User Interface

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User Interface
Sunday, June 2, 2013PrintSubscribe
Globalization and Localization

Globalization is the process of designing and developing applications that function for multiple cultures. Localization is the process of customizing your application for a given culture and locale. The topics in this section describe how to create ASP.NET web applications that can be adapted to different languages and cultures.

Learn more about globalization and localization of ASP.NET web applications at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c6zyy3s9.aspx.

Globalization

Code On Time web app generator allows explicit definition of globalization options in the Project Wizard.

Globalization and Localization page of Project Wizard.

Each application has a default culture. Unlimited edition of Code On Time allows specifying additional cultures. The browser culture will be detected and used, if available. The user may also manually specify the culture using the Language selector dropdown in the top right corner of the web app.

Localization

At run-time, the client library automatically replaces text elements wrapped in “localization tokens” when the culture is different from the default. The translations are stored as text constants in resource files. The client library matches the culture to the end of the text file name. For example, when the culture is changed to Canadian English, the client library will find translations in files that end with “en-CA.txt”.

For example, let’s examine the standard Welcome user control that is present in every web app. Notice that each text block is wrapped in a descriptive word surrounded by the carat (^) character.

<div style="padding-left: 8px">
    <div class="ParaInfo">
        ^SignInInstruction^Sign in to access the protected site content.^SignInInstruction^
    </div>
    <div class="ParaHeader">
        ^SignInHeader^Instructions^SignInHeader^
    </div>
    <div class="ParaText">
        ^SignInPara1^Two standard user accounts are automatically created when application is initialized if membership option has been selected for this application.^SignInPara1^
    </div>

    <div class="ParaText">
        ^SignInPara2^The administrative account <b>admin</b> is authorized to access all areas of the web site and membership manager. The standard <b>user</b> account is allowed to access all areas of the web site with the exception of membership manager.^SignInPara2^
    </div>

    <div class="ParaText">
        ^SignInPara3^Move the mouse pointer over the link <i>Login to this web site</i> on the right-hand side at the top of the page and sign in with one of the accounts listed below.^SignInPara3^
    </div>

    <div class="ParaText">
        <div style="border: solid 1px black; background-color: InfoBackground; padding: 8px; float: left;">
            ^AdminDesc^Administrative account^AdminDesc^:<br />
            <b title="User Name">admin</b> / <b title="Password">admin123%</b>
            <br />
            <br />
            ^UserDesc^Standard user account^UserDesc^:<br />
            <b title="User Name">user</b> / <b title="Password">user123%</b>
        </div>
        <div style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 8px"></div>
    </div>
</div>

Let’s provide our own translations for the “en-CA” culture that will replace the text wrapped in tags.

Customizing Localization

Start the web app generator and click on the project name. Select Settings, and then click on Globalization and Localization. In the Supported Culture Sets text box, enter the following:

Property Value
Supported Culture Sets en-US; en-CA;

Press Finish and regenerate the web app. When complete, click on the project name and press Open to open the project folder. In the search box, type in “en-CA.txt”. This will reveal all translation files for the “en-CA” culture.

All localization files for 'en-CA' culture.

Open the file “Welcome.ascx.en-CA.txt”. Notice that each element is wrapped in named tags surrounded by the carat (^) symbol. The client library will match the tags with those in the Welcome user control and replace the text at run-time.

Make the highlighted changes:

*******************************************************************************
Your application uses this file to locate resource strings defined
in Welcome.ascx project item.

Replace the text between localization brackets as needed.
*******************************************************************************

^AdminDesc^This is the Canadian Administrative account^AdminDesc^

^SignInHeader^Canadian Instructions^SignInHeader^

^SignInInstruction^Sign in to access the protected site content.^SignInInstruction^

^SignInPara1^Two standard user accounts are automatically created when application is initialized
    if membership option has been selected for this application.^SignInPara1^

^SignInPara2^The administrative account <b>admin</b> is authorized to access all areas of the
    web site and membership manager. The standard <b>user</b> account is allowed to
    access all areas of the web site with the exception of membership manager.^SignInPara2^

^SignInPara3^Move the mouse pointer over the link <i>Login to this web site</i> on the right-hand side
    at the top of the page and sign in with one of the accounts listed below.^SignInPara3^

^UserDesc^Standard user account^UserDesc^

Save the file, and switch to the application open in the browser. Refresh the Home page. Use the Language dropdown in the top-right corner to change to English (Canada). Note that the changes made previously have been applied to the text in the Welcome control on the right side of the page.

Custom translations are applied for the Welcome user control.

In addition to any text translations, any money or date formatting for the culture will be used as well. If the culture supports right-to-left, the website will be formatted accordingly.

Preserving Localization Between Code Generation Library Updates

Code generation library updates automatically replace the previous versions of the code generation files. A backup of the web app can be restored from [My Documents]\Code OnTime\Backup when it happens. You can create a copy of your localizations and restore them after each update.

You can also submit the completed localization file sets to Code On Time for inclusion in the general distribution of the code generation library. The localization file sets will be shared with the community and will get installed automatically with each update. If you have localizations to contribute, please zip up the files and submit a ticket.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013PrintSubscribe
Data View Refresh

Data views are only automatically refreshed by the client library when data is inserted, updated, or deleted. The user can force a refresh using the Refresh icon in the bottom right corner of every data view. In addition, the Refresh Interval property can be configured to refresh the data view based on a timer.

image

Certain situations require a refresh based on different conditions. For example, suppose that there are multiple tabs displaying similar data.

