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Saturday, August 9, 2014PrintSubscribe
Passing Parameter to Stored Procedure using a Custom Search Dialog

Code On Time apps offer the ability to display the results of a stored procedure. Some stored procedures require passing an SQL parameter in order to perform manipulations on the data.

In the Northwind sample database, the [Employee Sales By Country] stored procedure shows total sales amounts grouped by employee, and then by country. It accepts two parameters, @Starting_Date and @Ending_Date to determine the filter.

Let’s create a controller from this stored procedure. By default, the stored procedure will display all records between the years 1970 and 2000. In addition, we will add a custom action that will allow the user to specify the Beginning and Ending dates via a custom confirmation controller.

The picture below shows the confirmation controller form allowing the user to specify parameters for the stored procedure.

The confirmation controller form allows the user to select a beginning and ending date to pass to the stored procedure.

The CREATE script for the stored procedure can be seen below.

CREATE procedure [dbo].[Employee Sales by Country] 
@Beginning_Date DateTime, @Ending_Date DateTime AS
SELECT    Employees.Country, 
        Employees.LastName, 
        Employees.FirstName, 
        Orders.ShippedDate, 
        Orders.OrderID, 
        "Order Subtotals".Subtotal AS SaleAmount
FROM Employees INNER JOIN 
    (Orders INNER JOIN "Order Subtotals" ON Orders.OrderID = "Order Subtotals".OrderID) 
    ON Employees.EmployeeID = Orders.EmployeeID
WHERE Orders.ShippedDate Between @Beginning_Date And @Ending_Date

Creating the Controller to Display the Stored Procedure

Start the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, switch to the Controllers tab. Click on the New Controller icon on the toolbar.

Creating a new controller.

Enter a name for the controller.

Property Value
Name EmployeeSalesByCountry

Press OK to save. Right-click the new controller and press “Generate From SQL…”.

Generating the controller from SQL.

In the SQL script textbox, paste in the following script. The debug section is removed from the business rule when the application framework executes the script at runtime and declares the parameters.

-- debug
DECLARE @Session_BeginningDate datetime, @Session_EndingDate datetime
-- end debug

if (@Session_BeginningDate is null)
    set @Session_BeginningDate = '1970'

if (@Session_EndingDate is null)
    set @Session_EndingDate = '2000'


EXEC [dbo].[Employee Sales by Country]
    @Session_BeginningDate,
    @Session_EndingDate

Press OK to generate the controller.

Setting the Session Variable

Note that the parameters returned from the search dialog will not be cached. These parameters must be saved into a session variable. In the Project Explorer, double-click on the EmployeeSalesByCountry / Business Rules / Select (Sql / Before) – enableResultSet node.

Selecting the 'enableResultSet' business rule from the EmployeeSalesByCountry controller.

Replace the script with the following:

set @BusinessRules_EnableResultSet = 1
-- Enable caching of the result set. Duration is specified in seconds.
-- set @BusinessRules_ResultSetCacheDuration = 30 

if (@Parameters_BeginningDate is not null)
    set @Session_BeginningDate = @Parameters_BeginningDate

if (@Parameters_EndingDate is not null)
    set @Session_EndingDate = @Parameters_EndingDate

Press OK to save the new script.

Adding Controller To Page

Next, let’s add the controller to a page. Right-click on the controller and press Copy.

Copying the 'EmployeeSalesByCountry' controller.

Switch to the Pages tab in the Project Explorer. On the toolbar, press the New Page icon.

Adding a page to the app.

Give a name to the page and press OK to save.

Property Value
Name Employee Sales By Country

Drop the new page to the right side of Home page node to place it second in the site menu.

Dropping a page to the right of the Home page node.     Employee sales by country page is now second in the site menu.

Right-click on the page and press Paste to instantiate the controller as a data view on the page.

Pasting onto the 'Employee Sales By Country' page.     The EmployeeSalesByCountry controller has been instantiated as a view on the page.

Adding the Custom Action

Switch back to the Controllers tab in the Project Explorer. Right-click on EmployeeSalesByCountry / Actions / ag3 (ActionBar) – New node, and press New Action.

Creating a new action in the 'EmployeeSalesByCountry' controller.

Specify the following values:

Property Value
Command Name Search
Header Text Filter View
Confirmation

_controller=FilterEmployeeSales
_title=Select the Beginning and Ending Dates

Press OK to save the action.

Creating the Confirmation Controller

Let’s add a controller that will allow the user to specify BeginningDate and EndingDate parameters for the stored procedure.

On the Project Explorer toolbar, press the New Controller icon.

Adding a new controller to the project.

Enter a name for the controller.

Property Value
Name

FilterEmployeeSales

Click OK to save the controller. Right-click on FilterEmployeeSales / Fields node, and press New Field.

