Saturday 20 May 2023

Using the Calc Object in nuBuilder Forte

The Calc Object

The Calc Object in nuBuilder makes a nuBuilder Form work a little like a spreadsheet by creating Objects that are automatically updated anytime certain other Objects are edited or updated.

In some cases the Calc Object is updated from other Calc Objects.

In cases like this, you will need to make sure they are being calculated in the correct order.

Otherwise, you can get into a situation like this...


There are 4 Calc Objects on this invoice Form and this is what they calculate...

Unit TotalnuTotal('iit_units') * nuTotal('iit_unit_price')             eg. Units * Unit Price

Total: nuTotal('item_sf.iit_unit_total')                                         eg. Sum of all Unit Total

Tax: nuTotal('inv_total') *  ( nuTotal('inv_tax_percent') * .01 )    eg. Total * Tax %

Grand Total: nuTotal('inv_total') + nuTotal('inv_tax_total')        eg. Total + Tax

In the example above Grand Total is calculated before Total Units, Total and Tax, which isn't correct.

To make Grand Total calculate correctly it must be calculated last and to reorder this we need to select Arrange Objects from the Form's menu () and move Grand Total down below Tax Total.


Then all the Calc Objects will calculate properly...


Reordering any Objects will also reorder the tabbing order of those Objects on the Form.





Thursday 11 May 2023

nuBuilder Forte backed up for 1000 years

nuBuilder Forte is part of Git's Archive Programs project.

"What is that?" I hear you say.

Git describes it as this...

The GitHub Arctic Code Vault is a data repository preserved in the Arctic World Archive (AWA), a very-long-term archival facility 250 meters deep in the permafrost of an Arctic mountain.

"How do I know nuBuilder is backed up here?" I hear you say again.

Here's nuBuilder Forte's badge at https://github.com/smalos ...



Friday 5 May 2023

GPT-4, AI and nuBuilder

GPT-4 has recently been released, which is Artificial Intelligence software that can answer an amazing array of questions using ChatGPT Plus.

For example...


Or you could ask this...


It can also write code...


And it knows a bit about nuBuilder too but it can sometimes just lie.


GPT can be very helpful but be careful and don't always trust it. Remember this...



Tuesday 3 May 2022

A quick guide to navigating nuBuilder 4.5 for developers

Navigating nuBuilder

nuBuilder Forte is easy to navigate. Each Form is either a Browse Form or an Edit Form.

When you first log into nuBuilder you will see a Home Page (Edit Form) appear in front of you.

This Form will have buttons that can then take you to other Forms.


Browse Forms

Edit Forms

Saturday 5 March 2022

Sourceforge Award

 

Hi nuBuilder,

Congratulations! nuBuilder Forte has just been recognized with the following awards by SourceForge:

Community Leader
Community Choice

These honors are awarded only to select projects that have reached significant milestones in terms of downloads and user engagement from the SourceForge community.

This is a big achievement, as your project has qualified for these awards out of over 500,000 open source projects on SourceForge. SourceForge sees nearly 30 million users per month looking for, and developing, open source software. These award badges will now appear on your project page, and the award assets can be found in your project admin section.

To recognize nuBuilder Forte’s achievement, we’ve awarded you with the aforementioned awards, which you can see below:Now that nuBuilder Forte is an official winner of the these awards, you have express permission to use the award badges wherever you’d like.

Feel free to proudly display the awards on your personal or organizational website, social media, or anywhere else you’d like.

Congrats again on winning and keep doing amazing work because SourceForge and our users appreciate it!

Thanks,

The SourceForge Team

Monday 22 November 2021

nuBuilder Objects that can be used for choosing values from a list

 Often when using an Edit Form the user needs to pick a value from a list.

Sometimes this can be from a static list or from a list that may need to be added to.

These are the nuBuilder Objects that can be used to do this.

  • Input : nuScroll
  • Lookup
  • Select




Each of these is ideal in different situations.


Input : nuScroll

This Object allows the User to select from an array by scrolling up or down using the keyboard's up and down arrows but also allows the User to type in a value not contained in the array.



Lookup

A Lookup Object allows the User to select from a list of values that come from another Form's Browse Form.
A Lookup is ideal when then the list is large (up to thousands of records) because it allows the User to filter these records to find the one they are looking for and even add a new record to this Lookup's Form if a new option is needed.
A Lookup also allows 2 ways of selecting a record by...
  • Typing a unique code that will automatically populate the Lookup field.
  • Clicking the magnifying glass to the left of the code field and selecting the required record from a Browse Form.
The Lookup Object can also display another value from the selected record to the right of the magnifying glass (typically a description).

Once the desired record is selected a Lookup Object can run custom PHP (After Browse) on the server and then Javascript on the current Edit Form.




Select

The Select Object allows a list to be created 2 different ways.

  • SQL - A valid SQL query that returns 2 columns - If you want any help building SQL, the SQL Button will direct you to nuBuilder's SQL Builder.
  • List - A list delimited by a |         eg. 0|No|1|Yes|2|Maybe

The first item is the bound value (e.g. 1) that is stored in the database and the second one is the display value (e.g. Yes)

A Select Object can also allow for the selection of more than 1 choice from a list.






Thursday 23 September 2021

Backing up your nuBuilder database

nuBuilder contains all the customization done in its database.

  • Objects
  • Forms
  • Reports
  • Javascript
  • PHP
  • SQL

So to backup everything, all that is needed is to backup the database using the Backup Button or Option...


.