Forum Discussion

angela's avatar
angela
Catalyst II
7 years ago

Check if Item is already openend in tab or tearoff window

Hi, I wonder if it´s possible to check if an Item (e.g. Part) is already openend on client side? I plan to improve the following use case: A button event triggered from a Form shall trigger a change in another Item. If this Item are already opened in the clients tab or tearoff windows, the change will apply, but the users often do not notice that something happend. So they often trigger the same Method serveral times until they finally try the refresh button (or call the Admin...). It would be really cool if I just could do a simple precheck if the target item is already opened. If yes, a simple return message like "Please close the Item xy first before starting this function." would already be a big help. Any ideas if this is possible at all? Thanks for your help! Angela

2 Replies

  • christopher_gillis's avatar
    christopher_gillis
    Community Manager
    7 years ago
    Hi Angela, In a JavaScript method, you have access to which windows are open via the aras object. The sample code below checks if an item with a specific ID is already open and should work both if the item is open in a tab or in a separate window. 
    var openWindows = aras.windowsByName;
for (var winName in openWindows)
{
var win = openWindows[winName];
var winItem = win.thisItem;
if (winItem && winItem.node.id === "MY_ITEM_ID")
{
return alert("window is open");
}
}
return alert("window is not open");
    Please note that I wrote this sample in SP15. If you notice it doesn't work as expected in your environment, let us know what version you are using, and we can provide an updated sample. Chris
    Christopher Gillis Aras Labs Software Engineer
  • angela's avatar
    angela
    Catalyst II
    7 years ago
    Hi Chris, I can confirm that this one works well in SP11 too! Thanks for the code! And as I sometimes feel like the queen of usability. I have a brilliant idea of improving the default behavior of "Save As"! Standard "Save As" is a nice function, quite 80% of our new Parts are created with Save As. But it only works when the original Item is not openend. In reality users most of the time forgot to close the original Item. Save As related question somehow cover 0.42% of my Admin time. How about modifying the Method "cui_default_mwt_onSaveAsCommand" like this? 
    var topWindow = aras.getMostTopWindowWithAras(window);
var workerFrame = topWindow.work;

// START custom code: Check if Item is already opened in tab or tearoff window
// Doesn´t work for Actions, Methods, Reports,...
// Works for Parts, Documents, Identities, Permissions,...
var id = workerFrame.grid.getSelectedID(); // get id of item selected in grid
var openWindows = aras.windowsByName;

for (var winName in openWindows) {
    var win = openWindows[winName];
    
    var winItem = win.thisItem;

    if (winItem && winItem.node.id === id)
    {
        return alert("'Save As' can not be applied to opened items. Please close the corresponding item first.");
    }
}
// return alert("Window is not open" ); // Debug

// END custom code
if (workerFrame && workerFrame.onSaveAsCommand) {
	workerFrame.onSaveAsCommand();
}
    This code improves Save As for all end-user relevant ItemTypes like Part, Document, etc. For some reason, it does not work for code-heavy item types like Method or Reports. Would be happy if somebody else could give this one a try! Angela