E9.2 A few thoughts on Logic Extensions

[Kevin Long]

I've been diving deep into the latest release of Logic Extensions (LEX) lately, and I must say, I'm impressed by the progress they've made over the past couple of years. The new features like accepting and returning arrays, along with aggregation, have made this tool much more versatile. It allows for functionality that isn't possible with a Named Event Rule (NER). Moreover, the ability to interact with controls on the form adds another layer of intrigue. Though still somewhat limited, I'm eagerly anticipating future iterations of this User Defined Object (UDO) and where it'll go next. With that in mind, I'd like to offer a few suggestions for future improvements:

1. As the LEX becomes more complex, it's necessary to zoom in to view individual steps. However, when you edit a step and return to the Logic tab, the zoom resets, requiring you to zoom back in. It would be ideal if, upon returning to the main page, you'd be at the same spot where you left off—same zoom level and position in the logic.
2. It would be immensely helpful to have the ability to press a button on a form. If I could hide an existing button like the Exit button and add my own replacement button with custom logic, then trigger the hidden button from my LEX, it would significantly enhance the tool's utility.
3. When a LEX encounters an error, it should be treated as an error by the form. Admittedly, this suggestion is still in its early stages, and I haven't fully explored its implications. However, it seems that an error raised by a LEX should be more than just an FYI for the user. While the previous suggestion could mitigate this issue to some extent, I'm putting this idea out there to gather thoughts on both sides.

I'm keen to hear feedback on these suggestions, as well as any additional features or functionality you'd like to see in Logic Extensions. Please feel free to share your thoughts on Logic Extensions overall.

 

[DaveWagoner]

Great write up!

1) The zoom reset is an enhancement entered at a previous conference tech sig session! Please hop in to the enhancement tool (quest login required) and "upvote it" which lets Oracle know it's important to more people. (Screenshot in case you can't log in)

2) Agree!!! This would be a great new enhancement suggestion.
3) Right now I do "manual error" via LEX by mapping 2 sets of controls: "ControlsToWarn" and "ControlsToDisable". I fire off a LEX error which brings up the red box and lets me type what the error is. Then, depending on the severity, I disable controls on ControlsToDisable, and highlight in yellow/red the group of ControlsToWarn. Feels a bit old school and manual-- I would like to fire off an official DD error if possible.

 

[jolly]

It would be really, really useful to be able to set an error on the control. I can't for the life of me understand why this wasn't one of the first use cases for passing controls to a LEX. Yes you can set an error in a LEX that is associated to a Form Extension, but it looks different to setting an error in an ER. So you will likely end up with a kludge setting the control to red in the LEX and raising an error which shows as a Logic Extension error on the form instead of a form or control error on the form.

 

[DaveWagoner]

And, the LEX error doesn't clear without user clicking the X. In my limited experience, you can reset color and re-enable disabled controls, but you can't also re-set the LEX error box.