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Knowledge Base, List Queries, PowerForms Siverlight

Master-Detail using the DataEntryGrid control

The DataEntryGrid control was initially added to provide users with the option to add structured data that would be saved inside a multi-lines-of-text control (using XML). So it is ideal for cases that no external list is required to store the related data. Since v.2.6.5, the DataEntryGrid contol if its value is bound to a […]

August 15, 2017/by Konstantinos

Knowledge Base, List Queries, PowerForms Siverlight

Master-Detail using the ListAndForm control

This is a step-by-step guide of building a mster-detail form (PowerForms Advanced) using the ListAndForm control. For this example. we will use 2 connected lists : Customers and Contacts. Customers list columns Title, Address Contacts list columns Title (renamed to Full Name), LastName (single line of text, renamed to “Last Name”), FirstName (single line of […]

August 15, 2017/by Konstantinos

Knowledge Base, List Queries, PowerForms Siverlight

Master-Detail using the DataEntryGrid control

August 15, 2017/by Konstantinos

Knowledge Base, List Queries, PowerForms Siverlight

Master-Detail using the ListAndForm control

August 15, 2017/by Konstantinos

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Knowledge Base, List Queries, PowerForms Siverlight

Master-Detail using the DataEntryGrid control

Since v.2.6.5, the DataEntryGrid contol if its value is bound to a ListQuery, it can manage records that reside inside a separate list. It also has a unique feature :

The data changes are performed in a batch mode, meaning that all changes are applied as soon as we save the master record. It also has another feature :

It allows to insert records in a separate list, event if we are adding a new master record.

For example, we are inserting a new Purchase Order record. Before saving the record, we provide multiple order line items using the DataEntryGrid control. As soon as the users saves the Order record, all related Order-Line-Items will be inserted and get connected to the master record. In order to accomplish that, the control sends all data in a batch mode to the server and if we are dealing with a new master record, it first saves the master record, keeps the ID of that record and uses it to insert all data provided in the DataEntryGrid control.

Here is an example on how to setup that control :

We first create 2 lists (Customers and Contacts).

Customers list columns

Title, Address

Contacts list columns

Title (renamed to Full Name), LastName (single line of text, renamed to “Last Name”), FirstName (single line of text, renamed to “First Name”), Email (single line of text), Customer (lookup on the Customers list)

We first register PowerForms for the Customers form and start customization:

First we should create a list query that will retrieve related contacts for the current customer record :

In our Customer form, we first define a ListQuery that will retrieve only the connected contacts (for the current Customer). The field that connects the 2 list is : Customers.ID = Contacts.Customer, so our query will use criteria on the Customer field of the Contacts list.

And the criteria added is based on the control c_ID which contains the ID of the current Customer record.

Notice that we have cleared the “Ignore Blank” checkbox, since that would retrieve ALL contacts when we were inside a new customer record (ID would be blank in that case).

Moreover, we use a criteria type = “Lookup” since the “Customer” column for which we apply the criteria, is a lookup column and we provide the ID part of its value.

We then add a DataEntryGrid control on the form to hold the contact records.

We set its height to fit our needs and we bind the control to get values from the ListQuery :

We now have to define the fields for the DataEntryGrid.

The DataEntryGrid control supports simple controls (like TextBox, DatePicker, static Combo, Checkbox) but to achieve the best result we could use Existing controls. To do that, we must first create some controls on the form (that will be used to data entry inside the grid), then hide them and use the control names (by selecting “Existing” in the control type)in the configuration of the grid fields.

We add the following controls below :

c_ContactTitle (a textbox control)

c_ContactLastName (a textbox control)

c_ContactFirstName (a textbox control)

c_ContactEmail (a textbox control)

We make the c_ContactTitle control ReadOnly and set to get its value from the c_ContactLastName and c_ContactFirstName controls by using a value formula : FieldValue(“c_ContactLastName”) & ” ” & FieldValue(“c_ContactFirstName”).

We then hide the controls using the appropriate button in the toolbar.

In the Extra tab of the control properties window we then define the fields :

Contact Title

Contact Last Name

Contact First Name

Contact Email

and then we define the Values we want to provide programmatically to each record using the “Values” property of the Extra configuration. There you can define Name/Value pairs to provide default values to columns of the targeted list.

