Message path and GET the value of

Bob Sneidar bobs at twft.com
Tue Feb 14 12:47:31 EST 2012


Hi all. 

I came across an oddity with the message path and using get the value of. I am not sure if I can be concise in my description but I will do my best. I have a validation system which puts properties in the fields I am validating, that contain the information necessary to perform the validation. One of the validations is called calculate. The property contains 2 items: the formula to evaluate, and the target field (or global variable) I want to store the result in. 

The validate handler is in the stack script, as are all validation handlers, but there are other functions which only make sense in the card or card behavior scripts. Now when my formula references items on the current card like fields (field "fldUnitPrice + field "fldQuantity") then the script gets the value of the formula and all works wonderfully. If however, I reference a function that is in the script of the current card, then it fails with a cannot find handler error. Well and good. I will just use the SEND command to send "get the value of " & theFormula to this card. Doesn't work! But if I put "get the value of " and append the actual formula in the message box it works a peach!! ICK!!@

My only successful workaround is to put a handler in the card behavior called doIT which has one parameter and that is a valid LC statement. I put a command together like so: 	

        put "get the value of " & theFormula into theCommand
        put ";return it" after theCommand
        dispatch "doIt" to this card WITH theCommand
        put the result into theNewValue

While this works exactly as I want it to, it seems rather clunky. I do not know why it would work in the message box, but not work even if I send the statement directly to the current card. The only way to get it to work is to send the command to a handler in the card or behavior that executes it in the context of that card. Is there something special about "get the value of" that does not pass the functions of the statement down the message path? Remember, I can reference card objects, but NOT handlers in the script of the card! Very odd. 

Bob






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