Using JavaScript to interact with tables and fields

Howdy John,

You should really message Dandiebolt.  He's pretty much the undisputed champion when it comes to all things Javascript, jQuery, Service Works/IOL in the Quickbase sector.

He's found here: https://getsatisfaction.com/people/dandiebolt

(Contact info in the left panel)

That's not a real answer. Would still appreciate anybody's help.

Hi John,

You can access any field with the help of field ID.

Thanks,
Gaurav

You questions is a bit broad but I will try to answer.

The most common way to "interact with table and field" is to (1) perform an AJAX request using the QuickBaser HTTP API and (2) process the XML response. Historically this is done using jQuery because jQuery is already loaded in QuickBase's pages but these days everything can be done with raw JavaScript. Here is an example of typical code entered manually into the console to query the formula function table for all records with [Category]="Type Conversion":

(function(){
  var dbid ="9kaw8phg";
  var dbidTable = "6ewwzuuj";
  var apptoken = "not required";
  $.ajaxSetup({data: {apptoken: apptoken}});
  $.get(dbidTable, {
    act: "API_DoQuery",
    query: "{6.EX.Type Conversion}",
    clist: "3.7.8"
  }).then(function(xml) {
    console.dirxml(xml);
    $("record", xml).each(function() {
      var rid = $("record_id_", this).text();
      var name = $("function_name", this).text();
      var type = $("result_type", this).text();
      console.log(rid, name, type);
    });
  });
})();

I would encourage you to perform this test yourself and explore the console output of the xml response and individual fields.

Dan:

Thanks a bunch, this helped me a ton with how to start and what I need to learn. A few comments/questions about the syntax/logic. Feel free to let me know anything about my thought process here:

1. I understand we need to create an anonymous function for the .each() call so that we can loop through every record and retrieve its attributes
2. I understand what get() conceptually should do. The dbidTable needs to be referenced on every iteration of the each() loop
3. The .then() is a promise to be fulfilled if the get() call is successful. However, what value is stored into 'xml' from get() if it's successful. And WHY do we need to pass 'xml' to our selection along with record? Why are double quotes allowed, when the literature I have read for this requires single quotes?
4. Can you briefly explain the necessity for the 'this' keyword in the selection. I have used it plenty, but maybe there are subtleties I don't quite understand in this statement.

Thanks again, I have learned quite a bit so far.

Thanks again for the help, Dan!

In this snippet:

 $("record", xml).each(function() {
      var rid = $("record_id_", this).text();
      var name = $("function_name", this).text();
      var type = $("result_type", this).text();
      console.log(rid, name, type);

    });

Why are we required to select BOTH 'record' and 'xml' in order to access those 3 elements, if those 3 elements are only a part of a record. If we are selecting two separate elements (in this case, record and xml) why doesn't this iterate through 'rid', 'name', and 'type' for both selections? It seems as though these selections are linked, but how? Aren't they distinct elements?

i.e. Why doesn't this work?:

$("record").each(function() { ... });

Another question. In each record of the XML response I have a field [Event Time] that stores a time. But this time is simply a large numeric number. How do I convert this numeric number to a duration?

i.e. 1. numDifference = numericNum1 - numericNum2
      2. convert numDifference to duration   

Would this work?

Thank you as usual, Dan!

[Event Time] is just a time of day. In the XML, since event_time is given to me as milliseconds, I converted these times to minutes and used Math.floor(time) since most were not whole numbers. Obviously not a very robust solution, do you have another idea?

Some context:

My overall goal is populate a field [Time Since Last Stop] for each record. Each [Event Time] represents when a vehicle has last stopped. So I wanted to iterate through each record and subtract  

(most recent stop - second most recent stop = time since last stop)

I have created a 2D array to store pairs of [driver name, event time]. My goal is to iterate through this array, store the driver from the current index in a variable, compare it to subsequent indices of the array with a nested loop until we find the next index with the same driver, then perform basic calculation from those two event times.

My question is:
If I know the index of the array that I am performing the calculation on, how can I guarantee I reach the actual record given this index? What is another way (if you have an explanation or link) to iterate through each record WITHOUT a .each() call?

Also, if you have a more ideal solution off the top of your head, please don't hesitate to let me know. I am still learning!