Items in session state not behaving as expected

Question

And again...
(I hope I'm not asking too much, posting 2 new questions in under 5 min....)
This is something new I experienced: I need to show the value of an item (P210_EXTERNAL_ID) on a page (P215)
... not a big thing I thought... BUT when I tried to do this I hit the ground pretty rough (I thought I had actually gained some knowledge about html-db.)
My problem is that I pass on a lot of values from P200 (the report) to P215 (the form) and I reached the limit of characters, that can be used to specify the link (to P215).
So I thought to myself: Well, lets do it different!
I tried:
- specifying a default for the item on P215: P215_EXTERNAL_ID,
- specifying the source for P215_EXTERNAL_ID,
- creating a computation on P215_EXTERNAL_ID,
- filling P215_EXTERNAL_ID 'manually' with a process...
none of these did play the trick for me.
(By the way, I used both syntaxes to reference :P210_EXTERNAL_ID and &P210_EXTERNAL_ID.)
I used Display as Text (saves state) for the item on P215: P215_EXTERNAL_ID,
the item on P210: P210_EXTERNAL_ID is a Text Field.
The unexpected thing I experienced, was that the Item on P215 stayed empty or lagged behind:
- visit P210 with P210_EXTERNAL_ID = 1234
--- branch to P215 (P215_EXTERNAL_ID is empty)
- revisit P210 with P210_EXTERNAL_ID = 5
--- branch to P215 (P215_EXTERNAL_ID = 1234)
- revisit P210 with P210_EXTERNAL_ID = 66
--- branch to P215 (P215_EXTERNAL_ID = 5)
After realizing this I took a look at the session (with the link at the bottom of each page).
And in the Session State the value of P210_EXTERNAL_ID was the old value (always one behind)!!!
Has anybody ever seen something like this??
I'm really running out of ideas here.
-David-

Answer 1

Bill,
Usually I use the pass-on-only-the-PK method too, but here I built something like a consolidated view on a table: one row in the report doesn't correspond to one row in the table, but a group of rows, that are located in the same freezer, same shelf, same rack and same box. So the PK woun't work here b/c I don't have one in the first place... But the thing with referencing other pages items might do the trick to bring down the number of other values I pass on.
Another thought with the example:
- visit P210 with P210_EXTERNAL_ID = 1234
--- branch to P215 (P215_EXTERNAL_ID is empty)
- revisit P210 with P210_EXTERNAL_ID = 5
--- branch to P215 (P215_EXTERNAL_ID = 1234)
- revisit P210 with P210_EXTERNAL_ID = 66
--- branch to P215 (P215_EXTERNAL_ID = 5)
When I click on the edit button on P210 to go to P215, is the page P210 not submitted?
If that's the case, I understand why P210_EXTERNAL_ID in Session State has the last, but not the current value.... Since I branche off that page before submit, the items current values are not written to session state.
Anyone any thoughts to that???
-David-