Hi
To help ease the transition to a normal data entry model for some legacy users, I'm trying to provide a popup form to allow the user to edit the values of the current row. For the most part, it works fine. I've added a column with a button, and when the user clicks it they get a Popup with controls that are databound to the cells in the row that they clicked. I was very pleasantly surprised about how easily that came together.
The problem I'm having is when the edit button is clicked on the AddRecord. The popup displays normally, and you can fill in the values and see them propogate to the xamDataGrid in the background. When I'm done editing, I press the OK button on my popup form and it sends me back to the grid with all of the values filled into the AddRecord. However, it won't actually move the record into the collection of data rows. Even if I click on one of the cells and tab all the way through the row, the values stay in the AddRecord instead of becoming a new record. The only way I've been able to make it work so far is to manually edit a value while I'm tabbing through the resulting AddRecord. Obviously, what I'd like to have happen is have the new record be automatically added without any tabbing or editing- I'm sure there's an event or command that I'm missing that I should be raising/firing when the OK button is pressed, but I cannot find it.
Thanks for guidance
I do something similar in app I'm currently working on. I don't kno what your binding model is, but for me, I'm going against a collection. In order to add a new record I create an empty domain object and feed it to a dialog window (the view). When the user hits OK, it calls back into the viewmodel to try to persist the object. If successful, the object is then added to the collection, which the grid automatically sees.
I do something very similar for edits. I copy the object using a memento, pass that copy to the view, let the user make changes and then on OK the view calls back into the viewmodel to persist the changes. If successful, the cloned and edited object is then copied back into the original object (which is already in the collection) and BAM... the grid sees the updates.
Letting the user edit an object already bound is not good, in my opinion because it doesn't allow for cancellation. Likewise, seeing a new record simultaneously appearing in the grid before you hit OK is not intuitive.
Of course, this is all based on the use of domain objects, versus going directly against a record set.
Thanks for the reply
We were hoping to make our 'popup' form as lightweight as possible as the intent is to push in-grid editing as much as possible via training. I'm actually pretty okay with the cancel logic working under the model we've started with- that is, you get exactly the same behavior whether you're editing via the grid or via the popup- no special undo functionality is gained (or lost) if you edit via the popup instead of the grid.
Although if I'm not able to come up with a way to notify the grid of what I'd like it to do then I may be forced to go the other route. I am also going against a collection, but I was hoping to avoid touching the collection directly whilst it is bound to the grid.
After fighting it as much as possible, I've got the result I wanted by inserting a new object into the source collection at the first position (since this is what tabbing through the add record would do) and then manually setting the ActiveRecord to be the record at position 0 before displaying the popup form, which is already bound to the values of the ActiveRecord.
_modelManager.Models.Insert(0,new Model());modelGrid.ActiveRecord = modelGrid.RecordManager.Current[0];
It feels a little dirty, but it did get the job done.
Thanks, tbeaulieu for starting me thinking down a path that I probably wouldn't have got to for a while longer
That's interesting. I've never worked with cells (data from the grid). All my work has been done through the domain objects that the grid is bound to. I'm not a fan of inline editing in grids. Obviously, it depends on the situation, but I usually have a few fields in the grid and a larger set in an edit form. I use the grid to display, select and initiate actions that I handle. I do have a simplistic scenario where the user edits directly in the grid, but sure enough ... the grid seems unable to cope with IDataErrorInfo, so in that single scenario where I chose to use the grid I have no support for validation. Maybe there's a way. I noticed another post asking that very question. Hopefully we'll get an answer.
Unfortunately, there isn't much code to sample. All I did was to follow the example from the online documentation here: http://help.infragistics.com/Help/NetAdvantage/WPF/2008.1/CLR3.X/html/xamDataGrid_Accessing_Cell_Values_in_the_Active_Record.html with the exception of putting the set of controls in a popup instead of a static area above the form.
That example doesn't address the AddRecord at all, and so I've been blindly trying to find ways to hook into the add new feature, without success. I was hoping that this statement from the end of the walkthrough would mean it would work, but obviously it does not: 'If you modify a value in a TextBox and the TextBox loses focus, the value in the corresponding Cell will also update.'
Your comment about when the grid actually creates the underlying object makes me wonder if I need to be focusing on when the edit button gets clicked in the first place (as my edit button is in a grid column) as opposed to the accept/ok button on the popup.
I know the grid does what I consider to be something very strange ... it doesn't create the new object until the user enters the first character in a field (or checks a box, etc.)
This caused me to just through some bizarre hoops with objects containing sub collections.
Can you post some code? I'm not sure how to test because I don't know how you're hooking into the grid for an add new.