alternate form data variables

Pat_H

Active Member
Hello, I was wondering if anyone could explain how data variables on alternate forms work. I thought when you created an alternate form the data variables from the original form would show up and be available on the alternate form. When I create an alternate form the data variables from the original form appear in the listing of data variables (click on Section/Data Variables) but their content is blank. When I create a alternate section I copy and paste everything from the original to the alternate. Maybe I'm not mapping these correctly??
 
Section alternates are usually based on a “condition” (if “condition” is true then use alternate section, else use original section). When the alternate section occurs all meta-data variables should be available in the alternate section but objects from the base section are not created automatically. You have to copy & paste or create them yourself.

I’m running Cform designer v3.2.10.6261 and when I make a condition to cause a alternate section to be used I have data in the section (Section > Data Variables). In your form project, what’s the condition causing the alternate to occur?

What you describe doesn’t sound like how it should be working but there may be something else in your project causing it to behave this way. It could be something in your form project or something in the JDE PDF itself. I can’t say exactly without seeing your project.

Try a test outside of the form project and JDE PDF file you’ve been working with. Run a simple Address Book report (R014021) then make a form project using that PDF as the input file. Make a section alternate then see if the alternate section has data in it when it occurs. The condition should be something you know will evaluate as true, something simple like Customer_Name > A and Customer_Name < C. Does the alternate show data in the Section > Data Variables dialog?

Hope this helps, let me know if you have more questions.


Karen.
 
Karen, thanks for the reply. As it turned out the section that I had set up a alternative section condition on was showing up twice on some pages of the PDF. You could only tell if you displayed the input window. It would print a payment selection form and a payment selection alt 1 form. Not all the variables were in the alternative section form. I ended up talking to Bottomline. They walked me through setting up "Set" properties on the section to combine the two sections. Then changing the source of the payment selection section. I then had to change all my variables on the alternative section to take them from the last occurence of the payment selection section. I was sort of a pain but did the trick.
 
I didn't think to ask what UBE generated the PDF. Now it makes sense though, the UBE R04572 has always done several "odd" things when it writes the PDF file. Cform has no problem cleaning things up but it's not the most straight forward process.


Karen.
 
Karen, apparently you've worked a lot on the A/P check. I didn't mention the report name in my postings. You're good, thanks again for your help.
 
Back
Top