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Version: 0.46

Initialize Dialog with Values From Parent Form

When a user opens a child dialog from a details view, the dialog often needs to "know" which parent record it belongs to. For example, on an invoice-details view the Add line item button opens a child dialog that creates an invoice-line-item - but the line item must be linked to the invoice the user is currently looking at. This guide shows two ways to pass that parent-record context into the dialog's form.

Initial Values and On Initialized have been replaced

Earlier versions of the form designer exposed a key/value Initial Values list and a separate On Initialized script on the Form Settings panel. Neither exists on the live Data tab any more. Forms that still have them keep working - Shesha migrates the old settings into the lifecycle scripts described below the first time the form is opened in the designer - but any new form should use On Before Data Load / On After Data Load instead.

Option 1 - Pass Arguments From the Triggering Action​

The dialog is opened by a Show Dialog action (on a button, a menu item, or a table action column). That action has an Arguments script field: a JavaScript function that returns the object passed into the dialog's form. This is the most explicit way to hand data to a child dialog, because the values are built right where the dialog is triggered.

  1. Select the button (or action column) that opens the invoice-line-item Create View, and open its Show Dialog action configuration.
  2. Open the Arguments code editor.
  3. Return an object with the values the child form needs. data is the current (parent) form's data.

Form type to use: Create Form - the child dialog is creating a new line item against the parent invoice.

Example - Pass the parent invoice's Id into the dialog:

return {
  invoiceId: data?.id,
};
  1. On the invoice-line-item Create View, open Settings and locate On Before Data Load (under the Data Load panel on the Data tab). Use form.formArguments to read what the triggering action passed in, and form.setFieldsValue to seed the field.

Example - Seed the invoice foreign key from the dialog's arguments:

form.setFieldsValue({
  invoice: form.formArguments?.invoiceId,
});

Option 2 - Read the Parent Form's Values Directly​

Shesha also exposes a Parent Form Values object (parentFormValues) inside a form opened as a dialog, giving the child form implicit access to the entire data object of whichever form opened it - without the trigger having to pass anything explicitly. This is convenient, but the framework keeps it around for backward compatibility rather than as the primary mechanism, so prefer Option 1 for new forms unless you genuinely need the parent's full data set.

  1. Open the invoice-line-item Create View in the form designer.
  2. Open Settings and locate On Before Data Load (under the Data Load panel on the Data tab). This script runs once, before the form's data loader executes.
  3. Use form.setFieldsValue({ ... }) to seed the fields from parentFormValues.

Example - Seed the invoice foreign key from the parent form's values:

form.setFieldsValue({
  invoice: parentFormValues?.id,
});
tip

Use On Before Data Load for seeding that must happen before the form's own data loads (the equivalent of the old On Initialized timing). Use On After Data Load instead when the seeded value needs to override or merge on top of data the form just loaded.