Updating Response documents when parent data changes

• Mike Crosby
• Published: 30 Sep 2002

Occassionally I develop applications that require response documents to maintain certain data contained within the parent document. When certain data in the parent document changes, all response documents also need to change.

The following code/script helps accomplish that task. The parent document maintains a list of field names that are inherited by the response document. When the parent document is saved, that list is used to determine which fields have changed. If any data has changed, the immediate responses are updated with the new data. NOTE: This code only updates immediate reponses. It could be modified to handle responses to responses.

1. Create a hidden field called "InheritedFields" on the parent form that is multivalue text. The value should be a list of all field names that need to be updated on child document when updates are made to parent(e.g. "Field1" : "Field2" : "Field3").
2. In the Declarations of the parent form, include the following:

   'handle to parent document
   Dim doc As NotesDocument
   
   'two dimensional array containing field name and field value
   Dim inheritFieldsArray As Variant
   

3. In the QueryModeChange of the parent form:

   Dim listOfInheritedFields As Variant
   Dim doc As NotesDocument
   
    
   'when document enters edit mode, capture original values to compare during save
   If Not(source.IsNewDoc) And Not(source.EditMode) Then
    Set doc = Source.Document
     listOfInheritedFields = doc.InheritedFields
    Redim inheritFieldsArray(0 To Ubound(listOfInheritedFields), 0 To 1)
    For i=0 To Ubound(listOfInheritedFields)
      inheritFieldsArray(i, 0) = listOfInheritedFields(i)
      inheritFieldsArray(i, 1) = Source.FieldGetText(listOfInheritedFields(i))
     Next
    End If
   

4. Create UpdateChildDocuments sub routine:

   Sub UpdateChildDocuments
    Dim actDC As NotesDocumentCollection
    Dim actDoc As NotesDocument
    Stop
    Set actDC = doc.Responses
    If actDC.Count > 0 Then
     Dim fieldUpdateArray() As String
     Dim fieldUpdateCount As Integer
     fieldUpdateCount = 0
     
             'initialize array to ""
     Redim fieldUpdateArray(0 To 0)
     fieldUpdateArray(0) = ""
     
             'there are activities for this document--continue checking to see if updates are necessary
     For i=0 To Ubound(inheritFieldsArray)
      fieldName = inheritFieldsArray(i,0)
      origFieldVal = inheritFieldsArray(i,1)
      currFieldVal = doc.GetItemValue(fieldName)(0)
      If (origFieldVal <> currFieldVal) Then
                       'the value has changed--flag for update
       Redim Preserve fieldUpdateArray(0 To fieldUpdateCount)
       fieldUpdateArray(fieldUpdateCount) = fieldName
       fieldUpdateCount = fieldUpdateCount + 1
      End If
     Next
     
     If fieldUpdateArray(0) <> "" Then
                  'updates need to be performed
      Set actDoc = actDC.GetFirstDocument
      While Not (actDoc Is Nothing)
                       'for each activity document, replace the changed values
       For i=0 To Ubound(fieldUpdateArray)
        currVal = doc.GetItemValue(fieldUpdateArray(i))(0)
        Call actDoc.ReplaceItemValue(fieldUpdateArray(i), currVal)
       Next
       Call actDoc.Save(True, True)
       Set actDoc = actDC.GetNextDocument(actDoc)
      Wend
     End If
    End If
    
   End Sub
   

5. In the QuerySave of parent document:

   Set doc = Source.Document
   'update any child documents if values have changed
   If Not (Source.IsNewDoc) Then
    UpdateChildDocuments
   End If