Grouping items in telerik reporting - telerik

I'm trying to use grouping in the Telerik reporting so that I display a certain value only once. Here's what I'm going for:
And here's what I'm getting:
I've tried just about everything I could think of with the grouping. I've moved the Name to the group header, I've moved it all to the group header. Just nothing seems to be going my way with this. Is there a way to actually achieve what I'm trying to do?

I don't know of a built in way to do this, but you can achieve it with a small amount of code.
If you switch from the designer to code view
private static string LastValue { get; set; }
public static string SuppressDuplicates(string value)
{
if (LastValue == value) return string.Empty;
LastValue = value;
return value;
}
And then on the designer change your text box from =Fields.FirstName to '= ReportLibrary.ReportName.SuppressDuplicates(Fields.FirstName) via the expression editor.
It would also be possible to achieve the same thing by adding a handler to the items DataBound event.

Related

Add custom data-* attributes to Kendo UI AutoComplete or ComboBox

Currently using the Kendo UI AutoCompleteFor() and ComboBoxFor() helper.
Noticing that they generate/render a bunch of <li>s.
How does one add additional custom data-* attributes to those <li>s?
Here's the current scenario:
The user starts typing stuff in the AutoCompleteFor
An ajax call is triggered to fetch some data related to what the
user has typed.
The obtained results are transformed into an
IEnumerable<SelectListItem>.
The result is then sent to Json. Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet)
My goal is to add one or more additional data-* attribute to each of these <li> generate lines so that I can fetch these data-* in the onChange() event.
How does one achieve this?
In addition, I'm aware that I could create my own .Template() and possibly achieve my task but I was curious if anyone knows of a different way to do this then having to create my own template.
Sincerely
Ok I've found a solution; I'll share it here in case anyone is interested.
Instead of transforming my obtained results into an IEnumerable<SelectListItem>, I simply transform this into an IEnumerable<CustomDTO>.
The CustomDTO class looks like this:
public class CustomDTO
{
public int Value { get; set; }
public string Text { get; set; }
public int Age { get; set; }
//Add whatever more properties you think you’ll need.
}
In my controller, I then do the following:
var result = _myService.GetData().ToList();
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
Where GetData() returns an IEnumerable<CustomDTO>.
Inside my View, I have an AutoCompleteFor() control to which I bind a client side
.Events(x => x.Select("onSelect") event handler.
The handler is defined like so:
function onSelect(e)
{
if (e.item == null) return;
var dataItem = this.dataItem(e.item.index());
var valueAttribute = dataItem.Value;
var textAttribute = dataItem.Text;
var ageAttribute = dataItem.Age; //This is how I get my additional value
//...code...
}
So that's it.

Validation for items in ObservableCollection bound to DataGrid when validation of one item of collection depends on other items

I am using MVVM and displaying some items on a DataGrid. My model is RecordingInfo and looks like:
public class RecordingInfo : IDataErrorInfo
{
public RecordingInfo(string fullDirectoryName, string recordingName, int recordingNumber)
{
FullDirectoryName = fullDirectoryName;
RecordingName = recordingName;
RecordingNumber = recordingNumber;
}
public string FullDirectoryName { get; internal set; }
public string RecordingName { get; set; }
public int RecordingNumber { get; internal set; }
public string Error
{
get { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}
public string this[string propertyName]
{
get {
if (propertyName == "RecordingName")
{
if (this.RecordingName.Length < 2)
return "Recording Name must be at least two characters";
}
return null;
}
}
}
I end up with a collection of these RecordingInfo programmatically. The user is not allowed to do much with these but he/she can change the RecordingName subject to the name being 2 characters or more AND that the RecordingName must be unique. I.e. no changing it to match another RecordingName. I have taken care of the first requirement. It's the second one that is giving me grief.
For my ViewModel, I have
public class RecordingListViewModel : ViewModelBase//, IDataErrorInfo
{
private ObservableCollection<RecordingInfo> _recordings = null;
public RecordingListViewModel()
{
}
public ObservableCollection<RecordingInfo> Recordings
{
get
{
return _recordings;
}
}
// more stuff left off for brevity
In my view I bind the collection to a DataGrid and have:
<DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Recordings}" AutoGenerateColumns="False" >
<DataGrid.Columns>
<DataGridTextColumn Header="Recording" IsReadOnly="False" EditingElementStyle="{StaticResource CellEditStyle}" ElementStyle="{StaticResource CellNonEditStyle}" Binding="{Binding RecordingName, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged, ValidatesOnDataErrors=True}" >
</DataGridTextColumn>
...
</DataGrid.Columns>
My way of checking for 2 or more characters works great. But this doesn't work for checking that the user is not trying to give a recording an existing name. Presumably, I need to somehow handle this at the ViewModel layer since the ViewModel knows about all Recordings. I tried playing with having my ViewModel derive from IDataErrorInfo but the property indexer never gets called, which makes sense as it's the Observable collection and therefore the individual RecordingInfos that are bound. I also thought about doing something with a "Lost Focus" event, but DataGridTextColumn doesn't seem to have that. I would think this is a somewhat common problem: validation must take into account relationships between the items of the collection.
By the way, I'm not wedded to the IDataErrorInfo and I am not opposed to other changes in architecture. Please let me know if I can provide more details. I have tried to provide a minimal amount of code. Clearly, this is part of a much bigger project. Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave
I would do the following
1) Make RecordingInfo implement INotifyPropertyChanged
2) Use a BindingList<> instead of ObservableCollection<>
In your viewmodel, subscribe to the BindingList.ListChanged Event. This event will fire when items are added and removed, but also when the top level properties on RecordingInfo changes. In the case of a property being changed, the ListChangedEventArgs.PropertyDescriptor property will contain the name of the property, if you want to run validation for just that property (be careful though, this can be null when the item as added/removed). You'll need to use the ListChangedType property to determine the reason of the event (E.x.: Reset means everything changed, ItemAdded means the item was added, but the ItemChanged means a property changed as occurred on an existing item.
You can have the parent ViewModel (that contains and creates your RecordingInfos) pass a name validation Func in their constructors for them to call when validating their name changes.