For example you can provide a pair like :

Name = Active, Value = 1

or a calculated pair :

Name = Active, Value = {c_Active}

to get the value from an control of the existing form.

If you want to provide the ID of the current record, instead of using the {c_ID} keyword, you can provide the :

{ParentID} keyword which will work event if the current record has no ID yet (a new record).

You can then use inline editing (by selecting the corresponing property in the extra configuration of the control) or the popup form to add/edit or delete related records.

All changes are kept and applied as soon as the user selects to save the current record.

August 15, 2017/by Konstantinos

Knowledge Base, List Queries, PowerForms Siverlight

Master-Detail using the ListAndForm control

This is a step-by-step guide of building a mster-detail form (PowerForms Advanced) using the ListAndForm control.

For this example. we will use 2 connected lists : Customers and Contacts.

Customers list columns

Title, Address

Contacts list columns

Title (renamed to Full Name), LastName (single line of text, renamed to “Last Name”), FirstName (single line of text, renamed to “First Name”), Email (single line of text), Customer (lookup on the Customers list)

We first register PowerForms for both lists. Then we start customizing the contacts form.

This is what we should get as a default customization :

We do some minor customizations to our form :

Change the section columns to 4 and change control positioning:

Then we make the “Full Name” control ReadOnly and we apply a value formula to let its value be composed by the value of the LastName and FirstName controls :

Code

FieldValue(“c_LastName”) & ” ” & FieldValue(“c_FirstName”)

We change the Customer control type from a ComboBox to a LookupPicker (to enhance form loading since the customers list might get long).

Now we start customizing our Customer form. This is the default customization we get when optning the form :

We then add a few records in both lists to assist us during customization.

For our example, we added one Customer and 2 Contacts under that Customer record.

And the criteria added is based on the control c_ID which contains the ID of the current Customer record.

Notice that we have cleared the “Ignore Blank” checkbox, since that would retrieve ALL contacts when we were inside a new customer record (ID would be blank in that case).

Moreover, we use a criteria type = “Lookup” since the “Customer” column for which we apply the criteria, is a lookup column and we provide the ID part of its value.

We also include the ID of the contact since it is required by the control to identify contact records when editing.

If we press the “Execute” button and we get the correct results, we are ready to add our ListAndForm control on the form.

We then create a separate tab to host our ListAndForm control called “Contacts”.

We place a ListAndForm control there and set its value to be the ListQuery we have just defined.

We change the form size (from the options section) to fit our needs.

This is what we should get from that :

Since the ListAndForm control is actually a separate Form-inside-a-Form, the customization we have already defined for our Contacts form is automaticaly used.

Notice that selecting records from the datagrid, allows us to edit those records in the form below that grid.

Now to define the relationship between the 2 entities so that each time we add a new contact, the parent id is used inside the Customer column of the contact, we should edit the ListAndForm control properties and go to the Extra tab of the control properties and add a Default Value :

Code

{c_ID};#{c_Title}

The above value will replace the {c_ID} with the ID of the current customer record and the {c_Title} with the title so the final value will be something like : 1;#BPC-Components.

If we selected a ComboBox instead of a LookupPicker, the {c_ID} would be sufficient for that value, but since we want the title of the customer to be shown inside our LookupPicker, we should provide it manually (since the LookupPicker does not load records during form loading).

So if we press the NEW button inside the Contacts form, this is what we will get :

The last thing to do is to disable the ListAndForm control when we are inserting a new Customer record (since the Customer is not saved and we have no ID to connect with our contacts list).

One way to do this is to apply a “Enabled Formula” in the ListAndForm control :

Code

FieldValue(“c_ID”) <> “”

Another way to accomplish a similar result is to write a small script (python) inside the LoadCompleted event that would disable or hide the “Contacts” tab from the form if we are still in a new Customer record:

Code

id = dataitem.GetValue(“ID”)
if id == “” :
template.DisableTab(1)
else :
template.EnableTab(1)

Code

id = dataitem.GetValue(“ID”)
if id == “” :
template.HideTab(1)
else :
template.ShowTab(1)

August 15, 2017/by Konstantinos