Prompt shows + how to auto-run when 3 fields are filled?

[Mark Moran]

Hi all—

I’ve got a Tap Forms JavaScript that works as follows:
• From the Coins form, it reads three fields: Coin Type, Year, Mintmark.
• If there’s a match, it looks up matching records in Coin Mintages (there can be multiple) and collects their Variety values.
• It then presents those Variety options in a prompt so the user can pick one, and the choice is written back to the Variety field on Coins.

Two issues I’m trying to solve:
1. Prompt includes <unspecified>
• The choice list always includes an extra <unspecified> entry even though I only push actual Variety strings.
• What’s the correct way to prevent that entry from appearing? (e.g., do I need to filter out null/undefined/”” before calling the prompt function, or is there an option/flag in the Tap Forms prompt API that disables an empty choice?)
2. Auto-run when 3 fields are completed
• I’d like this to run automatically whenever Coin Type, Year, and Mintmark are all non-empty on a Coins record—so users don’t have to open the Scripts menu.
• Is there a supported way to trigger a Form Script on field change/record save?
• If not, would a Script field (or a calculated/auto script field) be the right pattern to re-evaluate and prompt as soon as those three fields are populated?

======

// Coins → Form Script (current record only; clears Variety on <unspecified>)

// === CONFIG ===
const COINS_FORM_NAME = ‘Coins’;
const MINTAGE_FORM_NAME = ‘Coin Mintage’;

const COINS_FIELDS = {
coinType: ‘fld-1231556e0f234de9b2d85f50225b8135’,
year: ‘fld-4b84b047badd4d4cbb4a67ef6839522f’,
mintMark: ‘fld-adb0be16f1a347dbbecc4ef562d779a7’,
variety: ‘fld-2a73d81d137e4f718378819f5e4d54e0’
};

const MINTAGE_FIELDS = {
coinType: ‘fld-fdf93db206d141bd956d8c9e7634f25e’,
year: ‘fld-9579d7c74e88414daf27ccbc5d4e0346’,
mintMark: ‘fld-8d72d0971ed34c2c9de6c03d240e9543’,
variety: ‘fld-f76a6eb7ed0c4ae28b77fc6fdf055d53’
};

// === Script ===
(function () {
if (typeof record === ‘undefined’ || !record) {
Utils.alertWithMessage(‘No Record’, ‘Run this from a Coins record.’);
return;
}

function norm(v) { return (v === null || v === undefined) ? ” : String(v).trim(); }
function eq(a, b) { return norm(a) === norm(b); }

var coinType = norm(record.getFieldValue(COINS_FIELDS.coinType));
var year = norm(record.getFieldValue(COINS_FIELDS.year));
var mintMark = norm(record.getFieldValue(COINS_FIELDS.mintMark));

if (!coinType || !year) {
Utils.alertWithMessage(‘Missing Data’, ‘Current record needs Coin Type and Year.’);
return;
}

var mintageForm = document.getFormNamed(MINTAGE_FORM_NAME);
if (!mintageForm) {
Utils.alertWithMessage(‘Form Not Found’, ‘Could not find form: ‘ + MINTAGE_FORM_NAME);
return;
}

var mintageRecords = mintageForm.fetchRecords();
if (!mintageRecords || mintageRecords.length === 0) {
Utils.alertWithMessage(‘No Varieties’, ‘No records in Coin Mintage.’);
return;
}

var choices = [];
var seen = {};

for (var i = 0; i < mintageRecords.length; i++) {
var r = mintageRecords;
var t = norm(r.getFieldValue(MINTAGE_FIELDS.coinType));
var y = norm(r.getFieldValue(MINTAGE_FIELDS.year));
var m = norm(r.getFieldValue(MINTAGE_FIELDS.mintMark));
var v = norm(r.getFieldValue(MINTAGE_FIELDS.variety));
if (!v) continue;

if (eq(t, coinType) && eq(y, year) && eq(m, mintMark)) {
if (!seen[v]) { seen[v] = true; choices.push(v); }
}
}

if (choices.length === 0) {
Utils.alertWithMessage(‘No Varieties’, ‘No matching Variety entries found in Coin Mintage.’);
return;
}

choices.sort(function (a, b) { if (a < b) return -1; if (a > b) return 1; return 0; });

var title = ‘Select Variety — ‘ + coinType + ‘ ‘ + year + (mintMark ? ‘ ‘ + mintMark : ”);
var prompter = Prompter.new();
prompter.cancelButtonTitle = ‘Skip’;
prompter.continueButtonTitle = ‘Set Variety’;
prompter.addParameter(‘Variety:’, ‘choice’, ‘popup’, choices)
.show(title, function (continued) {
if (!continued) return;

// If user leaves the popup on <unspecified> (choice is falsy), clear the field.
if (!choice) {
record.setFieldValue(COINS_FIELDS.variety, ”);
document.saveAllChanges();
return;
}

record.setFieldValue(COINS_FIELDS.variety, String(choice));
document.saveAllChanges();
});
})();

[Daniel Leu]

1) Maybe it’s because you don’t use a default value. E.g., prompter.addParameter('Variety:', 'choice', 'popup', choices, choices[0])

2) Instead of a form script, use a field script. They are automatically triggered when you use thisRecord.getFieldValue('fld-xxx'). You could call your form script form a field script as well after checking that your three fields are set.

