Hello,

Hi Lukasz.

Take a look at the posts from here, they can help you:

http://forum.strataframe.net/FindPost27721.aspx

Also, the BOs can represent a view. So if you build a view wich represents your join, you can just create a BO and map it to the view.

Thank you for your answer. Unfortunatelly I don't see how this applies to EnhancedList. It is not groupped the same way as XtraReport is. Instead it uses relationships to set-up the GridView structure at design-time. One way suggested was to use DataSets extracted from BOs to do the binding. If I do that, why use strataframe at all? Using views, is also quite combersome, as it forces me to set up all the GridViews at runtime, as opposed to using the extensive features of the EnhancedList's Designer tool. Also I need my application to be able to add/update rows, which is risky using views.

Thanks for your interest in StrataFrame.  As you well know, there are a lot of philosophies in application development, and many times there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat.  First of all, you would bind using a BusinessBindingSource to the grid.  This provides direct multi-row .NET data binding and is the most appropriate tool for binding to a grid.  Ultimately you would be able to manage your complex configuration.

As for the purpose of StrataFrame, I am almost not sure the best way to answer.  StrataFrame has so much depth and performs so many tasks that purchasing StrataFrame just for the purpose of binding to a grid is kind of like buying a 747 for the peanuts .

StrataFrame handles everything from the UI all the way back through to the DAL (Data Access Layer).  It also manages your relationships from an object model perspective and will even propagate this back to the database for you.  By defining your parent-child relationships, the BOs will automatically handle foreign key values and make sure that they are persisted.  So that is one of many benefits that would pertain to your current situation.

StrataFrame is designed to work with 3rd party tools, such as DevExpress, though when working with these tools and understanding the logic behind the 3rd party aspect, you will have to get support from the said 3rd party as StrataFrame users use so many different tools that it is not possible for us to be a support expert in each tool.

As I previously mentioned, there are a lot of philosophies in development, and one is...no offense here...not to be so grid complex.  We have some tools that make short work of parent-child UI.  To begin, our ListView in conjunction with a ChildFormDialog.  This is a quick and simple way to manage child tables with RAD functionality and is generally more user friendly in the end.  StrataFrame was created from our need to produce an extremely massive medical application.  We do use some grids now and then, but we have learned that leaning too heavily on grids can become an end-user issue but also a development issue.  In short, you can do just what you are trying with StrataFrame, but I would recommend taking a look at some other ways to tackle this problem as I think that you will have more positive results all the way around.

Again...this is just my opinion, but that is one great thing about this forum, we all share our experiences and opinions and come out the better for it...as does StrataFrame as we really try to listen!!!

Thank you, Trent. I do see your point, to avoid grid-central design, but in this case I'm convinced that this is the way to go due to the built in, drag-and-drop grouping and sorting functionality, filters, etc. The application that I'm trying to develop is just a small module of a future redesign of our LMS software. If I'm successful in implementing this with SFBOs I'd go on to use SF platform for all our future development. So I'll need all of the 747, peanuts included 

Hi Lukasz.

I went ahead and downloaded DevEx to create a quick sample on how to use the BusinessBindingSource to accomplish a Parent-Child grid situation. You might find the name of my BBSs strange, since I used a sample I had written before on how to accomplish this on a report, and that's why I directed you to those posts when you had the impression that they had nothing to do with what you were asking for. Anyway, this sample has the same principles and uses a DevEx Grid, which is the control that the EnhancedList inherits from, so if you tweak the grid you will probably get the results you want. Here is the link:

http://forum.strataframe.net/FindPost28370.aspx

Hope it helps in some way.

Cheers.

Thank you very much for the sample, I'm eager to try it out. I imagine it uses some sample database to which your BOs are mapped. Could you tell me where I can get a copy of this sample DB?

It uses the StrataFrame Sample database that is installed with the SF framework. So you should already have it on your SQL Server.

Thank you again for all your support. I've rebuilt my project according to the structure in your sample and it does work. Interestingly it only works with the original DevExpress DataGrid. When I tried to use the SF EnhancedList instead, the entire grid was not visible (of course, the Visible property was true).

You are welcome, Lukasz.

To accomplish what you asked, I would add an unbound column to the grid, if DevEx lets you do it. I use Infragistics, and in situations like that this is what I do. After adding the unbound columns into the grid, I use its InitializeRow event, for example, to set the column value for that current row. It would look something like this: