Numeric Calculation

I’m also seeing that the newly-calculated value does not immediately appear in the record after submitting. I’m looking into the reason for this, thanks for your patience.

Thank you, Roland, for looking into this! As soon as the points get updated immediately, I’m ready to roll the project out.

I’m sure you’re also seeing this, but in my debugging log, it looks like the program goes through 4 passes of the Numeric Calculation fields:

It goes through one pass of the Numeric Calculation fields right before one is logged in.

Then it goes through 2 passes of the Numeric Calculation fields before the record is updated with all the changes. Then all the fields are updated with the changes, except the Numeric Calculations fields are updated with changes from the previous time.

After the Record is updated, it does a Refresh Cache and then goes through one more pass of the Numeric Calculation fields.

I don’t know which pass is for the normal Form Element calculation, and which is for the one going through pdb-custom-calc-field.php. Could it be that the filter hook in the program just needs to change to one that’s before the Record is updated?

Thanks, Ivy

Hi Roland,

Any luck figuring out why the calculated value is not updating the record immediately?

Thanks!

I fixed this in version 2.0.4, make sure you’re using the latest version of Participants Database.

I am. I’m using version 2.0.5 but it’s still not saving the current updates. I’ve cleared my cache too.

Wait…you say it’s not saving the updated values? That’s different than what I thought we were talking about, I thought the problem was the updates were getting saved, you just didn’t see the result in the record when the page reloaded after saving. That was an issue I also saw in my tests and fixed.

Since I don’t know how you have it configured, I’m kindof guessing what the problem is. If you have values in the calculation template that are also calculated fields, it will often take two passes to update the value, that’s just the way it has to work because it doesn’t try to figure out which fields need to be calculated first.

No, I have a blank calculation template. That’s why I’m getting this message in my debugging log, which you said I can ignore.
calculation template format not recognized for template: =[?unformatted]

And because using the template takes 2 passes to update the value, I am using
pdb-custom-calc-field.php and that’s what I’m expecting to update the data immediately.

OK, now I remember, but I’m still unclear on this point: with your code, does that new value save on the first pass, but the new value isn’t visible until the page is reloaded?

OR…does it take two passes for the value to be updated in the record?

Are you using calculated fields in the calculation you’re performing in your custom plugin? If that is the case, you may have to make sure that your calculation is using the fresh results from those calculated fields.

I’m sorry this is so complicated, but I’m trying to figure out what problems are the plugin and which problems are in your custom code. So far, that is unclear to me.

With the custom code, after I update the Earth Day Challenge actions in the record and press Save, the actions are saved, but not the points right away. But if I press Save one more time (with or without changes), then those last points would show up. Leaving the record and logging back in has no effect on the points being updated any sooner. That means the participant would have to press Save twice to get the correct points.

The good thing is the 3 kinds of calculated points and the total points get updated at the same time. The 3 calculated fields based on updated actions seem to be calculating fine. So if there’s anything wrong with the custom code, it may be where the hook is being placed.

The other possibility is that since these have to numeric calculation fields, the template interferes with the custom code.

What you describing is what would happen if your custom code is attempting to calculate a result based on other calculated fields, but the other fields’ values haven’t been calculated yet.

I don’t know if I have a way to do this. I suppose you could achieve some success by changing the order of the fields (by dragging them on the Manage Database Fields page) so that the field that uses your custom code is last.

Also, you should use a “dummy” calculation template in the field you’re processing with your custom code, doesn’t matter what it is as long as it is a valid template. I am adding some code in the next update that will remind people to put in the template if they haven’t, so a blank template won’t be acceptable after that. I’ve had too many people ask me why the calculated field wasn’t working and it was because they hadn’t typed in the calculation template correctly, this helps them get it right the first time.

The only calculated field that’s based on other calculated fields is the total points field. And that field is after the 3 other points calculations. In the Manage Database Fields page, the 4 Points calculation fields are in its own field group called Points. What’s after the Points field group are Field Groups and Help. In my mind they are already the last thing to process.

ok, I put a dummy calculation template in them. No more template unformatted message.

By the way, according to my debugging log, the 4 points fields are processed 4 times:
1st time – before one is logged in
LOGGED IN
2nd and 3rd time – after login and before record is updated
RECORD UPDATED
4th time – after record is updated

Which is the time processed by the custom calc program? I wonder if it’s that 4th pass, as the updated record does not show the points updated.

New idea, Roland.

To get around my problem of the calculated fields not saving, perhaps because of the total points being based on other calculated points, is there a way it can save twice when someone updates their record? That would solve my problem.

Thanks!!!