How to create and use a global table for all valuelist items

In the previous walkthrough we created and applied a valuelist from a table. Now we could create many tables to support all valuelist needs but there is a smarter way.

If you would want to setup a global table for all valuelist items and filter on the valuelist in specific controls then that's pretty easy too.

This walkthrough is basically the same as the Table-based valuelist with a few exceptions. Instead of creating a countries table you would want to create a table such as global_valuelist with the following fields:

Pay special attention to the field valuelist_name! It is very important to use exactly the same fieldname because this is what you will be filtering on.

Create a maintenance form as we did in the previous sample
Run the form and add some test data

Select the countries valuelist we created earlier
Doubleclick it
Change the Table Values item from test.countries to test.global_valuelist
Check the Apply valuelist name as filter on column 'valuelist_name' checkbox
Change the column settings accordingly to the screenshot below
Change the sorting as desired to the code field or the description field

IMPORTANT! Note that the name of the valuelist (countries) is case-sensitive when applied as a filter. So if your table contains the valuelist_name 'countries' the name of your valuelist should also be 'countries' and not 'Countries'.

Next we want to add a combobox to our form that use the valuelist:

From the toolbar click the textbox button
Select the country field from the customer table and press Ok

Select the country textbox control in your form
Change the displayType property to COMBOBOX
Fill the valuelist property with the countries valuelist you just made
Set the horizontalAlignment property to LEFT
Run the form

Conclusion

As you can see we now have both the gender and countries valuelist definitions stored in the global_valuelist table. Adding all of our valuelist definitions here will save huge amounts of time!

External resources:

vfp plugin

ServoyWorld 2012 pics

Official Servoy website

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