StrataFrame Forum » StrataFrame Application Framework - V1 » Business Objects and Data Access (How do I?) » BBS ... DevExpress and Custom Fields

BBS ... DevExpress and Custom Fields

Charles Thomas Blankenship — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 19:08:35 GMT

Currently I'm using a DevExpress grid with the Business Binding Source and it is working swimmingly ... except for one thing.

I can only use the actual fields defined in the table to bind to the grid. I was hoping to be able to create a custom property and select that as the binding field for the column in the grid but that doesn't work. Here is an illustration:

I have a table named Lead and that table is loosely associated with another table named DialRecalls. I then created a stored procedure and linked these two tables together like so:

SELECT lea_id,
     lea_FirstName,
     lea_LastName,
     lea_SortName,
     lea_Address,
     lea_City,
     lea_ST,
     lea_ZipCode,
     lea_Phone,
     lea_Phone2,
     lea_SourceID,
     SPACE(50)    AS lea_Source,
     lea_RegionID,
     SPACE(10)    AS lea_Region,
     lea_TelemarketerID,
     SPACE(3)     AS lea_TelemarketerName,
     dir_UserID   AS lea_RecallUserID,
     SPACE(3)     AS lea_RecallUserName,
     dir_RecallOn AS lea_RecallOn
   FROM Lead INNER JOIN DialRecalls ON lea_id = dir_lea_id
WHERE lea_Status = 'L' AND
     dir_Active = 1   AND
    (dir_RecallOn >= @DateFrom AND dir_RecallOn <= @DateTo)     AND
     dir_UserID =     COALESCE(@dir_UserID, dir_UserID)         AND
     lea_ST      LIKE COALESCE(@lea_ST, lea_ST)           + '%' AND
     lea_City    LIKE COALESCE(@lea_City, lea_City)       + '%' AND
     lea_ZipCode LIKE COALESCE(@lea_ZipCode, lea_ZipCode) + '%' AND
     lea_Phone   LIKE COALESCE(@lea_Phone, lea_Phone)     + '%' AND
     lea_SourceID IN (SELECT cos_ID FROM @SourceIDs) AND
     lea_RegionID IN (SELECT cor_ID
                        FROM Contact_Regions
        WHERE cor_Region IN (SELECT cor_Region
                               FROM @Regions))
     ORDER BY dir_RecallOn

I then used that stored procedure in the FillByStoredProcedure method and populated the business object with the addition fields that I needed to display (performed using the AS function in SQL) ... as you can see one of those fields is lea_RecallOn which actually came from the DialRecall.dir_RecallOn field.

Next, I created a custom property on the business object like so

        [Browsable(false),
         BusinessFieldDisplayInEditor(),
         Description("DialRecalls.dir_RecallOn"),
         DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Hidden)]
        public DateTime lea_RecallOn
        {
            get
            {
                return (DateTime)this.CurrentRow["lea_RecallOn"];
            }

            set
            {
                this.CurrentRow["lea_RecallOn"] = value;
            }

        }

And finally, I went into the grid designer, created a new column, and bound it to the "lea_RecallOn" field. The problem is that the grid does not recognize any field that is not part of the strong typed data table created with the BO Mapper.

So, is there anyway to create a property that the grid can see without created a fake property in the DDT and building with the BO Mapper?

I did get around this by creating a lea_RecallOn column in the datatable and running the above stored procedure ... the grid then picked up the date which originated in the DialRecall table. I then excluded the field from the Insert and Update operations using the business object properties.

Any recommendations?

C. T.

RE: BBS ... DevExpress and Custom Fields

Charles Thomas Blankenship — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 19:08:35 GMT

Hey ... who told you and didn't tell me ... once again I worship at the alter of the StrataFrame Gods.

You know what pisses me off ... I mean really pisses me off ... why does a sh*t product like DNN eclipse our user base in terms of seats ... I just don't freakin' get it.

RE: BBS ... DevExpress and Custom Fields

StrataFrame Team — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 10:57:33 GMT

Yep, Ivan nailed it. There's

bo.CurrentDataTable.AcceptChanges();

and

bo.CurrentRow.AcceptChanges();

Whichever one you need. They both accept the edited values of the ADO.NET object as original values.

FYI, this is the same thing we call on each row after it gets updated back to the database.

RE: BBS ... DevExpress and Custom Fields

Ivan George Borges — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 07:34:09 GMT

YourBO.CurrentDatatable.AcceptChanges()

RE: BBS ... DevExpress and Custom Fields

Charles Thomas Blankenship — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 03:52:58 GMT

Well, I knock down on weed and another one grows in its place ... the reason I wanted to perform an ID lookup after the initial join was to prevent the slowdown of the query just for looking up the name of the Telemarketer. So, I created a custom property, gave it a descriptor and bound that column to the XtraGrid. The data shows up without incident.