Adding a new field to the 'FilterEmployeeSales' controller.

Define the field as follows:

Property Value
Name BeginningDate
Type DateTime

Save the field, and create a second field with these values:

Property Value
Name EndingDate
Type DateTime

Save the EndingDate field. The confirmation controller is now complete.

Viewing the Results

On the Project Designer toolbar, press Browse. In the browser window that will open, navigate to the Employee Sales By Country page. Note that all 809 records are displayed.

All 809 records are displayed on the 'Employee Sales By Country' page.

In the sidebar or context menu, press Filter View action. The page will navigate to a form with the Beginning Date and Ending Date fields. Enter values, and press OK.

The confirmation controller form allows the user to select a beginning and ending date to pass to the stored procedure.

Note that the parameters have been passed to the stored procedure and there are only 17 records displayed now.

The BeginningDate and EndingDate parameters have been set by the confirmation controller.

Thursday, July 24, 2014PrintSubscribe
Touch UI for Any Data, Anywhere (Stored Procedures, Web Services, etc.)

Code On Time release 8.0.7.0 introduces ability to generate custom data controllers directly from Project Designer. The source of data is up to you – the app generator will handle any data anywhere! Create amazing Touch and Desktop UI for data returned from stored procedures, web services, file system, etc.  The release also introduces a collection of important bug fixes and performance improvements. Continue reading for the full list.

Generating Controllers from Project Explorer

Create a new data controller, right-click the corresponding node in Project Explorer and choose Generate from SQL option to create a data controller based on a free-form SELECT statement , stored procedure, or any other SQL script .

'Generate from SQL' and 'Generate from Fields' options in Code On Time app generator.

“Command Text”  Controller

If the script is an arbitrary SELECT statement, then indicate that the script defines a command text. This option will configure a custom command for the data controller and ensure the maximum efficiency at runtime. You can also specify an optional “base” table name if you want the controller to support Update, Insert, and Delete.

Configuring a data controller based on arbitrary SELECT statement in Code On Time app generator.

Verify the script and click OK. Copy and paste the new controller on any page.

An app with Touch UI created with Code On Time.

“Business Rule” Controller

If you want to configure a data controller based on a stored procedure, then you will need to indicate that the script defines a business rule.

Configuring a data controller based on a stored procedure in Code On Time.

The controller will be enhanced with a collection of business rules. There will be no command.

Rule enableResultSet will instruct application framework to use the custom result set.

set @BusinessRules_EnableResultSet = 1
-- Enable caching of the result set. Duration is specified in seconds.
-- set @BusinessRules_ResultSetCacheDuration = 30 

Rule getData will produce the result set.

EXEC    [dbo].[Employee Sales by Country]
        @Beginning_Date = N'1/1/1980',
        @Ending_Date = N'1/1/2014'

Note that Update, Insert, and Delete are prevented by default.

set @BusinessRules_PreventDefault = 1
-- implement insert here

Implement your own business logic in the corresponding SQL or “Code” business rules. The output of the stored procedure will be stored in an instance of DataTable class. Developers can specify optional cache duration to improve performance of controllers based on “slow” stored procedures.

Business rules of a data controller based on a stored procedure displayed in Project Explorer of Code On Time app generator for desktop and mobile devices.

Drop the controller on a page to see it in action.

A data controller based on a stored procedure displayed in Touch UI application created with Code On Time.

“Thin Air” Controller

If you data is not coming from the database, then use another approach. Define a collection of fields for the new data controller. Right-click the data controller and choose Generate from Fields option. This will create a collection of “Code” business rules that produce an empty DataTable class instance with the columns matching the data controller fields.

A custom data controller produces data from 'thin' air in an app created with Code On Time.

Implement the code to populate the DataTable instance in the file that contains GetData business rule.

Imports MyCompany.Data
Imports System
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions
Imports System.Web
Imports System.Web.Security

Namespace MyCompany.Rules

    Partial Public Class CustomDataSource3BusinessRules
        Inherits MyCompany.Data.BusinessRules

        ''' <summary>
        ''' This method will execute in any view before an action
        ''' with a command name that matches "Select".
        ''' </summary>
        <Rule("GetData")> _
        Public Sub GetDataImplementation()
            ResultSet = CreateCustomDataSource3DataTable()
        End Sub

        Private Function CreateCustomDataSource3DataTable() As DataTable
            Dim dt As DataTable = New DataTable()
            dt.Columns.Add("Title", GetType([String]))
            dt.Columns.Add("Published", GetType(DateTime))
            dt.Columns.Add("Reviewed", GetType(DateTime))
            '
            ' Populate rows of table "dt" with data from any 
' source (web service, file system, database, etc.) '
Dim r As DataRow = dt.NewRow() r("Title") = "Building modern applications with Code On Time" r("Published") = New DateTime(2014, 12, 15) dt.Rows.Add(r) Return dt End Function End Class End Namespace

Note that Update, Insert, and Delete commands are prevented by default. You can implement your own routines when needed. Also make sure that you have specified the primary key fields to allow selection of data .

