joseph_Seddik wrote:
I didn't understand the last part about the Reset on Edit, what would that be needed for? Would you please explain? Thank you!

Sure!

If your users can change the Date column and you are using a physical one as ref with an Initial Value, it makes sense to be able to update the Ref one when the Date changes. That's the reset on edit.

Now, to be clear, a physical column with an AppFormula should basically do the same thing.

As always, there is more than just way to solve a problem

Joseph_Seddik

Right!