Let's open our next sample file, Sample3.asp.
There are now two grids displayed on one ASP page. The Departments
grid has regular gray SUBMIT buttons instead of icons. The Employee
grid has iconic buttons but they are placed on the left side of the grid.
Let's click on the "plus" button of the Employee grid:
In the edit mode the DepartmentID and MaritalStatus columns
are displayed as drop-down list boxes. The DepartmentID list box
was populated with the Departments table entries. The MaritalStatus
list box has three fixed options, Single, Married, and Divorced
which will translate to the numeric values of 1, 2, and 3, respectively
(in this lesson we will not be using the Employee table's last field,
FullyVested).
We can now look at the code to see how it was achieved.
Sample3.asp
<%
Set DptGrid = Server.CreateObject("Persits.AspGrid.1")
DptGrid.FileName = "Sample3.asp"
DptGrid.Connect "AspGrid",
"", ""
DptGrid.SQL = "select
id, name, phone from Departments"
DptGrid.Cols(1).Hidden
= True
DptGrid.UseImageButtons
= False
Set EmpGrid = Server.CreateObject("Persits.AspGrid.1")
EmpGrid.FileName = "Sample3.asp"
EmpGrid.Connect "AspGrid",
"", ""
EmpGrid.SQL = "select
id, DepartmentID, FirstName, LastName, Salary, MaritalStatus from Employee"
EmpGrid.Cols(1).Hidden
= True
EmpGrid.NumberOnPage
= 2
EmpGrid.ShowLeftSideButtons
False
EmpGrid.Cols(2).AttachForeignTable
"select id, name from Departments", 1, 2
EmpGrid.Cols(5).FormatNumeric
2, True
EmpGrid.Cols(5).Cell.Align
= "RIGHT"
EmpGrid.Cols(6).Array
= Array("Single", "Married", "Divorced")
EmpGrid.Cols(6).VArray
= Array(1, 2, 3)
%>
<HTML>
<BODY>
<%
DptGrid.Display
DptGrid.Disconnect
%>
<P>
<%
EmpGrid.Display
EmpGrid.Disconnect
%>
</BODY>
</HTML> |
As before, we will look at the ASP code line by line skipping the methods
and properties we are already familiar with.
DptGrid.UseImageButtons
= False is what caused the Departments grid to show gray
SUBMIT buttons rather than icons.
EmpGrid.NumberOnPage
= 2 is necessary if there are more that one AspGrid instance
on one page. This propery (1 by default) must be set to a unique integer
value for every grid on the page. This will prevent multiple grid objects
to generate conflicting input variable names.
EmpGrid.ShowLeftSideButtons
False will cause a grid to show the control buttons (add,
delete, edit, etc) on the left side. If the optional parameter is set to
True or omitted, the grid will show control buttons on both sides, otherwise,
the buttons will be shown on the left side only. By default, a grid displays
control buttons on the right side.
EmpGrid.Cols(2).AttachForeignTable
"select id, name from Departments", 1, 2 will turn column
2 (Employee.DepartmentID) into a drop down list box with values
coming from the specified SQL statement. The second parameter specifies
which field in that SQL statement will serve as the database value (i.e.
a value that will eventually be saved in the database field corresponding
to the column to which AttachForeignTable is applied). The third parameter
specifies which field will serve as a display value. In this example, Departments.id
is the database value and Departments.name is the display value.
After the user picks a department name, this value will be translated into
the corresponding database value and saved in the Employee.DepartmentID
field.
It is allowed to have the second and third parameters point to the same
field. In that case the display value itself will be saved in the field
corresponding to the column to which AttachForeignTable is applied.
The values for a drop-down list box do not have to come from a database
table. They can also be defined as a fixed array:
EmpGrid.Cols(6).Array
= Array("Single", "Married", "Divorced")
EmpGrid.Cols(6).VArray
= Array(1, 2, 3)
These two lines have an almost identical effect to AttachForeignTable,
except that the values for the drop-down list box come from fixed arrays.
The display values are specified via the Array property, and database
values via the VArray property. If the VArray propery is
not set, the display value itself will be saved in the database.
EmpGrid.Cols(5).FormatNumeric
2, True will format the numeric values displayed in column
5 (Employee.Salary). The first parameter specifies the amount of
decimal places in the formatted number. The second parameter specifies
whether commas separators should be used.
Go back to Lesson2
Continue to Lesson 4