Hi Paul,

I think you may be making it harder than it could be. See this code Re: Making Date Entry Required ?? Thread #1123023 Message #1123172 and adapt the idea for your needs.

>OK - this shouldn't be this hard. I have a form with a data input field on it. To assist in entering proper information I have a pick routine that loads a pick form and allows the user to select the data value he wants to input. When I leave the field, I need to validate the selected data. I have a button on the form that launches the pick routine, and I don't want to perform validation of the field when the pick button is clicked. To make this work I have done the following:
>
>- I added a property to the form called Picking. This defaults to .f.
>
>- I moved validation of my values to the lostfocus event of my input textbox.
>
>- In the LostFocus, I only perform validation if thisform.Picking = .f.
>
>- In the When event of the input textbox, I set thisform.Picking = .f.
>
>- In the When event of the pick button, I set thisform.Picking = .t.
>
>- In the click event of the button, I launch my pick form, get the value returned, set focus back to the input text box, and set thisform.Picking = .f.
>
>At this point I end up back in my text box and it seems that all would be well. However, when I leave the textbox now, somehow thisform.Picking = .t. and therefore the validation clause in my textbox.LostFocus gets skipped.
>
>According to the event logger - here is what happens as the pick form is closed and the code in the pick button completes:
>
>

>36106.255, formpick.Unload()
>36106.286, formmain.text1.When()
>36106.286, formmain.GotFocus()
>36106.302, formmain.text1.GotFocus()
>36106.302, formmain.text1.Message()
>36106.317, formmain.command1.Valid()
>36106.333, formmain.command1.When()
>36106.380, formmain.Activate()
>

>
>And here is the code from the pick button click event:
>

>DO FORM pickvalue TO thisform.inputvalue
>thisform.text1.SetFocus()
>THISFORM.PICKING = .F.
>
>thisform.Refresh
>

>
>For some reason, as the focus comes back to my input window, the When event of the click button fires which sets the thisform.Picking flag back to .f.
>
>This is the last thing that occurs before the application gives control back to the user. Then when I move to the next field, the validation doesn't occur.
>
>I suppose I could go put in more flags and use the button valid event to set a flag that the button when event can read to know whether or not set the picking flag, but that seems a little silly.
>
>Surely I am not the only person who wants to be able to use this type of functionality. How do I supress validation for a field on the screen when a button is pressed that launches another form to help select the value?
>
>WHAT AM I MISSING!!!
>
>Here is some code to duplicate the problem. If you start the program, and then immediately tab into the next field, the validation fires and "Yes" appears in the second input. If you start the form and use the button to enter a value, and then tab into the next field, you don't get the validation clause to fire because the form.picking flag ends up as .f.
>
>

>PUBLIC o
>
>o = CREATEOBJECT("formmain")
>o.Show()
>
>
>
>
>**************************************************
>*-- Form:         formmain (c:\rest\test.scx)
>*-- ParentClass:  form
>*-- BaseClass:    form
>*-- Time Stamp:   01/29/08 10:21:13 AM
>*
>DEFINE CLASS formmain AS form
>
>
>  Top = 0
>  Left = 0
>  Height = 257
>  Width = 408
>  DoCreate = .T.
>  Caption = "Data Input Test"
>  validated = ""
>  picking = .F.
>  inputvalue = ""
>  Name = "formMain"
>
>
>  ADD OBJECT cmdclose AS commandbutton WITH ;
>    Top = 216, ;
>    Left = 296, ;
>    Height = 27, ;
>    Width = 84, ;
>    Caption = "Close", ;
>    TabIndex = 3, ;
>    Name = "cmdClose"
>
>
>  ADD OBJECT text1 AS textbox WITH ;
>    ControlSource = "thisform.inputvalue", ;
>    Height = 23, ;
>    Left = 164, ;
>    TabIndex = 1, ;
>    Top = 56, ;
>    Width = 100, ;
>    Name = "Text1"
>
>
>  ADD OBJECT text2 AS textbox WITH ;
>    ControlSource = "thisform.validated", ;
>    Height = 23, ;
>    Left = 164, ;
>    TabIndex = 2, ;
>    Top = 111, ;
>    Width = 100, ;
>    Name = "Text2"
>
>
>  ADD OBJECT label1 AS label WITH ;
>    AutoSize = .T., ;
>    Caption = "Enter a value:", ;
>    Height = 17, ;
>    Left = 76, ;
>    Top = 59, ;
>    Width = 76, ;
>    TabIndex = 4, ;
>    Name = "Label1"
>
>
>  ADD OBJECT label2 AS label WITH ;
>    AutoSize = .T., ;
>    Caption = "Valid Value?", ;
>    Height = 17, ;
>    Left = 76, ;
>    Top = 114, ;
>    Width = 70, ;
>    TabIndex = 5, ;
>    Name = "Label2"
>
>
>  ADD OBJECT command1 AS commandbutton WITH ;
>    Top = 56, ;
>    Left = 276, ;
>    Height = 27, ;
>    Width = 84, ;
>    Caption = "Pick", ;
>    TabIndex = 6, ;
>    Name = "Command1"
>
>
>  PROCEDURE cmdclose.Click
>    thisform.Release
>  ENDPROC
>
>
>  PROCEDURE text1.LostFocus
>    IF (thisform.picking = .f.)
>      thisform.Validated = "Yes"
>      thisform.Refresh
>    ENDIF
>  ENDPROC
>
>
>  PROCEDURE text1.GotFocus
>    thisform.picking = .f.
>  ENDPROC
>
>
>  PROCEDURE command1.When
>    THISFORM.PICKING = .T.
>  ENDPROC
>
>
>  PROCEDURE command1.Click
>
>    thisform.inputvalue = INPUTBOX("Please enter a value:")
>    thisform.text1.SetFocus()
>    THISFORM.PICKING = .F.
>
>    thisform.Refresh
>  ENDPROC
>
>
>ENDDEFINE
>*
>*-- EndDefine: formmain
>**************************************************
>