However ...

since I'm placing a value into one of the fields of the business object the business object is now "dirty" and it screws up the maintenance form toolbar button states.

Furthermore, each time the Undo button is pressed all of the Telemarketer names are erased from the column as they are in effect, changes to be rejected from the table.

How does one go about resetting the editing status of that particular field ... or ... keep it from registering a dirty business object altogether.

Thanks,

RE: BBS ... DevExpress and Custom Fields

Charles Thomas Blankenship — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 21:24:45 GMT

Yep ... that worked ... it is a good thing this is not 1692 in Winston, Salem ... if it were I'd have all of you burned as witches ... as this worked like magic.

RE: BBS ... DevExpress and Custom Fields

Charles Thomas Blankenship — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 21:08:03 GMT

This mebbe?

protected override FieldPropertyDescriptor[] GetCustomBindablePropertyDescriptors()
{
FieldPropertyDescriptor[] fpd = {new ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("lea_RecallOn", typeof(Lead))};
return fpd;
}

RE: BBS ... DevExpress and Custom Fields

Charles Thomas Blankenship — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 20:56:35 GMT

Well ... I hate to be dense in public but would one of you please speak C#? Here is my custom property ...

        [Browsable(false),
         BusinessFieldDisplayInEditor(),
         Description("DialRecalls.dir_RecallOn"),
         DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Hidden)]
        public DateTime lea_RecallOn
        {
            get
            {
                return (DateTime)this.CurrentRow["lea_RecallOn"];
            }

            set
            {
                this.CurrentRow["lea_RecallOn"] = value;
            }

        }

RE: BBS ... DevExpress and Custom Fields

Edhy Rijo — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 09:09:06 GMT

Hi Charles,

I was working outside yesterday and did not see your post until now. I also use DevExpress grids a lot and with several Custom Field Properties (which is one of the most useful features of the SF BO).

Follow Ben's recommendation overriding the GetCustomBindablePropertyDescriptors() and you should be good to go.

RE: BBS ... DevExpress and Custom Fields

StrataFrame Team — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 07:53:00 GMT

Howdy CT,

The post that Ivan gave is the way it's designed to work. We implement the ICustomTypeDescriptor interface on BusinessLayer in order to filter out the properties that most people don't need to look at on the business object. Properties like CurrentRow, CurrentDataTable, IsDirty, Count, etc. would show up in the grid if we didn't filter down to only the properties that are mapped. If you add a custom property to your business object, you need to add your property to the list of properties that are exposed for binding, otherwise, it gets filtered out with all of the other properties that are not "mapped" properties.

The way to do this is to override the GetCustomBindablePropertyDescriptors and return a property descriptor for your custom property. The ReflectionPropertyDescriptor was created to be the easiest way to do it. Like this:

Protected Overrides Function GetCustomBindablePropertyDescriptors() As MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.FieldPropertyDescriptor()
        '-- Create and return a new array of FieldPropertyDescriptor
        ' objects that contains the ReflectionPropertyDescriptor
        ' for the custom field.
        Return New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.FieldPropertyDescriptor() { _
            New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("myFieldProperty", GetType(MyBO))}
    End Function

I hope this helps the next time you need to bind a custom property to a grid (or TextBox or anything else).

RE: BBS ... DevExpress and Custom Fields

Charles Thomas Blankenship — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 00:03:36 GMT

After pounding my head on the desk for a while ... I went down and watched Hardball with Chris Matthews ... and came up with this.

There does not seem to be a performance hit with this solution and it does exactly what I want it to ... I just thought the BBS would be a bit more straight forward.

The problem it seems is that DevExpress XtraGrid does not care about custom properties ... they don't show up in the designer when populating the grid either ... which is a clue.

This solution takes the lea_id out of the grid, which comes directly from the table and uses that to seek to the primary key of the business object and then pluck the value out of the custom property and push it into the unbound column.

        private void grvLeads_CustomColumnDisplayText(object sender, DevExpress.XtraGrid.Views.Base.CustomColumnDisplayTextEventArgs e)
        {
            ColumnView view = sender as ColumnView;

            if (e.Column.FieldName == "lea_Phone")
            {
                string phone = (string)view.GetRowCellValue(e.RowHandle, view.Columns["lea_Phone"]);
                e.DisplayText = string.Format("{0:(###) ###-####}", Convert.ToDouble(phone));
            }

            if (e.Column.FieldName == "lea_RecallOn")
            {
                int leadID = (int)view.GetRowCellValue(e.RowHandle, view.Columns["lea_id"]);
                oLead.SeekToPrimaryKey(leadID);
                e.DisplayText = string.Format("{0:d}",oLead.lea_RecallOn);
            }
        }

RE: BBS ... DevExpress and Custom Fields

Ivan George Borges — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 20:02:54 GMT

Hi Charles.

See if this one helps:

http://forum.strataframe.net/FindPost17401.aspx

Boa noite. :)