I need a global event when data binding occurs in Knockout - events

I am a newbie to knockoutjs. I have searched examples and so far no luck. I have a page that is a data collection form with the values bound using knockout. What I am trying to do is provide the user with a flag letting him know data is modified and that it needs to be saved. In the app a user may pull down the form and display the data from the server and use it only as information. In other cases he may modify that data. I want to display a label that says something like "data has been modified" to the user once any binding has changed plus if he tries to navigate away from the page I want to warn him the changes will be lost. Is there some event I can subscribe to that tells me when any value has been changed in the model?
Thanks,
Terry

Take a look at Ryan Niemeyer's Dirty Flag. It might be what you are looking for. An example of his method can be seen in this jsFiddle.
this.dirtyItems = ko.computed(function() {
return ko.utils.arrayFilter(this.items(), function(item) {
return item.dirtyFlag.isDirty();
});
}, this);
More info can be found in this SO thread: Knockout isDirty example, using dynamic viewmodule from mapping plugin

Related

Apply a sort to a dataset in a PowerApps component (PCF)

I’m trying to create a new dataset type Powerapps Component (PCF). For the moment I am using it to display a view of the records that are available in an entity in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
I wish to make the view sort itself when I click on the grid column headers (in a similar way that the default CRM grid view does). I'm trying to figure out how to apply a sort to the dataset so that I can refresh it as indicated by the documentation for the dataset.refresh() function:
Refreshes the dataset based on filters, sorting, linking, new column.
New data will be pushed to control in another 'updateView' cycle.
The dataset object does have a “sorting” property, but changing its value and then refreshing the dataset doesn’t seem to have any effect. After the refresh, the sorting property reverts to the value it had before I changed it.
In short, the click handler for the grid header does something like the following bit of code. The refresh gets done and my updateView() function gets called as expected but the sorting was not applied.
dataset.sorting = [{name: 'createdon', sortDirection: 1}];
dataset.refresh();
Any help on getting the dataset sorting to work would be appreciated.
I've been experimenting with PowerApps Component Framework a little bit recently and I can confirm that the following code won't be working:
dataSet.sorting = [ { name: "columnName", sortDirection: 0 } ];
However, I managed to get this one working for me:
dataSet.sorting.pop(); // you may want to clean up the whole collection
dataSet.sorting.push({ name: "columnName", sortDirection: 0 });
I haven't really figured out the reason of this behavior. The sorting array may be implemented as some form of observable collection in the background.
I hope this will guide you to a functioning solution.
The documentation is pretty abysmal here, but here is my best guess from putting a few different pieces of information together.
TLDR: I think there is some kind of extra method that needs to be called on the .sorting property, but I can't find out what it is called. Maybe something like:
dataset.sorting.setSorting({name: 'createdon', sortDirection: 1});
I think you're going to have to try a bunch of likely method names and see what works.
Background and links:
The only reference I could find to dataset.sorting was from here:
In this preview for canvas apps, only a limited set of filtering and sortStatus methods are supported. Filter and sort can be applied to dataset on primary type columns except for the GUID. Filter and sorting can be applied in the same way as in model-driven apps.To retrieve the dataset with filtering and sorting information, call
the methods in context.parameters.[dataset_property_name].filtering
and context.parameters.[dataset_property_name].sorting, then invoke
the context.parameters.[dataset_property_name].refresh().
So it seems that the .filtering and .sorting properties are handled similarly, and that there are some methods attached to them, and only some are supported. That is about as vague as they could make it...
I did find an example of how .filtering is used:
_context.parameters.sampleDataset.filtering.setFilter({
conditions: conditionArray,
filterOperator: 1, // Or
});
There is a brief reference to .setFilter() in the docs, as well as FilterExpression
There is a SortStatus reference, but it doesn't have any corresponding methods explicitly called out. It is possible that this is not yet a supported feature in the public preview, or the documentation is lacking and the name and syntax of the method you need to call on .sorting is not yet documented.

JayData with KendoGrid: entity set events not firing? Bug?

