The ListAndForm control
The ListAndForm control is suitable for implementing interactive Master-Detail views inside a PowerForm, as it helps you to create a fully functional subform inside a form. It contains 2 controls, a list query datagrid and a subform enriched with New/Edit/Delete buttons.
First of all a list query should be created at the Parent List. If you want to connect the query with an existing control, you should fill in the Criteria field during the List query creation. eg Title;{c_Title};Equals;Text
IMPORTANT: In order for the control to work as expected, you will have to include the ID column in your list query.
Then we add the ListAndForm control and we assign the list query to it. Now a datagrid is populated with the data provided by the list query and a new subform is opened that gets detailed data from each row of the datagrid.
This new subform is just a form in the Parent form. It has its own designer, buttons, options etc. as all PowerForms. It is fully customizable. You can hide some controls, disable others, hide buttons(New, Save, Delete).
If you want to keep these customizations only for the subform, you should fill in a new condition in the Options>General Settings>Condition field that looks like ParentList() = “Parent List Name”. Now the saved customizations for the subform will load only if this form is contained in the specified parent form.
You can also connect the form controls with some fields in the subform by providing default values to these fields using the Extra configuration.
When a new record is created in the subform, the default value of the Title field will be inherited by the value of the Title control of the parent form.
There are also some other choices you can set in the subform’s extra configuration :
Showfilter=True
A Combobox appears above the datagrid which helps you to filter the data.
Filters=Title;ID
It contains the fields that are used in the filter combobox
GridHeight=100
The height of the list Datagrid.
ShowGrid (True/False)
Determines if the grid will be visible or not.
AutoSelectFirst (True/False)
If set to True, the first record will be selected after data load.
The ActionButton control
In order to apply custom actions through user input, the ActionButton control can be used.
The ActionButton control acts as a normal button, and can be configured to execute multiple actions.
It can be rendered as a normal Silverlight Button, as a Hyperlink, as a Label or as an ImageButton.
Here are some examples:
The ActionButton supports the following action types :
SetValue
Sets a value to a control. ControlName and Value parameters must be specified.
JavascriptCommand
Only the value parameter is required. Any valid javascript typed in the Value property will be executed by the ActionButton control.
Script
Only the value parameter is required. Any IronPython script should be typed in the value property.
Extra Parameter Configuration
Examples
Set Value Action
Type : SetValue
ControlName : c_Title
Value : New Record
JavascriptCommand action
Type : JavascriptCommand
ControlName :
Value :
Script Action
Type : Script
ControlName :
Value :
template.GetControl(“c_Title”).SetValue(“New Record”)
template.SaveAndExit()
Taking advantage of the ListDataGrid ValueChange event
The ListDataGrid control is very useful for presenting data coming from other/related lists.
Apart from displaying the results, the control does not provide a value to be used from other controls or formula expressions.
The control however raises the ValueChange event and can be used from python script during run-time.
The ListDataGrid control, has a special method called GetGridItemValue(string) which can be used from script to get the attribute of the selected row in the grid.
In order to use the method, users should apply some code in the ValueChange script of the control.
In order to access the internal methods of the ListDataGrid, users have to use something like the following code :
control.InputControl.GetGridItemValue(“Title”)
The parameter provided should be the attribute name (column name) of the bound list query.
Note : The InputControl property provides access to the methods of the actual control.
The ListDataGrid control
The ListDataGrid control is useful to display data coming from other lists. Configuring the control only requires to define a list query.
For example assume we have 2 custom lists : Customers and Orders.
The requirement is display Customer Orders inside each Customer form. So we must define a query that will retrieve Orders using criteria from the existing customer record.
In the runtime designer of the Customer form, we add a new ListQuery.
We define the query parameters :
Url : The orders list url
List : The orders list
Criteria : We must lookup orders using the ID of the current customer record.
Ignore Blank Criteria : we shoudl uncheck this option since it indicates if the filter will be applied when the ID control has no value. This would retrieve all records from the orders list every time we create a new Customer record.
