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Need a GridView Control that works like Excel Sheet. Options
tarekahf
Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 5:41:36 AM

Rank: Advanced Member
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Joined: 3/27/2010
Posts: 48

I found the following control that provides similar features I am looking for, but still too far from my requirements:

http://demo.essentialobjects.com/Default.aspx?path=Grid

I am now starting the program changes to convert a GridView to make work like Excel Sheet, or as close as possible. This is really urgent, and I need your help.

As a matter of fact, I found many possible solutions, and I am facing issues taking one solution, either becuase the solution is too complex to implement or it does not meet the requirements.

I will mention the requirements:

1. Allow the user to update the GridView Content using the Keyboard Only. No need to use the mous.

2. The user must be able to update on the same page (in-line editing).

3. Use the arrow keys [up], [down], [left] and [right] to locate the required row/cell to be edited.

4. Use the [enter] key to start editing. When [enter] is pressed, all the fields in the same row must become editable fields. Press [enter] again to switch to display mode.

5. Use [esc] to cancel the edits made to the current cell. Use [esc] again to cancel the update made to the complete row.

5. When in editing mode, use [tab] and [sihft-tab] to goto next/prev field in the same row.

6. All updates to be cashed on the client.

7. User can click on "Save" to update the changes on the server.

8. User can click on "Cancel" to cancel all updates made on the client.

9. The GridView or the Control providing the control features mentioned above, must connect bindable to a .NET Based Data Source like SqlDataSource or ObjectDataSource.

I found one Coolite Control:

http://examples.coolite.com/?/GridPanel/DataSource_Update/SqlDataSource/

which is providing as close as possible to my reuqirements. But I am worried about the readiness of Coolite Controls.

I don't want to be too greedy, and if I can find a solution that can give me 70% of the above reuqirements, I will be very happy.

I really appreciate your help on this.

Tarek.
eo_support
Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 8:04:15 AM
Rank: Administration
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Joined: 5/27/2007
Posts: 24,071
Hi,

It appears that our Grid was specifically built for you. : ) It should cover all the 8 items you wanted.

Because it offers extensive client side capabilities, it works very differently than ASP.NET GridView. You will want to start from here:

http://doc.essentialobjects.com/library/1/grid/start.aspx

I would recommend you to try it out in your project while you go over the documentation. We will be happy to help if you have any additional question.

Thanks!
tarekahf
Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 9:52:54 AM

Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member

Joined: 3/27/2010
Posts: 48
Thank you sooo much for coming back to me so quickly.

I will go thorugh the guid you provied.

In the mean time, please tell me if this essentialobjects framework is free and what is the minimum requirements to get started with minimum cost and effort.

Tarek.
tarekahf
Posted: Monday, March 29, 2010 3:45:25 AM

Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member

Joined: 3/27/2010
Posts: 48
Dear Sir,

I have started some effort with Coolite. See progress here:

http://www.coolite.com/forums/FindPost30023.aspx

I have concern with Coolite, is that Documentation is limited, and the controls don't seem ready for production.

I need your help to get started quickly. I am going through the docs you provided me, but its really very ling reading time. Appreciate if you could point me to the areas which belong to my requirements.

Tarek.
eo_support
Posted: Monday, March 29, 2010 7:52:43 AM
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Joined: 5/27/2007
Posts: 24,071
Hi,

Our Grid is not free. The cost is $169/Developer.

The keyboard support for your requirement is easy. All you need to do is to set EnableKeybaordNaviagion to true. See here for a working example:

http://demo.essentialobjects.com/Default.aspx?path=Grid\_i1\_i21

However in order to use our Grid in any way, you will need to first understand how our Grid works in general. You can go over other samples in the sample project to get a basic idea of how it works. You have the full source code of the sample project on your local machine at Start -> All Programs -> EO.Web Controls 7.0 (2009) -> EO.Web Controls for ASP.NET xx -> Live Demo. You can copy the sample source code into your test project to try them out.