If I assigned a callback to an entity set event:
myContext.Items.beforeDelete = function(){ alert('before delete');}
myContext.Items.beforeUpdate = function(){ alert('before update');}
I get the alert messages if I delete or update a record. But if I use that entity set with a Kendo grid, I do not get any of the events? Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong?
dataSource: myContext.Items.filter('it.IsDeleted == false').asKendoDataSource();
You've found the correct post, but it's the documentation not a workaround :).
The code you've tried isn't working probably because you should have written it before creating an instance of the context (for example by assigning the event handler in the model definition just like in the docs).
The solution (or work around) is to use the Entity Type events instead of the Entity Set events. I am not sure if this is a bug or not, but there is a clear work around.
See:
http://jaydata.org/blog/jaydata-event-handlers

breeze: custom enum values

Enums come back from the server as myEnum.SomeValue but what I'd like to show on screen is a formatted value such as "some value" instead of SomeValue.
That could be part of an attribute on the server-side model but it won't be passed in the metadata.
What's the best place then to do that kind of thing with breeze ?
We've discussed the idea of "extensible" metadata for Breeze but have not yet implemented it. Please vote for this here.
But in the meantime, there is nothing stopping you from "enhancing" the metadata returned by Breeze yourself. The best way to do this would be to add your own properties to either the "MetadataStore", "EntityType" or "DataProperty" classes.
The advantage of adding your custom metadata to existing metadata objects is that this data will be available whenever you work with any of the basic Breeze metadata.
Perhaps something like this: ( I haven't actually confirmed that this code is correct)
var custType = myEntityManager.metadataStore.getEntityType("Customer");
// assume that the 'status' property is actually an enumerated value where you want to
// add some custom metadata.
var statusProp = custType.getProperty("status");
// enumDescriptions is your custom property
statusProp.enumDescriptions = {
"PaidUp": "Paid Up",
"Delinq": "Delinquent",
"InArr": "In Arrears"
};
Now anywhere that you get given the "status" dataProperty, ( such as in a Validation), you will also have access to your "enumDescriptions"
Hope this makes sense.

django update page when database field updates?

I have a results page and I am trying to work out how to auto update the page when an external database field is updated. I have seen quite a few examples but they seem to relate to PHP. I have a test that calls various APIs that can take up to an hour to complete. Once the test has completed, it will enter a success or failed message in a database field.
I already have my results page being rendered by django using template tags. I have a table and I have the field I would like to update. There are multiple fields that need update which correspond to each API test.
I have seen this site.. is this the kind of stuff to use? http://www.dajaxproject.com/ Is this an easy task to do? Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this?
Sorry but I don't know where to start on this one.
Cheers - Oli
I decided not to be so bold and just use the old classic page update for this purpose using javascript..
window.onload = setupRefresh;
function setupRefresh() {
setTimeout("refreshPage();", 30000); // milliseconds
}
function refreshPage() {
window.location = location.href;
}
Still open for options however I'm rather inexperienced in django and maybe this was too much to bite off too quickly..

How to show feedback/error messages in a backbone application

I'm working on a simple CRUD proof of concept with Rails/Backbone/JST templating. I've been able to find a lot of examples up to this point. But after much searching and reading, I've yet to find a good example of how to handle these scenarios:
info message: new item successfully added to list (shown on list screen)
info message: item successfully deleted from list
error message: problem with field(s) entry
field level error message: problem with entry
The Backbone objects are:
Collection (of "post" Models) -> Model ("post" object) -> List/Edit/New Views (and a JST template for each of these views)
So, I'm looking for a high level description of how I should organize my code and templates to achieve the level of messaging desired. I already have a handle on how to perform my validation routine on the form inputs whenever they change. But not sure what do with the error messages now that I have them.
Here is the approach I'm considering. Not sure if it's a good one:
Create a "Message" Model, which maps to a "View", which is a sub-view (if that's possible) on my existing views. This view/model can display page level messages and errors in the first three scenarios I mention above. Not sure if it's feasible to have a "sub-view" and how to handle the templating for that. But if it's possible, the parent templates could include the "message" sub-template. The message view could show/hide the sub-template based on the state of the message model. Feasible? Stupid?
For the fourth scenario, the model validation will return an error object with specific messages per each erroneous field each time a "model.set" is called by form field changes. I don't want to interrupt the "model.set" but I do want to display the error message(s) next to each field. I want to know how to factor my edit/new template and Post model/view in such a way that I don't violate the MVC pattern. I.e. I don't want to put references to DOM elements in the wrong plage.
Sorry if this is vague. If you're inclined to help, let me know what code snippets could be helpful (or other details) and I'll provide them.
You create a global eventbus. When ever an error appears trigger an event. Your view that should show the message listen to the events on this eventbus. Doing so, your error message view dont needs to know all of your collection and vice versa. The eventbus is simple:
var eventBus = _.extend({}, Backbone.Events);
Add it to your collection and trigger it when ever add was called:
var myCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
initialize: function([],eventbus){
this.bind('add', function(obj){eventbus.trigger('added', obj)}
}
})
Take also a look at the article: http://lostechies.com/derickbailey/2011/07/19/references-routing-and-the-event-aggregator-coordinating-views-in-backbone-js/

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