I have been using the Browse Dailog on a few screens and its working out very well. Typically I use it with a text Box , say to do a look up on a cutomer file. The user would enter text into the text box, and I first do an exact lookup on the Customer table to see if the cutomer number exists. If it does, I don't call the Browse Dialog. If it does not, i assume the user has entered 'part' of the name and I call a browse dialog with a few colums ftom the customer file set up. All this is working perfectly.

Now I find  I need this funtionality on say 20 forms. What I had started to do was repeat the same text box and browse dialog on each form, but thought there must be a better way . Some guidance of setting up a Customer Lookup class (based on a text Box that calls the browse dialog) that I can then drop on each of my forms.I can manage searching the tables etc but not sure how to set up the BrowseDialog in code as opposed to from within a form.

Pseudo code of the sort of thing I'm lookin at would be:

Hi Gerard,

Take a look at the StrataFlix sample application, it does have a user control class to do the kind of search you want to do and use it in several forms. 

Sorry I don't remember the exact reference, but I know it is there.

Edhy Rijo

Hi Gerard.

Here is a sample on how to deal with BrowseDialogs and LookUp controls:

http://forum.strataframe.net/FindPost27794.aspx

Cheers.

Many thanks for your replies. I'll have alook at these

Regards,Gerard

You're welcome, Gerard.

Hi Ivan. I have looked through the sample and am havong some difficulty just trying to understand whats going on, mainly because of my lack of experience on meaty c# projects. Obviously some of the code is generated by the framework, and some is not, and this is part of the difficulty I am having.

At this stage, before I do any serious work on this, I'd like to know in principle if it is feasible to have a 'Black Box' scenario where , in my 'LookupClass' , there are no dependencies on Browse Dialogs or even a Business Object  being dropped on a form.

In simple terms , I would like to have say a 'TextBox' with a no. of Properties (e.g. BusinessObject I will be looking up, a subset of the browseDialog parameters to identify the style of Dialog I will be calling, and then a no. of methods where I will populate the business object).

Ideally, I dont want to be dependent on any Business Objects or browse Dialogs having to be dropped on a form and want this to be a completedly self contained piece of code. i.e. By looking at the Class, everything will be in there

Do you reckon doing something like this is feasible ?

Hi Gerard.

Well, I would say that almost everything is possible given the amount of energy you are willing to put into the action.

That is how I accomplished the task using the StrataFrame way of doing things. I guess you could create properties and methods to make it generic. I tend not to fight the framework whenever I can.

Hi Ivan.

I will plough ahead then and see if I can develop a small Class. I initially wanted to ensure that this was feasible before devoting a lot of time and effort. I use these lookups all over the place , and in our VFP system, we have a few classes specificaly for this which are fairly generic and wanted to replicate something similar in SF if possible. I realise it may be a bit of work up front, but should pay off in the long run

Regards, Gerard

I just took a look at the sample (nice Ivan) and then tried to "genericize" it. See the samples section for the new version of Ivan's sample that includes a couple of possible ways to make this more generic.



http://forum.strataframe.net/FindPost27814.aspx

Hi Greg.

Many thanks for this and particulalrly taking the time to tease out and explain the pros and cons. I have had a quick look at it , but will need to sit down and devote some time to it, but no doubt your very detailed explanations should help a lot.

Regards,

Gerard