Use of Dynamically Loaded ListBox Fields !!!
In the past couple of months, my clients have encountered situations related to ...
ListBoxes whose options are dynamically loaded in Add/Edit Forms from records in other Tables (Forms)
... that have made the use of such ListBoxes vey unappealing.
I have discussed such situations with the ZOHO Creator Team in private ... but there appears to be no urgency in addressing these deficiencies (architecture flaws) ... so I am posting this for the benefit of others who may be using such fields/techniques (or thinking about it).
The problem is that once you have a ListBox field whose options are dynamically loaded (e.g. in the on Load sections of Forms), you run into problems when records in the same Table are ...
a) Imported from external sources
b) Inserted via script (insert command)
c) have such fields' values changed via script (e.g. collectionRecords.fieldname = "abc")
... in each of the cases, you CAN NOT POPULATE SUCH FIELDS WITH VALUES THAT DON'T ALREADY EXIST IN THE SAME FIELD OF OTHER RECORDS !!! ... records are imported with "blank values for the fields" and scripted commands fail with some "cryptic java error" ... this is because there is no facility to dynamically load "options" outside of the Form sections !!!
At a minimum, this (severe) limitation must be clearly documented here ... http://help.creator.zoho.com/Known-Issues-or-Limitations.html ... but more importantly, this limitation should be addressed urgently ... at least, the above "use cases" should be allowed.
If anyone needs further explanation about these scenarios, feel free to contact me.
Gaev