Here is the data controller in a live application.

A data from 'thin' air displayed in an app with Touch UI created with Code On Time app generator.

This feature is available in all product editions. Detailed tutorials with step-by-step instructions will be published later this week.

Bug Fixes and Enhancements

The release includes an important fix for Unlimited edition users. Generated applications were failing previously if the browser was not supplying Accept Encoding header in HTTP requests, which resulted in a non-function page displayed to the end users in both Desktop and Touch UI. The web server was reporting HTTP error 400 (Bad request).

Application framework will also not execute custom business rules twice. The bug was introduced in the previous release.

Business rules are not executed for the selected and unchecked row when multiple selection is enabled in Desktop UI.

This is the list of other enhancements and bug fixes included in the release:

  • Non-IE desktop browsers will not report “Invalid date” message in Touch UI.
  • Touch UI updates all visible summary views in Touch UI when a page is resized.
  • Filter information and "Clear" option are displayed correctly in master and detail context menus in Touch UI.
  • Summary views in Touch UI do not wrap "See All" option on the next line.
  • Touch UI displays "Showing N items." message in the view description.
  • Item styles RadioButtonList, ListBox and CheckBoxList are now supported in Touch UI. The latter enables many-to-many fields.
  • Method $app.mobile.activeLink will not strip "focus" from the active tab on touch-enabled devices.
  • Touch UI now uses action header text, command name, and command argument to eliminate duplicate actions from the context menu. Previous implementation has relied on command name and argument only, which have resulted in “lost” context menu options.
  • Fixed the bug in Quick Find that was causing incorrect search results when fields "shorter" than the search sample are present in a grid/list view.
  • Navigating to a "hashed" url of a protected page will not cause a duplicate history event in webkit browsers.
  • Page title is displayed inline when sidebar is visible to allow more space for toolbar buttons.
  • Taphold on field value in a grid column will display a popup with a complete text of the field value if the value is partially hidden.
  • Touch UI allows static text selection with a mouse in desktop browsers.
  • Fixed page height decrease caused by a refresh of a summary view in Touch UI.
  • Removed "keyup" and "keydown" events causing appscrolling  event in wrappers in Touch UI applications.
  • Taphold can be done with Ctrl+Click when using a mouse in Touch UI applications. The other option is to press the mouse button down and holding it at least 750 milliseconds before release.
  • Fixed ResetSkipCount method to ensure that a correct page is loaded from Result Set under all conditions.
  • User and Role manager have been improved for a consistent behavior in Desktop and Touch UI apps.
  • Sync of selected key value is performed by application framework if the number of submitted key values matches the number of primary key fields.
  • Focus on an input field in Touch UI will also select the field value.
  • Blob key field is converted to a string when a check for "null" BLOB field is performed in Touch UI.
  • Removed icons-png folder from the ~/touch/images folder of generated apps. The complete set of SVG icons available in Touch UI are now listed in ~/touch/icons.html file includes in every project.
  • Fixed Export exception when server rules are null.
  • Ensured EnableMinifiedCss is generated for all users.

The next release will be out in early August of 2014. We expect to include further enhancements to the Touch UI and a new server-side Reporting API that will produce binary reports on the server. The feature will also be extended to Email Business Rules to enable reports as attachments.

Monday, June 16, 2014PrintSubscribe
Deployment: Prerequisites for Windows Server 2012 R2

Press the Start key on your keyboard, and start typing “features”. In the search results pane, select “Turn windows features on or off”.

Turning Windows features on in Windows Server 2012 R2.

This will open the Add Roles and Features Wizard. Press Next to continue past the Before you Begin page.

The first page of the Add Roles and Features wizard.

Select “Role-based installation” and press Next.

Selecting the installation type.

Select the local server, and press Next again.

Selecting the server to add roles to.

Check the box next to “.NET Framework 4.5 Features | ASP.NET 4.5”.

Enabling ASP.NET 4.5 Features.

Select “Web Server (IIS)” from the list, and click Add Features button to finish.

Adding the Web Server (IIS) Role.

Expand “Web Server (IIS) | Web Server | Application Development” node, and check the nodes “Application Development”, “.NET Extensibility 4.5”, “Application Initialization”, “ASP.NET 4.5”, “ISAPI Extensions”, and “ISAPI Filters”.

Enabling the required application development roles.

Continue pressing Next, then press Install when necessary. This step may take some time.

Installing the roles onto the server.

Once complete, press Close to exit the wizard.

The role installation has been completed.