To pass information when navigating from one form to another when both forms are already open, use the WHEN-FORM-NAVIGATE trigger. You do not code this trigger directly; instead pass the information through global variables.
To use this trigger, populate a global variable called GLOBAL.WHEN_FORM_NAVIGATE with the name of a user-named trigger. When a form is navigated to, this trigger fires.
The WHEN-FORM-NAVIGATE trigger fires upon programmatically navigating to a form using the GO_FORM built-in. Accordingly, this trigger is referenced into all forms.
It often makes sense to navigate to a form and query on a specific item. For example, suppose you have an Order Entry form ORDERS and a Catalog form CATALOGS. You want to navigate from the ORDERS form to CATALOGS and query up a specific part number.
In the ORDERS form, create a global variable called GLOBAL.PART_NUMBER, and populate it with the value you want to query.
In the ORDERS form, create a global variable called GLOBAL.WHEN_FORM_NAVIGATE. Populate this variable with the string "QUERY_PART_NUMBER".
Create a user-named trigger in the CATALOGS form, "QUERY_PART_NUMBER". In this trigger, enter query mode by calling EXECUTE_QUERY.
Create a PRE-QUERY trigger in the CATALOGS form that calls copy('GLOBAL.PART_NUMBER, 'PARTS_BLOCK.PART_ NUMBER'). Then call copy('','GLOBAL.PART_NUMBER'). When there is a value in GLOBAL.PART_NUMBER, it becomes part of the query criteria.