Blog: Posts from April, 2009

Blog

Posts from April, 2009

Thursday, April 2, 2009Print Subscribe

All data views in Data Aquarium Framework web applications are automatically provided with a view selector, a drop down control displayed in the right top corner of action bar. This user interface element allows you to have a code-free presentation of different views of data.

Here is the source code of this page:

<%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/MasterPage.master" 
    AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Products.aspx.cs" 
    Inherits="Products" %>

<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="head" runat="Server">
</asp:Content>
<asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="Header1Placeholder" 
        runat="Server">
    Hidden View Selector
</asp:Content>
<asp:Content ID="Content3" ContentPlaceHolderID="Header2Placeholder" 
        runat="Server">
    Northwind
</asp:Content>
<asp:Content ID="Content4" ContentPlaceHolderID="BodyPlaceholder" 
        runat="Server">
    <div id="ProductsContainer" runat="server"/>
    <aquarium:DataViewExtender ID="ProductsExtender" 
        runat="server" TargetControlID="ProductsContainer"
        Controller="Products" />
</asp:Content>

In certain situations you may want to hide the view selector.

Modify Content1 and add CSS class NoHeader to ProductsContainer as shown in this example.

<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="head" runat="Server">
    <style type="text/css">
        .NoHeader .ViewSelector
        {
            display: none;
        }
    </style>
</asp:Content>
........
<asp:Content ID="Content4" ContentPlaceHolderID="BodyPlaceholder" 
        runat="Server">
    <div id="ProductsContainer" runat="server" class="NoHeader"/>
    <aquarium:DataViewExtender ID="ProductsExtender" 
        runat="server" TargetControlID="ProductsContainer"
        Controller="Products" />
</asp:Content>

Refresh the page and the view selector will disappear.

Data Aquarium Framework completely relies on CSS to control the visual appearance of all user interface elements. This allows easy an powerful customization of user interface without a myriad of complicated properties that control visual presentation.

Labels: AJAX, Data Aquarium Framework, User Interface

Friday, March 6, 2009Print Subscribe

Business Rules Compatibility Issues

New business rules in the latest release of Data Aquarium Framework have lost compatibility with data filters and custom action handlers.

If you do have a legacy code and are experiencing System.InvalidCastException error when framework is trying to create a custom action handler or a data filter instance then run Code OnTime Generator and wait until a prompt to install an update will be displayed. Proceed with installation.

Create a brand new Data Aquarium project for any database and complete code generation. Copy ~/App_Code/Data/ViewPage.cs(vb) and ~/App_Code/Data/ControllerConfiguration.cs(vb) to your current project.

The filters and custom action handlers will be working again.

Make sure to migrate any future code to business rules.

New Membership premium project is a great example of business rules. Generate a project with membership and research ~/App_Code/Security/MembershipBusinessRules.cs(vb).

Labels: Data Aquarium Framework, Release Notes

Monday, March 2, 2009Print Subscribe

Data Aquarium Update

This update includes the following enhancements:

The bug in business objects in Visual Basic.NET projects was causing a conversion error at runtime when executing requests such as the one below:
```
Dim territories As List(Of EmployeeTerritories) = _
    EmployeeTerritories.Select(employeeId, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing)
```
Attribute RowFilter has been enhanced with Operation property to allow creation of programmatic business rule filters other then equality checks. Here is the definition of RowFilterOperation in C#:
```
public enum RowFilterOperation
{
    Equal,
    NotEqual,
    LessThan,
    LessThanOrEqual,
    GreaterThan,
    GreaterThanOrEqual,
    Like,
}
```
Query-by-example lookups when enhances to perform a range check for field of DateTime type. Filters where not working well when dates contain time. Now a list of samples dates for DateTime fields is stripped off of time. If you select a date then a range filter is applied to capture any dates in the filter on a selected date.
There was an issue with display of view selector in browsers other Internet Explorer. Incorrectly positioned frame was displayed when user moved mouse over the view selector drop-down. The issue has been resolved. Here is screen shot of Mozilla Firefox with "orange" Employees view selector drop down when mouse is moved over it.

Labels: Data Aquarium Framework, Release Notes