How to assign Invoice RefNbr before saving the invoice - acumatica

Question

I have set my invoice to Manual Numbering
And I want to assign the invoice number(RefNbr) - if blank, before saving the invoice (AR301000). I've overridden the RowPersisting event as follow:
public class ARInvoiceEntry_Extension:PXGraphExtension<ARInvoiceEntry>
{
protected void ARInvoice_RowPersisting(PXCache cache, PXRowPersistingEventArgs e, PXRowPersisting InvokeBaseHandler)
{
var row = (ARInvoice)e.Row;
if (row != null)
{
//BB-<timestamp> as inv# for testing only
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(row.RefNbr))
row.RefNbr = "BB-" + DateTime.Now.ToString("hhmmsstt");
}
if(InvokeBaseHandler != null)
InvokeBaseHandler(cache, e);
}
}
If I raised a new invoice w/out any lines and saved it. It correctly assigned the Reference Nbr as expected.
Problem is if I raised a new invoice WITH lines. Its complaining that the RefNbr is blank.
What am I missing ? How do I fix this ? Thanks.

Answer 1

Acumatica's PXDBDefaultAttribute only updates field of the dependent records when both the source field of the parent record and the foreign key field of the dependent record are not empty.
When a dependent record is inserted into the cache, PXDBDefaultAttribute will copy the source field value from the parent record to the field it decorates from the dependent record. While the framework is saving new parent record into the database, it first raises RowPersisting event for the parent record. PXDBDefaultAttribute subscribes to the RowPersisting event of the parent record type to save the original source field value:
to locate the parent record after it was saved to the database
or to use it as a restore point for the dependent field in case of an aborted transaction
Also, PXDBDefaultAttribute subscribes to the RowPersisting event of the dependent record type to update the foreign key field with the actual source field value, that has just been recorded in the database. To update the foreign key field PXDBDefaultAttribute must first locate the parent record using the original source field value obtained earlier in the RowPersisting event handler of the parent record type. In case the foreign key field value appears to be empty, there is no chance for PXDBDefaultAttribute to locate the parent record for it and it simply leaves the dependent field empty. This is what eventually is causing the error "RefNbr cannot be empty".
With all that being said, I believe it won't be possible to achieve the desired results if leaving AR Invoice Reference Number empty until it gets saved to the database. As an alternative, let me suggest to default AR Invoice Reference Number to some constant, like < ENTER >, and at the same time replace it with the actual number within the ARInvoice_RowPersisting handler:
using PX.Data;
using System;
namespace PX.Objects.AR
{
public class ARInvoiceNumberingCstAttribute : ARInvoiceType.NumberingAttribute
{
public const string EnterRefNbr = "<ENTER>";
protected override string GetNewNumber()
{
string newNumber = base.GetNewNumber();
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(newNumber))
{
newNumber = EnterRefNbr;
}
return newNumber;
}
public override void RowPersisting(PXCache sender, PXRowPersistingEventArgs e)
{
if (GetNewNumber() == EnterRefNbr) return;
base.RowPersisting(sender, e);
}
}
public class ARInvoiceEntry_Extension : PXGraphExtension<ARInvoiceEntry>
{
[PXRemoveBaseAttribute(typeof(ARInvoiceType.NumberingAttribute))]
[PXMergeAttributes(Method = MergeMethod.Append)]
[ARInvoiceNumberingCst]
protected void ARInvoice_RefNbr_CacheAttached(PXCache sender)
{ }
protected void ARInvoice_RowPersisting(PXCache cache, PXRowPersistingEventArgs e,
PXRowPersisting InvokeBaseHandler)
{
if (InvokeBaseHandler != null)
InvokeBaseHandler(cache, e);
var row = (ARInvoice)e.Row;
if (row != null)
{
//BB-<timestamp> as inv# for testing only
if (row.RefNbr == ARInvoiceNumberingCstAttribute.EnterRefNbr)
row.RefNbr = "BB-" + DateTime.Now.ToString("hhmmsstt");
}
}
}
}