Object Explorer doesn't update when a form element changes value

[tbleken]

I run a form, place the mouse over it and activate OE. OE shows the values, as expected. However, when I for instance select a textbox in the treeview, and change its text on the form, it doesn't update the value in OE until I press the object in OE again. It would be very helpful to have an automatic refresh when OE gets the focus. Or even better, have the option to enable a timer which refreshes the active object.

[Jimrnelson]

@tbleken @TamarEGranor

Am curious. What properties other than "value" might you expect to have changed?

As for this question, I have a problem because I do not know how to refresh the values in a grid unless the grid has focus. I would love to know how to do this (not only here, but elsewhere)

So, the problem with "GotFocus" is that the actual focus on the form might well be elsewhere (the TreeView, for instance), and I don't think it appropriate to move the focus to the grid.

And, of course, with the timer, the focus would not even be on the form, so that wouldn't seem to work either.

[tbleken]

In my case only the object's value property is of interest. My problem arose when I was debugging a form with an optiongroup. I wanted to check that the value actually changed when I clicked the different options, since the form didn't behave the way I expected. The value property didn't change in OE, and made me waste several hours until I noticed that the problem was that OE didn't update the value.
Normally I would use the old ox=sys(1270) trick, and start the debugger. However, I had changed the hot key to open OE instead, a long time ago. Once I opened the debugger and added ox.value to the Watch list, I realized that the problem was with OE.

[Jimrnelson]

@tbleken @TamarEGranor

That certainly explains why you are interested, but not what I can do about it.

As noted in my earlier message, I do not know how to have the grid in OE refreshed without having the focus on the grid. Without that, there's nothing I can do about your request.

By the way, the original intent for OE was as a modal form, not modeless, so this concern never could have arisen.

I appreciate you interest in this and had not thought of that usage. Just do not know how to implement it.

[lscheffler]

The feature was requested in SWFox 2023 too. It might have value for simple stuff like MOVEing a form, or to check changes due to actions of the object.
It drills down much better then Watch / Locals of the debugger.
So I second this.

Options to useit might be like

• off
• on timer
• on ACTIVATE of Object Explorer

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I guess it would end up rereading the object rather then updating, one do not know if properies / items are added or removed. One might eventbind to properies and the add, remove (...) methods of each object to catch changes, but it might be a bit of overkill.