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| NOTE: This Design document is subject to change at any time. |
Syntax: <GRID property-list>columns</GRID>
The GRID component is one of the most complex and flexible controls available in zApp. It is based upon the industry leading Developer Express QuantumGrid component and provides more functionality than most any other grid control available.
The zApp Grid component can be either bound to a database query, or bound to a simple zCollection of data. If can even be bound to a one-dimensional or two-dimensional array in your scripting language.
No matter what data source is used, the grid component provides automatic sorting, filtering, and grouping capabilities. Columns can be reordered or resized. And the data in the grid can be edited with a variety of different inplace editors.
Using a Grid is as simple as assigning an array to it. For example:
| Code: |
dim A(3,10)
Grid.Data = A |
would create an editable grid with 3 columns and 10 rows. This Column,Row order for arrays is used to take advantage of the efficient way in which scripting languages such as VBScript can redimension a virtual array quickly when just changing the last dimension (the row dimension in zApp).
When an array is assigned to a grid, any change made to the grid is automatically made to the data in the array. If the array is changed within the script, the grid can be updated to reflect the new data using the DataChanged method of the grid.
A grid can also be used for a simple list, or to display the contents of a Collection object. For example:
| Code: |
<GRID Name='Grid' Columns='Filename|Size'/>
<SCRIPT>
set Files = file.findfiles( "C:\Windows\*.*")
Grid.Data = Files
</SCRIPT> |
would create a grid with two columns, "Filename" and "Size". The file.findfiles function is used to quickly return a collection of file objects from the given path. This collection is then assigned to the grid. By default, the caption for the columns is used as the COM object property name to fetch data from the collection. This can be changed using actual zColumn objects as described later.
To connect a Grid to a database, simply assign a zDataSource to the grid. For example:
| Code: |
<CONNECTION Filename='northwind.mdb'>
<QUERY SQL='SELECT * FROM Employees'>
<DATASOURCE Name='Northwind'/>
</QUERY>
</CONNECTION>
<GRID Datasource='Northwind'/> |
would display a grid showing all fields and records in the Employees table of the Northwind.mdb database.
The columns in the grid can be customized by creating zColumn objects within the grid. This allows the Field name to be different from the caption and allows you to control many properties of the individual columns. |
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