Cheers, Daniel

---
See https://lab.danielleu.com/tapformspro/ for scripts and tips&tricks

[Mark Moran]

Thanks Daniel. Extremely helpful as usual.

Totally missed the default value. Still has “unspecified” as an option. But at least it now defaults to possible answer I would want.

Using the field script… I’m not clear on field scripts, they are triggered when exactly? Are field scripts triggered when another script uses thisRecord.getFieldVlaue(‘fld-xxx’) as I think you’re saying above? Kind of a chicken and egg thing, where is the thisRecord.getFieldValue used that it triggers the field script or the form script?

[Daniel Leu]

re “unspecified”: To start with, I would check that the list of values really only contains valid values and nothing else. Add a console.log(choises.join(" | ")) before the prompter code.

Re “field script trigger”. This is from an older post from Brendan:

… my Objective-C code scans your source code to determine which fields you’re referencing in the script by looking for the text .getFieldValue(‘fld-…..’). Or when using a variable instead of (‘fld-….’).

When one of the referenced fields changes, the field script is triggered.

Hope this helps!

Cheers, Daniel

---
See https://lab.danielleu.com/tapformspro/ for scripts and tips&tricks

[Mark Moran]

Thanks again. Knowing how the field script trigger works helps.

The choices are only valid values and nothing else. Still no clue where the unspecified is coming from.

Mark

[Mark Moran]

Again thanks for your help.

My research says that I can use the prompter in a field script. Also, I can’t run a form script from a field script. This eliminates the process I want to accomplish. I want it to prompt for the variety field from the records in the coin mintage form.

[Daniel Leu]

You definitely can run a form or document script from a field script. I do this all the time. For a form script, you can use document.getFormNamed('demo').runScriptNamed('test');, for a document script use document.runScriptNamed('test');.

Do you have a test file you can share? You can email it if you prefer.

Cheers, Daniel

---
See https://lab.danielleu.com/tapformspro/ for scripts and tips&tricks

[Mark Moran]

I’ll work on it. I’m learning as I’m going and fixing this is part of the education. I really appreciate your help. But here’s an empty copy of the database for anyone who wants to play with it. I erased the records of every form except the ones in the Data area. It’s a coin collection database, and the Data area contains information common to anyone collecting, eg, mintages, coin types, etc. It’s a work in progress, but anyone is free to use it.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mw244xenot2k9zsh2vub6/Coins-Test.tfparc?rlkey=31a304v2c8xobes4akebnlmzk&st=66jheflg&dl=0

I’m open to anyone’s suggestions for improvements too….

[Daniel Leu]

Second time I’m trying to post an answer…. the first time caused the forum to crash :-(. So this answer will be a bit shorter.

The field script has an error. The dash - in the field ids is not a dash and therefore, no value is read. I modified the script to call the form script in the Coins form:

(function() {
  const ct = record.getFieldValue('fld-1231556e0f234de9b2d85f50225b8135');
  const yr = record.getFieldValue('fld-4b84b047badd4d4cbb4a67ef6839522f');
  const mm = record.getFieldValue('fld-adb0be16f1a347dbbecc4ef562d779a7');

  if (ct && yr && mm) {
      console.log("condition met")
    document.getFormNamed('Coins').runScriptNamed('Variety Prompt');
  }
  return '';
})();

When running the Variety Prompt script, I run into an error where the constants were already defined. This has to do with how javascript is handled within Tap Forms Pro. So I moved that section inside your function:

// === Script ===
(function () {

    // === CONFIG (your IDs kept as-is) ===
    const COINS_FORM_NAME   = 'Coins';
    const MINTAGE_FORM_NAME = 'Coin Mintage';
    
    const COINS_FIELDS = {
      coinType:  'fld-1231556e0f234de9b2d85f50225b8135',
      year:      'fld-4b84b047badd4d4cbb4a67ef6839522f',
      mintMark:  'fld-adb0be16f1a347dbbecc4ef562d779a7',
      variety:   'fld-2a73d81d137e4f718378819f5e4d54e0'
    };
    
    const MINTAGE_FIELDS = {
      coinType:  'fld-fdf93db206d141bd956d8c9e7634f25e',
      year:      'fld-9579d7c74e88414daf27ccbc5d4e0346',
      mintMark:  'fld-8d72d0971ed34c2c9de6c03d240e9543',
      variety:   'fld-f76a6eb7ed0c4ae28b77fc6fdf055d53'
    };
        
  if (typeof record === 'undefined' || !record) {
...

Now it seems to work. Good luck!

Cheers, Daniel

---
See https://lab.danielleu.com/tapformspro/ for scripts and tips&tricks

[Brendan]

Sorry for the forum crash. Ran out of disk space on the VM.

[Author]

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