Grid Settings


Here you specify settings for columns in the grid. The Grid Settings screen allows you to change the attributes of the columns when they are displayed on your grid. For each selected column you may adjust color, header, ability to edit as well as the SQL for that column. Press the Reset button if you want to undo all your selections and changes.

Each of the property settings affect the column on which you double-click in the Column list. Double-click a column, modify the properties, double-click the next column, etc.

General:

Column Header Text. Enter the text you would like at the top of this column. The default is the column name.

Column Header Style, Color, Column Style. Select Plain or Bold for this column’s header, the color and the text style in the column itself.

Editable. You may make any column editable or non-editable by the user. Select Yes or No here.

Column Text Color, Column Background Color, Text Alignment. Set the Text color, column background color and alignment of the text in the column. These affect the data displayed in the column, not the header.

SQL Select. Enter a SQL term to filter this column.

Include in update SQL. Select whether you require this column to be included in the UPDATE and INSERT SQL. For example, if this column has a defaul value that the database automatically sets you may wish to display it in the grid but not have JDP update it when the other columns are updated. Autonumber (Identity) columns are automatically excluded from the SQL so there is no need to adjust this setting for those columns.

Field Type:

Field Type. You may leave the column as a text field to display the returned data or build a pull down list into your grid for this column. Similar to the Column Settings Choice in the Form Layout, you can make a static pull down or one that comes from another table.

Fields in JDesignerPro grids can be changed to be Text Field, Choice (pull down list) or JDPDate. Choose the type you desire for a field in the pull down list. The default is TextField. When you choose an item from this list, the lower portion of the tab will change to show a different set of properties.

TextField:

Default value. This is the value that JDesignerPro will always put in this field. The default is to leave it empty.

Edit Mask. Either choose the edit mask from the pulldown or enter your own. The character substitution value for character fields is an underscore (_) and for numeric columns the substitution value is 9 or 0.

JDPDate:

No special parameters exist for these components.

Choice

Text Value / Actual Value. The JDPChoice and JDPCombobox selections will make a set of fields appear in a list form on the builder screen. The properties, Values come from, and Text Value/Actual Value, determine what is in the criteria pull down. Simply enter the list of Text values (displayed in the choice) and Actual values (used when updating the database) that you require for this pulldown.

In these fields you can enter the entries for a static pull down. The left side is for the text that the user will see in the pull down. The right side is for the SQL equivalent of what will be the value in the database. For example, the left side might have these entries: Pay Net 30, Pay Net 60, Pay On Invoice, Ship COD. While the actual values that go into the database will be 30, 60, OI, COD. Unlike the search panel grid definition, here you use no equals sign or quotes ( =’ ‘) syntax, just the text value. So your list table would look like this:

The static list table appears by default. However, you may make the field a pull down list that comes from another table. Choose Database table/columns from the pull down, Values come from. Of course you don’t have to abbreviate. Both side might say "Pay Net 30".

Loading a Choice from a database table

If you want the choice to populate from the database choose the Database/table/columns from the Values come from pulldown. Then select the table, columns to use to display values in the pulldown and the column that contains the actual values to be used when updating the database. If you need to you can replace the Pulldown SQL clause with a different value. For example if you wish to just display distinct values in the choice modify the SQL to be something like the following:

DISTINCT stor_id

first_name+' '+last_name

Values come from. This is a switch to go between a static criteria pull down and one that comes from another table in the Text Value / Actual Value list. If you choose "Fields entered here" you will see the list for static entries. Changing this pull down to "Database table/columns" will reveal three panels. The first panel is a list of the tables available in the chosen database. From this you click once on a table and the column names will populate the right-side panels. The middle panel, Pull down Column, is where you choose the value that the user will see in the criteria list. The Actual Value Column is what value will be entered in the database when the user selects a search column, the search will actually be done with the data in the Actual Value column.

Special Where Clause. This property field is for entering a SQL statement to filter the returned data in some custom way that you require. The format for entry is like: State=’CA’. You do not need to enter "Select...".

SQL:

Special Where Clause. This property field is for entering a SQL statement to filter the returned data in some custom way that you require. The format for entry is like: State=’CA’. You do not need to enter "Select...".

Record Locking:

Select record locking column. See the notes on this panel for how to use the built in record locking mechanism. This feature resolves the problem of two people making changes to the same row of a table which normally would result in the first person's changes being lost.