Data Sheet

The following enhancements and bug fixes were introduced in the latest update.

Miscellaneous Improvements

• Search bar is correctly displayed if activated on start in browsers other than IE.
• Firefox bug preventing creation of lookup items in-place has been fixed.
• Core CSS enhancements to improve support for IE 9 and enhance quality of the data sheet rendering
• Several new resource constants in Web.DataViewResources.js to support new functionality in the data sheet view.

Data Sheet

Summary of data sheet enhancements.

• Menu “Actions” in the action bar will feature “Show in Data Sheet” or “Show in Standard View” option if your application has been produced by Premium or Unlimited edition. These new options are executing actions with Data Sheet and Grid command names, which causes switching between data sheet and standard grid view.   
   
  See the Data Sheet view in action at http://codeontime.com/demo.aspx.
   
  
  
   
• Data Sheet view now display an arrow pointer in the gap column to indicate the row that is currently selected in the view. The focused cell may be positioned in any row. The selected row is designated by the arrow. Any linked child data views are filtered to match the primary key of the selected row.
   
  
   
• Several bugs related to keyboard handling were fixed. Pressing Enter key while working in the child data sheet with the master form would have caused erratic selection of buttons in the master form.
• User can start creating a new row in the data sheet by pressing Insert key or navigating past the last row in the data sheet view.
• User can end editing an existing or entering a new row by pressing Tab or Enter key while in the last column of the row. Tab key will cause automatic creation of a new row if the current row has been persisted successfully. Enter key will leave the selection focus on the last focused column.
• Empty data sheet view offers a link to enable instant creation of new rows. Users can click on a link to start creating a new row.
   
  
  
• User can press Ctrl+Delete keys to delete the row with the current focus in the data sheet.
• User can press Ctrl+Space to select a a row if multiple-row selection is enabled in the data sheet.
• Pressing Tab or Shift+Tab key in edit mode will skip the read-only cells.

Next Update

The upcoming update will introduce the long awaited enhanced file upload/download processing to allow capturing file name, size, and content type. 

Code On Time applications now offer a new exceptional feature that allows spreadsheet-style presentation and editing of multiple records.

You can enable the data sheet view if you change the type of your grid view from “Grid” to “Data Sheet”. Start the web application generator, select the name of your project, click “Design” button, select a data controller, and activate “Views” tab. Change the type of view grid1 to “Data Sheet”.

Generate your application and navigate to the page that presents the data controller views. Click once on any cell in the data sheet view. The header of the column will get highlighted. You can now start using the keyboard to navigate between cells.

Press Down key until you reach the last visible row on the page. Press Down key one more and observe how the rows shift.

Start typing in any cell to edit the data, press F2 key to start editing, or click Del to clear the contents of the cell. The row will switch in edit mode. Any business rules that work with grid views will continue to work with the data sheet view. Use Tab and Shit+Tab keys to navigate between cells in the edit row. Use mouse to click on arbitrary cell in the edit row to active the cell.

Hit Enter key to save the row. Enter and Shift+Enter keys will navigate down and up in the data sheet view when not in edit mode.

Press Insert key to create a new row or simply navigate beyond the last row in the data sheet view.

Press Esc to exit edit/new mode.

Press Esc if you want to stop using keyboard with the data sheet view. The cell focus will disappear.

Conclusion

Data Sheet view will offer a new rapid data entry method for your end users. We are planning to offer a code generator option that will make the Data Sheet view a default presentation for grids of data.

Excellent cross browser support will bring Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access desktop experience of interacting with data to the web.

Data Sheet view is available only in Premium and Unlimited editions. View Code On Time product edition pricing at http://codeontime.com/buy.aspx.  The upcoming updates will include new additional view types such as tree view and calendar view.