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Frequently
Asked Questions: Technical Questions
Below is a set
of frequently asked technical questions with answers. We are trying
to make this list as complete as possible. If you have any questions
that you think should be part of this list but is not, please
send us an email to [email protected]. If you are looking
for general information, please refer to our General
FAQ.
How
can I allow a user to search for data?
The idea is to provide the user with a search screen in which
he/she can enter data to be used in searching for records in one
of the tables. This can be done with two procedures: a data entry
screen which contains fields whose values the user can specify,
and an internal search procedure that will use the values from
the entry screen to search the table. The values from the entry
screen are referenced as variables.
How
can I create a login screen?
A login screen is basically a search screen. What you need is
a Users table that contains a UserId field and a Password field.
To implement a login screen, you can then create a data entry
procedure as the screen in which the user can specify the user
id and password, and an internal search procedure which will search
the Users table for a matching user id and password. In the search
procedure, you can specify which procedure to call if matching
records are found, and which procedure to call if no records are
found. If a record is found, it means that the login succeeded
and you probably want to display a welcome screen. If no records
are found, then it means that the login failed and you probably
want to show and 'access denied' message or something similar.
How
can I add text and color to data entry screens and reports?
You can add customizations to your screens using the header
and footer attributes of a module or a procedure. Here,
you can add HTML text for anything you want to appear before and
after the data. You can add links to images (e.g. a logo), put
titles, display introductory paragraphs, add toolbar menus, etc.
For instance, to add a simple bold title to your report, simply
add something like the following to the header of the report:
<h3>This
Is The Report Title</h3>
How
can I create custom links to different procedures in a module?
Suppose that you have a module that displays records in a table,
and you want to be able to filter and format those records on
particular search criteria. Each search criteria requires a different
search procedure, and each formatting option (e.g. group by city,
or sort by name) requires a different report. A convenient way
for the user is to initially display a report containing all the
records, and at the bottom have a link to each individual customized
report. In addition, each of those customized reports will also
have links to all other reports so that the user can switch easily
between them.
The above can
be implemented easily by placing the proper HTML code in the footer
of each report. The HTML can contain either text of images with
links to different report. Procedure link variable should be used
to obtain the actual links to the procedures. For example:
<a href="[PROC.Report
By City]">Group by City</a><br>
<a href="[PROC.Report By Product]">Group by
Product</a><br>
The [PROC.Report
By City] and [PROC.Report By Product] are procedure link variables
that will be replaced with the actual links to the procedures
whose names are 'Report By City' and 'Report By Product' respectively.
How
can I send data to other websites such as credit card processors?
You may at some point need to send data collected by your online
application to another website that provides a particular service.
A good example are websites that authorize credit card transactions.
If you are selling products using your online application and
are taking the customer's order, then you probably want to validate
and charge their credit card. You can do this automatically by
having QuickModules.com send the data to the appropriate website.
Many credit card validators processing companies allow you to
process the information online through their website. You can
send them the required information and they will take care of
the rest and give you a confirmation. QuickModules.com can easily
send the information for processing using a URL Redirection procedure.
Suppose the credit card company accepts the following URL for
validation:
https://www.validate-my-order.com/validate.asp?Name=John+Smith
& Card=100203023123 & Expiry=1003 & Amount=400.34
& Confirmation=http://www.mywebsite.com/confirm.htm
The above URL
will ask for authorization to validate the credit card of John
Smith and charge it the about of 400.34. If the transaction is
successful, then the credit card processing website will display
the confirm.htm page on your website.
However, the above
link only works for one particular transaction. You do not know
the name of the customer or any of the other information before
the customer orders. You need to extract all that infomation from
the order form. You can implement it using variables. For instance,
if you want to take orders and process the credit card transaction,
you can do the following:
- Create a table
Orders for storing all the orders
- Create a new
module for the order entry and processing
- The first procedure
of the module should be a data entry form procedure. Make sure
that the 'Save data permanently' option in the 'Edit Procedure'
screen is not checked. You do not want to save the order unless
it is approved.
- The second
procedure of the module should be a URL Redirection procedure.
The URL will contain the address of the website that will process
the transaction and variable references that will include the
information required:
https:///www.validate-my-order.com/validate.asp?Name=[ORDERS.Name]
& Card=[ORDERS.Card] &
Expiry=[ORDERS.Expiry] &
Amount=[ORDERS.Amount] &
Confirmation=https://www.QuickModules.com[PROC.Confirmation]
The variables
will retrieve the values of the appropriate fields from the
Orders table. The [PROC.Confirmation] is the URL of the Confirmation
procedure that is defined next.
- This third
procedure should be the confirmation message. You can use an
HTML Text procedure for this. The name of this procedure should
be 'Confirmation' because that is the name specified in the
variable [PROC.Confirmation] above.
How
can I make a copy of one of my modules?
If you want to create a module similar to one you already have,
then it is useful to be able to duplicate the existing module
and make some changes. This is much faster than creating the new
module from scratch. QuickModules.com gives you the ability to
duplicate existing modules. To make of copy of your existing module,
edit the design for that module. This can be done my clicking
on the 'Modules' option in the toolbar on the left, and then clicking
on the 
bullet to the left of the module in question. At the bottom of
the design screen, you will see a 'Copy' button. Click on that
button to duplicate the module. All the tables that the module
uses will be duplicated also.
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