Several most important things about our Grid are:

1. How to define Grid columns;
2. How to style the Grid;
3. How to edit Grid;

There are no easy simple shortcut that we can just "point you" towards for those. The document we provided to you is exactly where you need to start with to get familiar with these questions. We could explain all those to you again at here, but that will be basically copy and paste from the document. It will be better if you go over the document first, then ask us if you have any specific questions.

Thanks!
tarekahf
Posted: Monday, March 29, 2010 8:10:37 AM

Rank: Advanced Member
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Joined: 3/27/2010
Posts: 48
Thanks again.

You really provided me all the info I need. I have to spend the effort now to make it work. The demo you showed me really ROCKS ! This is what I want.

- Regarding the cost, it is $169/Developer, and it can be deployed as many times as needed to any server and/or web application ? Right ?

- Once I start working on the EO Grid Control for testing, it will be tiral, right ? So, for how long I can use it ?

Thx again.

Tarek.
eo_support
Posted: Monday, March 29, 2010 8:56:14 AM
Rank: Administration
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Joined: 5/27/2007
Posts: 24,071
Hi,

Glad that we were able to help. The cost includes unlimited servers/web application. I believe the trial works for 30 days.

Thanks!
tarekahf
Posted: Monday, March 29, 2010 4:57:16 PM

Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member

Joined: 3/27/2010
Posts: 48
Just to report that the on-line documentation is not working properly from my Laptop under Windows XP + SP2 and IE8.

I am getting this cleint error when I try to open any other topic tree of the left side:

Webpage error details

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; InfoPath.2; InfoPath.1)
Timestamp: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 20:57:40 UTC


Message: '_gat' is undefined
Line: 121
Char: 9
Code: 0
URI: http://doc.essentialobjects.com/ViewDoc.aspx

I will try to get an off-line copy of the documentation.

Tarek.
eo_support
Posted: Monday, March 29, 2010 5:07:06 PM
Rank: Administration
Groups: Administration

Joined: 5/27/2007
Posts: 24,071
Hi,

Thanks for sharing. That probably has to do the settings on your laptop. Line 121 is the Google Analytics Javascript code. It's unlikely Google Analytics would have such a bug on IE 8 because its being used by millions of users. However if you have blocked Google Analytics's server on your machine (www.google-analytics.com), then you will get this error.

The off-line copy of the documentation is already on your machine. You can find it from Start -> All Programs -> EO.Web Controls 7.0 (2009) -> EO.Web Controls for ASP.NET xxx -> Documentation.

Thanks!
tarekahf
Posted: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 2:25:32 AM

Rank: Advanced Member
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Joined: 3/27/2010
Posts: 48
One more question:

Can I use VS 2005 to run the samples off-line in my PC ? (Note: I faced errors running Coolite samples uinsg VS2005).

Can I use VS 2005 to develop web applications using EO Web Controls ?

Tarek.
eo_support
Posted: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 7:08:48 AM
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Joined: 5/27/2007
Posts: 24,071
Of course. We support all major VS versions: VS 2003, VS 2005, VS 2008 and VS2010.

Thanks
tarekahf
Posted: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 6:33:36 PM

Rank: Advanced Member
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Joined: 3/27/2010
Posts: 48
eo_support wrote:
Hi,

Thanks for sharing. That probably has to do the settings on your laptop. Line 121 is the Google Analytics Javascript code. It's unlikely Google Analytics would have such a bug on IE 8 because its being used by millions of users. However if you have blocked Google Analytics's server on your machine (www.google-analytics.com), then you will get this error.

I found this line in the hosts file:

127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com #[Google Analytics]

It was added as part of virus/trojan/hacking attack prevention. It was recommended by some experts.

Tarek.
eo_support
Posted: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 8:17:13 PM
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Joined: 5/27/2007
Posts: 24,071
That explains. You should remove it.

Thanks
tarekahf
Posted: Thursday, April 1, 2010 5:50:16 AM

Rank: Advanced Member
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Joined: 3/27/2010
Posts: 48
After I fixed the hosts file, I am not getting any errors. However, navigating through the on-line documenation is very slow. First time I open the page, and the first time I click any topic from the left navigtion bar, then it opens very quickly. When I want to click on another topic, either nothing happens, or it takes several minutes to respond.

