Strange Form Disappearance

[nofue]

Yesterday we changed a lot of code with the app in progress, up to the point where the form didn't receive any URL parameters. We checked, cross-checked and triple-crosschecked for hours, but to no avail. I decided to let the case rest until later today, but when I opened the app to use a different part and there are also no field in the form.
The URL shows the right parameters correctly, but "debug as component" shown no fields, and of course no fields are shown on the page either. Doing the same (plain simple) query against the database yields the record.

The SQLPahe log doesn't show any errors, and commenting out all the fields but one didn't change the behavior.

I'm completely stumped as what's going on here -- is there a magic button somewhere to turn off all the fields in forms?

Other parts of the same page work perfectly fine, showing a related table, but the form fields (except the two buttons 'as validate' and 'as reset' have vanished … Any ideas?

[lovasoa]

I don't understand your problem. Could you please post a self-contained minimal reproduction of your issue ?

[nofue]

Neither do I understand what's going on. That's why I asked in the first place. I have the strong feeling that once I begin dismantling the project, things will eventually begin to work again. However, I wanted to ask if there's some magic settings I might overlook -- by now the status is "what worked yesterday, doesn't show up today" -- which is somewhat unsettling. I'll keep you current with my findings.

[nofue]

BTW.: I think it would be nice if one could copy the error messages spit out in 'debug'. Copying from the server console is only half the fun ;)

[nofue]

OK, got it.
Triggered by the warning in the server log:

we changed all the lines in all forms from

from prospects where prospect_id = $prospect_id::int
to
from prospects where prospect_id = :prospect_id::int

Rolling back the change put us back in the game again. Maybe you can elaborate on this issue? We spent two half nights not finding the bug -- WARN in server log when the change kills the app is not exactly what I expected …

The iterations I tried now showed me that there is no other way to write the code any different from this:

select 	'firm'			as name
    ,	'Firma' 		as label
    ,	firm			as value
    ,	'true'			as required
    ,	4 				as width
from prospects where prospect_id = $prospect_id::int
;

This will cause this warning:
[2025-08-26T16:34:23.413Z WARN sqlpage::webserver::database::syntax_tree] Deprecation warning! $firm was used to reference a form field value (a POST variable) instead of a URL parameter. This will stop working soon. Please use :firm instead.

When I rewrite to

select 	'firm'			as name
    ,	'Firma' 		       as label
    ,	:firm			       as value
    ,	'true'			as required
    ,	4 				as width
from prospects where prospect_id = :prospect_id::int
;

or any iteration thereof, the warning disappears, but so does either the field or the content of the field. This really puzzles me, as I always try to have my systems "warning free zones", but in this case removing the warning kills the app.

Bonus: we also rewrote most of our code, including the database functions, as in one of the iterations of :/$ the fields just stay empty, so we were debugging the database instead of thinking of reinstating the $ …

vs.: SQLPage 0.36.1

[lovasoa]

If there is NO prefix (i.e. form) it's reported as $form in the log.

I don't think that's the case. I think you are looking at the wrong SQL query. The warning is probably about a different query in your application. You have to find where you used $firm.

You should avoid using form fields and url parameters with the same name, otherwise the form fields will mask the url parameters when you try to reference them with $var. This will be fixed in a future version, but first, we have to make sure everyone has fixed their application not to reference form fields with the $var syntax. Hence the warning.

[nofue]

You are free to believe whatever you want to believe. I believe

my eyes which told me this:
Believe me or not -- I don't have too many forms with this number of lines I called at the very moment these lines appeared on the screen of my laptop. And ALL lines have the same $ in front of the variable name which has NO $ in front of it.

[lovasoa]

Let's not argue! Maybe you can share a reproduction? That will help fix the problem

[nofue]

We changed most everything last night, nothing left of the initial problem. But I think it should be fairly easy to recreate the problem as I told the situation in detail. Things started to fall apart when I changed $ for : on fields…

[lovasoa]

If you can make a reproduction, that would help!