12.7 Retrieve Additional Information from Browse List
LANSA for the Web allows you to retrieve additional information from a record in a browse list. Typically, the information is stored in fields which have been set up to be hidden in the browse list. In addition, these fields contain information which are normally not required in the display.
By having these fields hidden, you can maximize the usage of the browser's display area to display the browse list. You can then set up a field in the browse list as a hot spot, i.e. a field which has a hyperlink to retrieve the additional information.
When you select any of the hyperlinked fields, a separate browser window (like the Help window) is used to display the additional information.
This feature will involve RDML programming. You will have to set the value of a field programmatically, following the convention:
<a href="javascript:GetExtraInfo('<list name>',
'<entry number>',
'<field #1>',
'<field #2>',
'<field #3>',
'<field #4>',
'<field #5>')"><text></a>
where
<list name> is the name of your browse list (DEF_LIST name),
<entry number> is the record number in the browse list,
<field #1> to <field #5> are the names of the fields you want to retrieve information from,
<text> could be some text you set or the contents of another field concatenated to this working field.
An example of the call would be:
<a href="javascript:GetExtraInfo('ListName', '001', 'field1', 'field2', 'field3', '&NULL', '&NULL')">Click here for more information</a>
The JavaScript function, GetExtraInfo, is provided for you by LANSA for the Web. It is defined in the DEFAULT_SCRIPT page.
If you want to use this feature, you must observe the following:
- Your browser must be enabled for JavaScript support.
- Note the double quote (") characters used for the JavaScript function call.
- Note the single quote (') used to delimit each parameter passed to the JavaScript function, GetExtraInfo.
- You can specify up to a maximum of 5 fields to retrieve the information. Field parameters that are not used must be initialized to '&NULL'. (See the sample HTML above).
- You must not enable the Allow selection from any column in table option in the LANSA for the Web Administrator.