Retrieving calculated string from program to web page

[pwhirley]

I'm not sure how best to explain my question. I feel sure it is an easy solution but I'm tired of trying to figure it out.
I have a file maintenance page generated through the NOMADS tools.  It works just fine and I've been able to do some tweaks.  I have copied _fm_webmaint to my progs folder and modified it and all the mods work except one.  One of the fields available to edit is the selected Printer.  I have made this a drop box and intend to offer a list of the available printers ON THE SERVER.  I inserted this line within the <form>:
[execute perform "Tools;Printer_List"]
The line executes and creates a variable, printerList$ that has a delimited list of available printers.  I cannot figure out how to make that variable available on the page so that it shows up in the line below:

[row "*\[show usefile field=printer$\]:"][list printer$ usefile event=Printer_Validate]
      [data rowsep=/]printerList$[/data][/list]
   [/row]<br />[/font][/font][/size][/size]

I have tried using %webster'Update(printerList$,mynewlist$) in my program, but I cannot get any data in the variable printerList$ on the web page.

Any help would be appreciated.  It is something simple, I am certain.

Thanks - Phil

[Susan Cryderman]

Hi Phil,

If I'm understanding this correctly - printer$ is the element in the data file being maintained and printerList$ is the delimited list of available printers (that is not an element in the data file).

I have not tried this - but it sounds like you might need to add a Hidden Variable to the form.  You can do this by adding a line using the [hide] short code to the generated html page that looks something like:

[hide printerList$ value=""]

 - or -

If you are running PxPlus 2022 or later, you should be able to also do this from within the File Maintenance Generator.  Press the Hidden Variables button on Step 6 and add an Additional Variable of printerList$.
 

[Susan Cryderman]

Phil,

Just for clarification - you may NOT want to use the File Maintenance Generator method for adding the hidden variable as this would over-write the previous edits you made to the html file.

[pwhirley]

Thanks Susan,

Your understanding is correct.  I have tried adding a line down where all the other hidden variables are.  it looks like this:
[hide printerList$ value=""]

That didn't work, so I also tried adding printerList$ to the _fm_panel_iol$ value, also at the bottom of the page. 

Your suggestion suggests that I'm not totally ignorant, thankfully.  I think I understand this but I'm doing something wrong.

Phil