I have an application where users are entering start and end times as time values only in a timesheet (i.e. 22:37, not 12/9/12 22:37) but values are stored in the database as datetime.The user only sees the time portion of the datetime - this is to simplify data entry by not requiring them to enter the date portion when doing heads down data entry.
The timesheets are for shifts, and the shifts run from 08:00 to 20:00 and 20:00 to 08:00.
The date portion of the start and end times are defaulted from the date on which the shift started. There is code in the form that enters the start time for each row as either the start of the shift or the latest end time of any previous rows entered.
On the 20:00 to 8:00 shifts, then, at some point they are going to enter a start or end time which is after midnight and is in fact on the next day - e.g a start of 23:20 and end of 01:10.
So I wrote some more code that inspects the time entered, and if it is earlier than the start date/time of the shift prompts the user to change it to the next day or to correct it if it is a data entry error.
Here's the dilemma ...
The logical place to put this to me is in the BeforeCellUpdate event. The problem is that in that event, I can't add a day to the entry to move it from the shift start day to the next day because everything in the BeforeCellUpdate event isread-only.
I can put it in the AfterCellUpdate event but the problem with that is that if a user answers the prompt to change the day with "No" they can leave invalid data in the row.
I can't help but think there's a way to do this in the BeforeCellUpdate. If it's a datetime that's "too early", ask the user if it is supposed to be after midnight on the next day, and if they say no clear the cell and make them try again.
Can anyone suggest something I may be missing here?
Hi,
I just wanted to know if you were able to solve your issue based on our suggestions or you still need help? Just let me know.
Thank you.
I think you can achieve what you want by setting the value on the Editor instead of the cell.
So you could use BeforeCellUpdate and if you want to modify the value, you just set:
e.Cell.EditorResolved.Value to the next value.
If that doesn't work, you might try using the BeforeExitEditMode event instead. The down side of using this event is that you have to use the Text property of the cell, so you would have to handle the Date conversion yourself using DateTime.Parse.
Hello,
You are right AfterCellUpdateEvent will not fires if the BeforeCellUpdateEvent was canceled and I incorrectly explained my point of view for second scenario in my previous post.
My point was that because you will modify the value you do not need to cancel BeforCellUpdateEvent and you just will modify the value of the cell in the AfterCellUpdate event.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
I think this idea has promise except that I probably need to store the user response and data entry to know what to do in the AfterCellUpdate.
It's a little counterintuitive that the AfterCellUpdate event fires if the BeforeCellUpdate cancels the update mind you.
I'll have to try it.
As far as I understand if the user enter an incorrect data they have two options, to change what they have entered or automatically to modify their entries.
In the first scenario you will cancel the update in BeforeCellUpdateEvent.
In the second scenario you could cancel the update in BeforeCellUpdateEvent and to use AfterCellUpdate event in order to modify the incorrect data.
Also you could write additional information about the answer of the user in the Tag property of the cell, so via this approach you could pass information about user response from BeforeCellUpdateEvent to AfterCellUpdate and to decide how you will modify the data.
I hope that this will helps you.