I experience frequent instances of data misplacement when I use the database I created for a personal project. (All of my databases are personal; I am not a professional Panorama developer.)
I often find field values from one record mistakenly showing up in a different record. I have not been able to pin down the causes and I’m hoping someone else might recognize the symptoms and suggest a fix. The misplacements are seldom obvious right away, and when I recognize the problem later, it’s too late to recollect what might have happened.
My suspicion is that this MAY happen when I have a field value selected for some reason, and when I switch to a different record, the selected value ends up in the second record.
My database has only one real form, my entry/edit form. I also keep the Data Sheet open separately. I have no procedures or code in any of the form objects. I suspect I made errors in form creation and failed to investigate each option/requirement of the various text objects on the form.
I have gotten in the habit of saving frequently whenever I’m updating records (even though I know PanX saves automatically). I’ve gotten paranoid about corrupting my data this way. Does anyone recognize the symptom I’m seeing?
I had this problem with one of my databases. But it was not that frequent - once or twice a month. I suspected the problem had to do with entering data using a form I had created. I stopped using that form for data entry and instead used the data sheet to enter data. I haven’t had the problem since. I suspect that I had messed up something when I created the input form. The record that most often received the wrong values was the first record of the database.
Thank you! Yes, I think that’s what I’m experiencing. I suppose I could enter data using the data sheet, but it would be much more cumbersome. Besides, I like finding the cause of problems so I can avoid them in the future. I have another set of data to manage but before I create another Panorama database, I want to find out what NOT to do with a new one. I had the same experience with a previous database so there is something I’m doing wrong consistently.
This previous thread, had a lot of confusion, and did not get into details about my problem, but but after database arrived it was fixed, sounds similar, is it really the same issue?
This sounds somewhat similar. Do you know what fixed the problem you had? I’ll be away from my computer for the next week but hope to get back to this in the future. An earlier responder (caper) said he had a similar problem, but it happened infrequently ‘once or twice a month’. I don’t think things like this should ever happen; it really corrupts my data and makes me not trust it.
How do you typically select records - from a procedure, or just using the standard Pan dialog? Do you typically edit/enter data once selected, or are you often making selections to just view the data?
I think Bernadette did not mean she had selected some records, but she was editing a cell in her form (and did not terminate editing with enter or tab; so the value in the cell was still active/selected) when she clicked on a different record.
I typically keep the Data Sheet and my Entry/Edit form open in different windows. I most often go to the Data Sheet to do searches, then switch to the Entry/Edit form to review the information I’ve previously entered and/or edit that information. The only ‘procedures’ I use are saved Searches that appear when I click into the # visible/# total space at the top of the Data Sheet. I have a number of those and use them frequently: Uploading: Screenshot 2025-08-06 at 11.23.02 AM.png…
When I’m using this database, I do frequent searches and edits of individual records.
The common factor of the reports of this issue is that the data sheet and a data entry form are open simultaneously. One way to avoid the problem would be to use the data sheet only for data entry (hide all unnecessary fields, show only the columns you need); the other way would be to close the data sheet and to integrate a text list object into your form (as a replacement for the data sheet) for your navigation in the database.
Thank you. It’s not practical to do data entry from the Data Sheet, but I could try the text list object approach to replace my current use of an open Data Sheet. I’ll have to start from scratch with that concept – I’ve never tried that. But if it avoids the issues I’ve been having I’d be delighted to incorporate that into other databases in which I’ve had the same issues. This problem of data ending up in the wrong record has been an issue ever since I converted to Pan X.
It might be nice if there was a way to automatically close any Text Editing Objects when the form is no longer the frontmost window. Unfortunately there is no corresponding event label to the formFRONT label like maybe formBACK which would trigger code it the form is no longer the front window. If there was such a critter, you could use something like this in the Form Event Procedure:
formBack:
closeactiveobject
return
This might not be possible however since the window would no longer be the active window. Maybe something like this would work:
formBack:
magicformwindow "", "My Entry Form"
closeactiveobject
magicwindow ""
return
But, since there is no such Form Event label, this is all just hypothetical.
This is how it worked in earlier versions of Panorama. However, this is not a good behavior and no other Mac apps work that way. For example, imagine if you were using Word or Pages and had two documents open, and whenever you clicked on another window the document would scroll to the top. That’s what Panorama used to do.
In Panorama X, a lot of work was done so that this didn’t happen any more. The Text Editing object stays open even if you go to another window. So you can click to another record and back and not lose your place when editing a long text field. However, it does close if you go to another record. That’s basically like switching to another document in a word processor.
Using a form and the data sheet at the same time should be no problem. This has been extensively tested and so far no one has been able to provide a scenario that duplicates this problem. A database that I use regularly is the one used to generate the Panorama help system, and I always use this database with the at a sheet and at least one form open, sometimes multiple forms. I have never experienced “misplaced data.” I’m sure that there are many Panorama users that use the data sheet and one or more forms together, very probably a majority of users do this, since the design of Panorama encourages this.
Can I absolutely guarantee there is no bug here? Of course not. But I don’t know of any such bug, and the behavior of using multiple windows has been very exhaustively tested. If someone can demonstrate a sequence of actions or a database design that causes these symptoms, great, that would be something to work with. @rclark had a problem and was able to provide a way to replicate the problem, so it was able to be solved. I haven’t jumped in on this thread because these symptoms are not familiar to me, and I have no suggestions. The original post suggested the possibility that someone there was an “error in form creation”, but there is no such error that I know of that could cause these symptoms.
Not sure I can add much, since I’m very occasional user, but my problem was very much about doing a lot of searching/selecting in the data sheet, and Bernadette says she is also doing lots of searches, so maybe that is the “common factor”? I haven’t even used my database much since I reported this, has this bug fix been released?
There is no ‘bug’ to be fixed until a problem can be identified. Some would say ‘if it can not be replicated, it does not exist.’ Until someone can show the error happening, it can only be thought of as a perception. Can you replicate the error?
I’m a total newbie here, but taking on the challenge from @RAmeeti to show error happening using a form and data sheet at the same time, but seems not caused by that alone? using 10.2.2b1 (4568). This is same issue as previous thread I posted Field contents copied when finding/selecting "not selected" recorcord - #15 by rclark, but to make things simple, I just made a new database with 50 states info, and did following actions, this took me 20 mins. The point I want to make is, test these actions with the database from @Bernadette, and with other databases and you have an answer, and no need to recommend “text list object” as workaround, etc. because bug was verified and fixed. Once fix is distributed, maybe “misplaced data” does not show up again and using “a form and the data sheet at the same time” doesn’t get blamed either.
Actions: 1) add notes to first record, no other data in other records “Notes” 2) select subset 3) add more notes 4) need info from not visible record, search for that record and double click on it 5) screenshot clearly shows notes from “Alabama” record now appearing in “Massachusetts” record, obviously misplaced data.