I even reverted the hosts file to the default setting, still same issue.

I am not getting any errors, and everything else seems to be working fine.

I though I report this just in case you may need to know.

I have installed off-line help, and it works fine. But still annoying why on-line documentation is very slow

Tarek.
eo_support
Posted: Thursday, April 1, 2010 8:58:56 AM
Rank: Administration
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Joined: 5/27/2007
Posts: 24,071
Hi,

Thanks for letting us know. It is most likely that there is something else wrong on your computer, just like the Google Analytics entry because nobody else has reported such issues. We do not see any issues either. So I would recommend you just use the off-line version. The off-line version is not only faster, but also usually newer than the online version. The online version is mainly for us to point user to the right direction because we can post a direct link to any help page.

Thanks!
tarekahf
Posted: Thursday, April 1, 2010 10:07:36 AM

Rank: Advanced Member
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Joined: 3/27/2010
Posts: 48
I have started developing my own Sample Grid Controls.

I am facing some issues, and I hope you can answer my questions as I am moving ahead.

I am making progress, and here is what I have done.

I copied the Grid Control Source sample from here:

...\Samples\VB\Demos\Grid\Designs\Windows Vista\Demo.ascx

to my own project under VS2005, in a default empty ASPX Web Form.

I created a SqlDataSource to Northwind Sample Database, Customer Table, on SQL Server.

I modifed the Grid Control to connect to the new Datasource, and did the binding to 3 sample columns from the Customer Table. I followed the instructions as per the help.

I did not do manual binding as decribed in the help, and just assigned the proper value to the "DataSourceID" Grid Property.

I ran the sample ASPX Page and everything worked fine. I am impressed !

I have the following Issues:

1. The Grid Column Header looks Transparent and when I scroll donw, the data in the rows will appear overlped with the header text, and the backroung image of the header text is moving as I am scrolling. This behaviour does not occure when I run the original Demo. Why ? Mind you that I copied the Grid Source from the Demo project to my Project sample.

2. As per the help, I have to do manual binding. I did not do that, and it worked. Is this OK.

3. How I can allow auto width for all the Grid Columns ? Similar to that of the .NET GridView ?

Appreciate your reply.

Tarek.
eo_support
Posted: Thursday, April 1, 2010 10:23:44 AM
Rank: Administration
Groups: Administration

Joined: 5/27/2007
Posts: 24,071
Hi,

As to your questions:

1. Check your ColumnHeaderHeight and the column header's background in ColumnHeaderStyle property. If you do not have a background color or background image, you see your row data overlap with the header. If you do have a background image, but the height of the image is less than ColumnHeaderHeight, then you will see your row data overlaop with the header too.

2. Great. Glad to see that works;

3. You can set the GridColumn's Width to -1 to set it as "auto fill". Note you can only have one Column to have auto-fill;

Hope this helps.

Thanks!
tarekahf
Posted: Thursday, April 1, 2010 5:54:45 PM

Rank: Advanced Member
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Joined: 3/27/2010
Posts: 48
Ok, I found the cause of this mess !

There was a "Response.write("Debugging")" in the Page_Load Event which caused this strange effect.

All OK now. I will try to bid the Grid to CslaDataSource from CSLA.NET. I hope it will work.

Tarek.
eo_support
Posted: Thursday, April 1, 2010 6:13:49 PM
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Joined: 5/27/2007
Posts: 24,071
Great. Glad that you worked that out!

Thanks!
tarekahf
Posted: Saturday, April 3, 2010 9:14:52 AM

Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member

Joined: 3/27/2010
Posts: 48
I tested the EO.Web Grid Control with CslaDataSource, and it was so easy to work with. It worked successfully.

Looks like you control worked best for my requirements. I stop making search for other controls, and I would like to start contacting you to arrange for purchase.

I order to save time, I want to purchase a personal developer license, and then I will reimburse the amount from my work.

I hope you can allow me to send you the money by bank transfer. I do not like to use my Visa Card.

How we can start ? May we start contact via official mail ?

Tarek.


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