How to get value dynamically added textbox values in MVC 3

I want to get the values of dynamically added Textbox on submit button in MVC 3.
I am storing the values in hidden field and getting using FromCollection. Is there any better approach?
If you name your values something like
MyValues[x] where x is a zero based, continuously increasing integer, you can receive the string values as a list of strings named MyValues.
This trick also works for properties if the main model object, if needed.
You should check some articles about how to bind to collections In ASP mvc, they could give you some ideas.
For example http://haacked.com/archive/2008/10/23/model-binding-to-a-list.aspx
You could do something like this (written very quickly outside of editor, so may have typos/issues):
Make a view model:
public class DynamicTextBoxViewModel
{
public IList<string> DynamicTextBox { get; set; }
public int OtherStuffInViewModel { get; set; }
}
Then in your Get Action:
var model = new YourViewModel
{
DynamicTextBoxList =
new List<DynamicTextBox>
{
new DynamicTextBox
{
TextBoxText = string.Empty,
}
},
OtherStuffInViewModel = xxx,
};
return View(model)
Then in your Post Action:
You would bind everything where you wanted it.
The idea is to move all the data into a ViewModel and pass that around so you gain the benefits of the ViewModel instead of passing around FormCollection - which is sloppier and more error prone.

mvvmlight - what's the "proper way" of picking up url parameters for a view model

I'm just switching a project across to mvvmlight and trying to do things "the right way"
I've got a simple app with a listbox
When an item is selected in the listbox, then I've hooked up a RelayCommand
This RelayCommand causes a call on an INavigationService (http://geekswithblogs.net/lbugnion/archive/2011/01/06/navigation-in-a-wp7-application-with-mvvm-light.aspx) which navigates to a url like "/DetailPage.xaml?DetailId=12"
The DetailPage.xaml is then loaded and ... this is where I'm a bit unsure...
how should the DetailPage get hooked up to a DetailView with DetailId of 12?
should I do this in Xaml somehow using a property on the ViewLocator?
should I do this in the NavigatedTo method?
Please feel free to point me to a full sample - sure this has been done a (hundred) thousand times before, but all the blogs and tutorials seem to be skipping this last trivial detail (focussing instead on the messaging and on the ioc on on the navigationservice)
Thanks!
The only place you can retrieve the URL parameter is in the view. So since your view is likely depending on it, you should fetch it in the OnNavigatedTo method.
Then, you should pass it along to your viewmodel, either using messaging (to expensive if you ask me), or by referring to your datacontext (which is the viewmodel I presume), and execeuting a method on that.
private AddTilePageViewModel ViewModel
{
get
{
return DataContext as AddTilePageViewModel;
}
}
protected override void OnNavigatedTo(NavigationEventArgs e)
{
var postalCode = NavigationContext.TryGetKey("PostalCode");
var country = NavigationContext.TryGetStringKey("Country");
if (postalCode.HasValue && string.IsNullOrEmpty(country) == false)
{
ViewModel.LoadCity(postalCode.Value, country);
}
base.OnNavigatedTo(e);
}
I'm using some special extensions for the NavigationContext to make it easier.
namespace System.Windows.Navigation
{
public static class NavigationExtensions
{
public static int? TryGetKey(this NavigationContext source, string key)
{
if (source.QueryString.ContainsKey(key))
{
string value = source.QueryString[key];
int result = 0;
if (int.TryParse(value, out result))
{
return result;
}
}
return null;
}
public static string TryGetStringKey(this NavigationContext source, string key)
{
if (source.QueryString.ContainsKey(key))
{
return source.QueryString[key];
}
return null;
}
}
}
Create a new WindowsPhoneDataBound application, it has an example of how to handle navigation between views. Basically you handle the navigation part in your view, then set the view's DataContext accord to the query string. I think it plays nicely with the MVVM pattern since your ViewModels don't have to know anything about navigation (which IMO should be handled at the UI level).

object editing and isDirty() flag

I'm working on a system were a user can edit existing objects ("Filter" domain objects to be exact) through a GUI. As a UI hint, we only want to enable the save button if the user really modified something to the object. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this problem and what the best way would be to approach this.
I was thinking about adding an isDirty() flag to the domain object. When a user starts editing a Filter, I would then make a copy, pass it to the GUI and let the user make modifications to the copy. A binding on the isDirty() flag would then enabled/disable the save button. On saving, the differences would then be merged into the original object and persisted.
Additionaly, I was thinking what would happen if a user undos the changes he made to an object. The isDirty() flag should then return false. So I guess the only way to achieve this is to keep the original value of each property inside the domain object.
Any ideas?
Correct!
Additionally,you can expose two methods:
BeginEdit - In this method, your mark your IsDirty Flag to True. Meaning you are doing modification. Call this method when you are about to make modifications
CancelEdit - In this method, reset the IsDirty Flag to False. Meaning you have arborted the edit process and reverted back to the original state. Call this method when cancelling any modifications made.
And once any modifications are persisted, you also reset the IsDirty Flag to False.
I hope this helps.
If you are using .NET framework, you may want to take a look at CSLA .NET framework by Rockford Lhotka: http://www.lhotka.net/cslanet/Default.aspx
CSLA is a mature framework which includes object state management (IsDirty), undo functionality, data binding and a lot more, plus it is free and open-source.
There are a couple of interfaces that you could implement that help with change tracking and undo: INotifyPropertyChanged and IEditableObject. Both of these interfaces allow the object to play nice with databinding.
public class Person : INotifyPropertyChanged, IEditableObject
{
private bool isDirty;
public bool IsDirty
{
get { return isDirty; }
}
private string firstname = string.Empty;
public string Firstname
{
get { return firstname; }
set
{
if (firstname == value) return;
firstname = value;
NotifyPropertyChanged("Firstname");
}
}
private string lastname = string.Empty;
public string Lastname
{
get { return lastname; }
set
{
if (lastname == value) return;
lastname = value;
NotifyPropertyChanged("Lastname");
}
}
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
public void NotifyPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
{
isDirty = true;
if (PropertyChanged != null)
PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}
private bool inTrans;
private Person copy;
public void BeginEdit()
{
if (!inTrans)
{
if (copy == null)
copy = new Person();
copy.isDirty = isDirty;
copy.Firstname = Firstname;
copy.Lastname = Lastname;
inTrans = true;
isDirty = false;
}
}
public void CancelEdit()
{
if (inTrans)
{
isDirty = copy.isDirty;
Firstname = copy.Firstname;
Lastname = copy.Lastname;
inTrans = false;
}
}
public void EndEdit()
{
if (inTrans)
{
copy = null;
inTrans = false;
}
}
}
If you have a set of objects which are being edited then you'll probably need something more than a boolean flag for isDirty(). This problem is not dissimilar to reference counting, i.e. increment a dirty count on edit and decrement on undo. If you are supporting undo I suspect you are going to wind up with some pretty hairy logic. I would keep it out of your domain objects.
Yes, this works well. Rather than undo, I use the IsDirty method to signify that something MIGHT have changed the record and then that triggers my "did the record change logic". I developed my own framework, where every table field is actually a property of an object. Each time a field is written to the objects "isDirty" flag is set. In the "SaveObject" method of the object (actually its a helper class but could easily be in the object, but I wanted the ability to save objects in different manners, like to xml, database, ect.), I check the IsDirty and if its false then I skip the save. This simplifies the logic as each time I had the possibility of changing the object, I call SaveObject and let the framework handle it.
Depending on your domain, you could use equality to test for differences. Keep the original object and make a copy of the object for editing. Anytime an edit may be performed, modify the UI appropriately.
The benefit of this suggestion is that it doesn't stick GUI specific functionality (the isDirty() flag) on your domain objects, but YMMV
If you are supporting operation undo at a level of granularity greater than 'undo everything since last save' then I'd suggest an undo stack. When something is edited, it (or it's undo operation functor or delegate) get's added to the stack. When you undo, you simply pop the stack and undo the operation popped. Your isDirty() flag is then just a check if the undo stack contains items, rather than extra storage and logic to update.

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