Attributes : We select the columns we want to display in our data grid. Note that for lookup columns we can use the {name:ColumnInternalName} or {value:ColumnInternalName} in order to display the ID or the Name part of the lookup value.
Headers : We define the headers for data grid columns.
Now we can add the ListDataGrid on the form.
Define the required height and in the advanced properties of the control, select the list we defined in our previous step.
The LookupPicker control
The LookupPicker can be used to display and select lookup data and is very similar to the simple ComboBox control but has some signifincant advantages :
- No Data Loading is performed during form initialization providing faster form loading
- Allows data filtering during run-time (including fields other than the Display field)
- Multiple columns can be displayed from the source list
Multiple Search Fields and Display Fields inside the Lookup Picker Query List.
If the control is bound to a choice column, then the Static Values property is automatically filled with the underlying values from the column. The property is readonly as every change in the column values will be automatically reflected in the control values.
If the control is bound to a lookup column, then the list info should be filled in.
The Site Url, List (and/or View) properties should be defined.
The normal behaviour of lookup columns is to display the Title and save the ID of the selected record.
For that reason, 2 properties can be defined in the Lookup Details tab : Display Field & Value Field.
These properties should be automatically filled when first registering PowerForms for an existing list/content type.
In order to add criteria for the list query that will provide control data, use the criteria options.
Details on how to setup criteria can be found in the following links :
Available Properties
ButtonVAlign
Sets the vertical alignment of the browse/search button
AllowBlankSearchText
Defines if the user is allowed to search the list without providing text-search criteria
Sorted
Defines if the results will be sorted by the Display Field
AutoLoadDisplayMember
If selected, the control loads the display field of the record provided if not included in the value (can be used in external lists)
SaveValueFieldOnly
Set this property to TRUE to force the control to send only the Value Member value of the underlying lookup value when saving its value. Normally lookup controls that load data from other lists, use the ID;#TITLE format to save data
SearchAnyPartOfText
If selected, searches the provided text in any part of the taregt column value. If not, returns the records that begin with the provided text.
UniqueField
If the internal name of a column is supplied, the retrieved results will be filtered allowing unique values for that specific field
EnableSearchOnFocus
This property defines if the control will display a search textbox when it receives focus, allowing users to type criteria and activate search by pressing the enter key
SearchFields
Define the fields that you want to search with. It the property is blank, then the display member will be used. The Name, Header, Operator (Equals, BeginsWith etc) and QueryType (Text, Lookup, etc) can be defined for each field.
DisplayFields
Define the fields that will be retrieved and displayed in the results list. It the property is blank, only the display member will be retrieved. The Name, Header and ColumnWidth can be defined for each field. You should use fixed width for the first column is multiple columns are displayed to achieve best results.
The ComboBox control
The ComboBox is a simple dropdown list control that can contain either static values (for example choice column data) or values retrieved from another list (lookup column data)
If the control is bound to a choice column, then the Static Values property is automatically filled with the underlying values from the column. The property is readonly as every change in the column values will be automatically reflected in the control values.
If the control is bound to a lookup column, then the list info should be filled in.
The Site Url, List (and/or View) properties should be defined.
The normal behaviour of lookup columns is to display the Title and save the ID of the selected record.
For that reason, 2 properties can be defined in the Lookup Details tab : Display Field & Value Field.
These properties should be automatically filled when first registering PowerForms for an existing list/content type.
In order to add criteria for the list query that will provide control data, use the criteria options.
Details on how to setup criteria can be found in the following links :
Available Properties
SaveValueFieldOnly
Set this property to TRUE to force the control to send only the Value Member value of the underlying lookup value when saving its value. Normally lookup controls that load data from other lists, use the ID;#TITLE format to save data
Sorted
Defines if the results will be sorted by the Display Field
UniqueField
If the internal name of a column is supplied, the retrieved results will be filtered allowing unique values for that specific field