Multiple tabs displaying different lists of Orders.

The user may change the value of a record in one of the views.

Order date of an order is changed.

However, when the user switches to another view showing the same record, the old value will be displayed.

The order date is not updated for the same record in a different tab.

Let’s add a custom user control that will contain some custom JavaScript. This code will refresh the data view when the tab is changed in order to ensure that the data visible to the user is always fresh.

Creating Views

Start the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, switch to the Controllers tab. Right-click on Orders / Views / grid1, and press Copy. Right-click on Orders / Views node, and press Paste to duplicate the view.

Copying view 'grid1' of Orders controller.     image

Do this one more time to create three grid views. Double-click on Orders / Views / v100.

Copied view 'v100' of Orders controller.

Make the following changes:

Property New Value
Id OrdersToShip
Label Orders To Ship
Filter Expression
OrderDate is null

Press OK to save. Double-click on Orders / Views / v101.

Copied view 'v101' of Orders controller.

Make the following changes:

Property New Value
Id HighFreight
Label High Freight
Filter Expression
Freight > 30

Press OK to save.

Setting Up the Page

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

Adding a page to the project.

Assign a name to the page:

Property New Value
Name Filtered Orders

Press OK to save. Drop the new Filtered Orders page node to the right of Home page node.

Dropping 'Filtered Orders' page node on the right side of 'Home' page node.     Page 'Filtered Orders' is now second in the menu.

Right-click on Filtered Orders page, and press New Container.

Adding a container to a page.

Keep the defaults and press OK to save. Right-click on the new container and press New Data View.

Adding a data view to container 'c101'.

Assign the following values:

Property Value
Controller Orders
View grid1
Tag Orders
Activator Tab
Text Orders

Press OK to save. Create another data view with the following properties:

Property Value
Controller Orders
View OrdersToShip
Tag Orders To Ship
Activator Tab
Text Orders To Ship

Create one more data view.

Property Value
Controller Orders
View HighFreight
Tag High Freight
Activator Tab
Text High Freight

Save the data view.

Adding User Control

Right-click on Filtered Orders / c101 container node, and press New Control.

Adding a new control to container 'c101'.

Next to the User Control property, click on the New User Control icon.

Creating a new user control.

Assign a name:

Property Value
Name RefreshDataView

Press OK to save the user control and insert it into the property. Press OK again to save the control.

On the toolbar, press Browse to generate the web application and user control. When complete, right-click on Filtered Orders / c101 / control1 – RefreshDataView node, and press Edit in Visual Studio.

Edit the user control in Visual Studio via the context menu option in the Project Explorer.

The custom user control file will open in Visual Studio. Replace the content after the <%@ Control %> element with the following:

<script type="text/javascript">
    Sys.Application.add_load(function () {
        $('div.TabBar td.Item').click(function () {
            var linkText = $(this).find('a').text();
            var tag = linkText;
            var dataView = Web.DataView.find(tag, 'Tag');
            if (dataView) {
                if (dataView._isBusy == false && dataView.get_isDisplayed())
                    dataView.refresh();

            }
        });
    })
</script>

Viewing the Results

Save the file, and switch to the web app open in your browser window. Navigate to the Filtered Orders page. The page will have three tabs displaying different filtered lists of orders. Note the Order Date of the first record.

Three tabs displaying different lists of orders.

Switch to the High Freight tab. Edit the first record, and change the Order Date.

Changing the Order Date of an order.

Save the change, and switch back to the first tab. Note that the data view refreshes and the updated data is displayed.

The data view has been refreshed - the record is showing the latest changes.

Sunday, March 31, 2013PrintSubscribe
When Last Command Name

Actions in the Code On Time user interface are displayed based on several conditions. When the conditions are fulfilled, the action is displayed. The When Last Command Name condition will only display an action when the previous action matches the specified command name. If When Last Command Name is null, the action will be displayed if Select action or no action is performed and the other conditions are matched.

For example, when a Customers record is selected, the Edit, Delete, and Close actions are displayed. New Customers action is available on the action bar, as well as Actions and Report dropdowns.

Edit, Delete, and Close actions displayed when a record is selected.

When the Edit action is activated, the buttons are replaced by OK, Delete, and Cancel. The action bar only has one dropdown, Record.

OK, Delete, and Cancel actions displayed when a record is edited.

Note that all reporting actions have been hidden. Let’s add another Report action what will only be displayed after Edit action has been performed.

Start the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, switch to the Controllers tab. Right-click on Customers / Actions / ag7 (ActionBar) – Report node, and press New Action.

Creating a new action for Customers controller.

Assign the following values:

Property Value
Command Name Report (PDF)
Header Text Create a report
When Last Command Name Edit
Description Creates a PDF report when editing a record.

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

Navigate to Customers page and select a record. The new Report action is not displayed.

The new Report action is not yet displayed on the action bar.

Start editing the record. The new action will appear as the only option in the Report dropdown.

When Edit action is triggered, the new Report action is displayed.

Continue to Auto Hide Data Views