Blog: Posts from March, 2012

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Posts from March, 2012
Saturday, March 31, 2012PrintSubscribe
Shared Business Rules

The core framework of your application always tries to create a class with the name YourProjectNamespace.Rules.SharedBusinessRules whenever it receives a request to process data on the server. The framework interacts with the class instance in order to determine if any custom business logic is implemented in the application. This happens when data is selected, updated, inserted, deleted, and when custom actions are requested.

The name YourProjectNamespace in the namespace entered in the project settings. The default namespace is MyCompany.

Project namespace configuration in the line-of-business application created with Code OnTime web application generator

You can enable shared business rules if you select Settings of your project and choose the Business Logic Layer option. Toggle the check box in the Shared Business Rules section, click Finish button to save the changes.

Enabling shared business rules in a Code On Time web application

If you generate the app then the class file SharedBusinessRules.cs(vb) will be created either in ~/App_Code/Rules folder on in the ~/Rules folder of the application class library. This depends on the type of your projects.

'SharedBusinessRules' code file in the Solution Explorer of a 'Web Site Factory' project

Class SharedBusinessRules provides a convenient placeholder for the business logic that may apply to all data controllers of your web application.

Enter the following code in the code file of shared business rules.

C#:

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using MyCompany.Data;

namespace MyCompany.Rules
{
    public partial class SharedBusinessRules : MyCompany.Data.BusinessRules
    {
        [ControllerAction("", "grid1", "Select", ActionPhase.Before)]
        protected void TellTheUserWhatJustHappened()
        {
            if (!IsTagged("UserIsInformed"))
            {
                Result.ShowMessage(
                    "You just have requested data from '{0}' controller", 
                    ControllerName);
                AddTag("UserIsInformed");
            }
        }
    }
}

Visual Basic:

Imports MyCompany.Data
Imports System
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Linq

Namespace MyCompany.Rules

    Partial Public Class SharedBusinessRules
        Inherits MyCompany.Data.BusinessRules

        <ControllerAction("", "grid1", "Select", ActionPhase.Before)>
        Protected Sub TellTheUserWhatJustHappened()
            If (Not IsTagged("UserIsInformed")) Then
                Result.ShowMessage(
                    "You just have requested data from '{0}' controller",
                    ControllerName)
                AddTag("UserIsInformed")
            End If
        End Sub

    End Class
End Namespace

Save the file and navigate to any page of your web application that contains data. Here is what you will see at the top of the page if you view the Suppliers in the Northwind sample.

The message from the shared business rule method TellTheUserWhatJustHappened displays a message at the top of the page when data is selected for the first time

If you continue sorting, filter, and paging the suppliers then the message will continue to be displayed at the top. If you start editing or select a supplier then the message from the child view will popup.

The message from the shared business rules is displayed when the child products are selected for the first time

We are using IsTagged and AddTag methods to display the messages once in the lifecycle of the page instance in the browser window. If the data view on the page is not tagged then the message is displayed and the tag UserIsInformed is assigned to it.

The message will eventually disappear as soon as user invokes available data view actions.

Method TellTheUserWhatJustHappened is called every time the data is selected. This happens when the data is sorted, paged, changed, or if a filter is applied. Data view tagging ensures that the message will be sent to the client one time only.

If you navigate away from the page and come back using the Back button of your web browser then the tag is restored and no message will be displayed. If you click ahead and arrive to a non-historical version of the page then the data view tags will be blank and the message will show up once when the first attempt to select data is executed on the server.

The business logic implemented in this shared business rules example will be engaged for all data pages of your web application whenever the grid1 view of any controller requires data. This applies to an application with a single data page and will also be true in the application with three hundred data pages.

If you have existing controller-specific business rules, then make sure that their base class is changed from BusinessRules to SharedBusinessRules. If you create new controller-specific business rules, then the code generator will automatically specify the SharedBusinessRules class as their base.

Saturday, March 31, 2012PrintSubscribe
Data View Refresh Interval

Certain types of applications require automatic refreshing of data presented on screen at predefined intervals. For example, applications supporting various surveillance and monitoring activities must pro-actively update the contents of the user interface screens.

Web browsers can be instructed to reload the fresh copy of the page from the server. Unfortunately the page flickering will be quite irritating if one has to stare at an application screen for a few hours every day.

Code On Time web applications offer smooth partial page refresh when users interact with the page.

For example, a data view can be refreshed without causing the entire page to reload if you click on the Refresh icon in bottom right corner of a grid view.

Data view refresh can be manually activated by clicking on the 'Refresh' icon in the bottom right corner of a grid view

A data view can also refresh itself if a user is not interacting with it for awhile.

Open your project in Designer and activate the properties of the data view on the page.

Master data view on the 'Products' page displayed in the Project Explorer

Set property Refresh Interval to 30. The duration of the interval is expressed in seconds.

Data view property 'Refresh Interval' displayed in Project Designer

Save the data view properties and generate your application. Navigate to the page and observe that the Refresh icon is briefly replaced with the progress indicator every 30 seconds.

Data view refresh is in progress as indicated by the 'wait' icon displayed in place of the 'Refresh' button in the bottom right corner of the grid view

If you actively interact with the data view, then the refresh interval is always restarted from the moment of the last interaction.

Saturday, March 31, 2012PrintSubscribe
Auto Select in Data Views

Complex master/detail pages in Code On Time web applications are hiding detail records until a specific master record is selected.

For example, this is the initial state of the Suppliers page in the Northwind sample. This page is capable of rendering a list of suppliers with their respective products. If a master supplier is not selected then the Products child data view is not visible.

The initial state of the master/detail page 'Suppliers' without a selected master record.

Users can click on a link in the first column to activate the Suppliers form view. This will result in the linked products displayed at the bottom of the page below the form.

You can configure an application data view to simulate a click on a link in the first column of the first row as soon as a page loads in the web browser.

Start web application generator, select the project name, and activate the Project Designer.

Select Suppliers / container1 / view1 in Project Explorer.

Page data view selected in the Project Explorer

Enable property “Auto Select First Row” under Presentation section of the data view properties and click OK to save the changes.

Data view property 'Auto Select First Row' in the Project Designer

Click Browse on the tool bar and navigate to the Suppliers page. The very first row in the master view of suppliers will be selected. Products from the selected supplier are displayed beneath the form view.

Property 'Auto Select First Row' causes automatic execution of the first action in the action group with the 'Grid' scope.

Setting the Auto Select First Row property to True causes automatic execution of the first action in the action group with the “Grid” scope.

The default configuration of this action group in shown next. As you can see the first row will be selected in the form view editForm1 if a user clicks on a link in the first column. The same effect is caused by Auto Select First Row property when page loads in the web browser.

Action group with scope 'Grid' expanded in Project Explorer

Right-click action group ag1 and select Show All Actions option.

Context menu of the action group in Project Explorer

Select the action group ag2 in Project Designer and click Up on the tool bar.

Changing the order of actions in the action group

The hierarchy of nodes in Project Explorer will change. Action a2 with command name Edit is now the first action in the action group ag1 with the scope of “Grid”. Note that this action does not have a view specified as the command argument.

Modified action group in Project Explorer

Click Browse button on the tool bar of Project Designer and navigate to the Suppliers page once more. The first row is selected and presented in edit mode.

'Edit' action executed without an argument on a page with the master data view that has its property  'Auto Select First Row' set to 'True'