Data Lookup

  Picklists

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Picklists

Picklists are commonly used in web applications in order to allow a user to pick one item from a list of available options. These lists prevent duplication of similar values, such as alternate spellings. Picklists are physically different from database lookup fields since there is no foreign key relationship between the tables. The application generator automatically configures lookup fields. Developers can configure a picklist on any field in a web application.

For example, let’s look at the City and Country fields in the Customers edit form. Both fields are simple text boxes – the user can type any value.

City and Country fields rendered as simple text boxes.

Let’s convert both fields to picklists.

Creating Cities and Countries Tables

Start SQL Server Management Studio. In the Object Explorer, right-click on Databases / Northwind / Tables node, and select New Table option.

Create New Table in Northwind database using SQL Server Management Studio.

Give this table the following columns:

Column Name Data Type Allow Nulls
CountryID int No
CountryName nvarchar(50) No

Right-click on the CountryID column, and select Make Primary ID.

Set CountryID column as a primary key of Countries table.

Under Column Properties, change the following setting:

Property Value
(Is Identity) Yes

Press Ctrl+S to save the table. Give the table the name of “Countries”.

Create another table with the following columns:

Column Name Data Type Allow Nulls
CityID int No
CityName nvarchar(50) No

Right-click on the CityID column, and select Make Primary ID.

Set CityID column as a primary key of Cities table.

Under Column Properties, change the following setting:

Property Value
(Is Identity) Yes

Save the table, and give it the name of “Cities”.

Start Code On Time web application generator. Refresh, and add the two new tables to the web application.

Refresh the project to add the Cities and Countries tables.

Finish generating the application.

Populate the Tables

Next, populate the Cities and Countries table using the values currently existing in the Customers table. A full list of values can be found by activating the dropdown on the column header and clicking the “Filter…” option.

List of City values.

Insert all City values in the Cities table, and all Country values in the Countries table.

Populated Countries table using values extracted from Customers.

Converting Country and City fields into a Picklist

Start the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, switch to the Controllers tab. Double-click on Customers / Fields / City field node.

City field of Customers controller in Project Designer.

Change the following properties:

Property Value
Items Style Lookup
Items Data Controller Cities

Press OK to save the field. Double-click on Customers / Fields / Country field node.

Country field of Customers controller.

Make the following changes:

Property Value
Items Style Lookup
Items Data Controller Countries

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

Navigate to the Customers page, and edit a record. The City and Country fields will be rendered as lookup links.

City and Country fields on Customers edit form are rendered as lookups.

Click on the link for City field, and a lookup modal window will display a list of cities.

Clicking on the City lookup link will activate a modal window displaying a list of cities.

Select a lookup item from the list. Save the record, and select the record again. Instead of CityName being inserted into the field, the CityID was inserted.

CityID inserted into the City field.

The same behavior occurs for Country lookup field.

CountryID of the lookup item inserted into the Country field.

This is happening because the primary key of the lookup is automatically used as the value of the selected record.

You can address this in two different ways.

Changing the Primary Key of the Lookup Controller

Switch back to the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, right-click on Countries / Fields node, and select List option.

Show List of all Fields in the Countries controller.

Change the field properties:

Name Is Primary Key
CountryID No
CountryName Yes

You can repeat this procedure for Cities controller, or configure the lookup properties of the City field as explained next.

Specifying the Data Value Field and Data Text Field

In the Project Explorer, double-click on Customers / Fields / City field node.

City field in the Customers controller.

Make the following changes:

Property Value
Data Value Field CityName
Data Text Field CityName

Press OK to save the field.

The client library always uses Data Value Field and Data Text Field to determine which lookup field represents the key of the selected item, and which field represents the text. When the Data Value Field is not specified, then the value of the primary key field of the selected lookup item will become a lookup value. When the Data Text Field is not specified, the text will be derived from the first visible column.

Trying it Out

On the toolbar, press Browse. Navigate to Customers page and edit a record. Change the City and Country fields, save, and select the record again. The names of City and Country will be the values inserted into the respective fields.

City and Country Name values will be inserted into the fields.

This can be confirmed by checking the record in SQL Server Management Studio.

SQL Server Management Studio query confirms that the names were inserted into the City and Country fields.