SQL Server

The Quick Find feature is available by default in all data views of an application. This feature allows searching every field available in the grid all at once.

Quick Find can be triggered by pressing on the Search icon in the top right corner of the data view, or by typing when a full screen data view is in focus.

Type in a value and hit “Enter” key on the keyboard to begin the search.

When the search is complete, the search query will be displayed in the view header and the results will be displayed in the grid.

Each word separated by a space will search for results containing both words. Words separated by commas will search for results containing either word. Results can be negated by adding a dash (-) before the word. Exact phrases can be wrapped in “double quotes”. The example below executes the following search:

“Camembert Pierrot”, tea –grandma

The search returns records that contain the phrase “Camembert Pierrot” exactly, or records that contain “tea” and do not contain “grandma”.

However, while using Quick Find is perfect for small to medium size tables or views with a small number of columns, it can cause a substantial performance hit when the grid contains many different columns, and there is a large number of records in the table. Each column must be searched for that particular combination of keywords. While it is still possible to use Advanced Search in order to query specific columns, it does not beat the convenience offered by Quick Find.

In order to avoid the performance hit caused by searching every column, it is possible to reduce the Quick Find search scope to an inclusive or exclusive set of fields in the grid.

Excluding Specific Fields Using “$quickfinddisabled”

The quickest way to add performance is to add the tag “$quickfinddisabled” to the Search Options property of the data field. This will exclude the column from the search.

Let’s remove the QuantityPerUnit data field from the Quick Find query of Products page in the sample Northwind project.

Start the Project Designer. Switch to the Project Explorer tab. Double-click on “Products / Views / grid1 / QuantityPerUnit” data field.

Make the following change:

Press OK to save. On the toolbar, press Browse.

Navigate to the Products page and execute a Quick Find search. Notice that Quantity Per Unit will now be ignored when using Quick Find.

Including Specific Fields Using “$quickfind”

It is also possible to only include specific fields by using the “$quickfind” tag. Let’s reduce the Quick Find scope on Products page to only ProductName and CategoryName fields.

Switch back to the Project Designer. Make sure to clear any “$quickfinddisabled” tags, as these are exclusive.

Double-click on “Products / Views / grid1 / ProductName” data field node.

Make the following change:

Press OK to save the data field.

The next data field to modify is CategoryName. However, this data field is being used as the Alias for CategoryID data field, and has not been added to grid1 view. We will need to add CategoryName data field to grid1 in order to modify the behavior. This data field will not be rendered twice.

Drag the field “Products / Fields / CategoryName” onto “Products / Views / grid1” view to instantiate a data field for CategoryName field.

Next, change the configuration for CategoryName data field.

Press OK to save. On the toolbar, press Browse. Navigate to Products page and search for “tea”. Notice that Supplier Company Name is not searched - results do not include those with Supplier of “Grandma Kelly’s Homestead”.

Every Code On Time web app comes with multiple ways of displaying your data. One way to visualize your data is with charts. See an example of charts on the Orders page of Northwind sample below.

When a user activates the Charts presentation style, any developer-defined charts will be displayed. If none have been defined, then the application will automatically construct charts based on the data fields present in that view.

Activating Charts Presentation

Charts can be activated by clicking on the “Charts” presentation style option in the sidebar on the left hand side of the screen.

If the device you are using is narrow or the sidebar has been disabled, you can click on the context menu button “…” in the top right corner of the screen to bring up the context menu.

Then, click on the name of the view to bring up view options.

Select the “Charts” data presentation style, and the view will refresh and display charts to the user.

Responsive Design

Charts offer a responsive design that will scale to fit any device, regardless of the device’s screen size. You can get a comprehensive snapshot of your data from your phone, tablet, or desktop computer. The largest screen sizes will display three columns of charts.

If the window is shrunk to a moderate size or the device is a tablet, two columns of charts will be shown instead.

Smaller devices will display one chart at a time.

If the device or window has a short height (or if your phone is rotated horizontally), then the charts will be shrunk vertically in order to fit at least one chart at a time on the screen.

Sizing Charts

Charts can also be individually resized. Each chart is set to “Small” by default. This will render three columns on large screens, two columns on medium screens, and one column on small screens. If only one chart is present for the view, then that chart will always be maximum size available for the device.

The user can change the size of each chart by clicking on the three dot context menu “…” in the top right corner of the chart. Large devices will have access to “Small”, “Medium” and “Large” sizes.

Select “Large” to display a chart at full width and height of the screen. “Large” charts will scale down to “Medium” size on moderately sized devices, and to “Small” if the device cannot fit medium charts.

“Medium” chart size uses two thirds of the width and height a large screen, leaving space for one small chart in each dimension.

Medium charts on a medium size device will take the full width and two thirds of the height, leaving room for one chart above or below.

Default chart sizes can also be specified by the developer at design time.

Filtering with Charts

Any filters applied to the data view will be used by the charts. Quick filter options are available for the relevant fields in the context menu of each chart.

Clicking on the name of a field will open the filter panel for that field.

Select several options from the panel and press “Apply” to filter. The charts will refresh with the new, filtered data.

Child data views also derive the filter from the selected master record. The screen below shows charts giving insight to the orders from the customer “Save-a-lot Market” – Davolio seems to be the preferred employee.

Viewing the Data Behind the Chart

Users also have the option to view the pivoted data that the chart is based on in a table. Click on the three dot context menu “…” in the top right corner of a chart. Select “Show Data” option.

The chart will be replaced by a table that shows the data. A miniature chart preview will be shown in the top left corner.

Clicking on the mini chart in the top left hand corner will restore the chart. The user can also use the “Show Chart” option in the context menu.