HOWTO - Sashipa development

Advanced listForm.

You have a listForm and you wish to modify its behaviour, or to add a column of a linked table, or to display a computed agregate column...

How to modify appearance or behaviour of a listForm

If you want to not display column titles, or to not display number of lines, or to not allow deleting or to not display a "add" button:

  <listForm db='dbContact' delete='no' displayColumnTitles='no' displayRowCount='no'>
    <!-- ... -->
    <insertScreen screen='SCtblContactAddress' schemaFk='fk_tblAddress_tblContact' />
    <doubleClicScreen screen='SCtblContactAddress' />
    <!-- ... -->

Remarks :

The delete attribute specifies if deleting (with the DELETE key) is allowed.
The displayColumnTitles attribute specifies if the column title bar has to be displayed.
The displayRowCount attribute specifies if the number of rows has to be displayed.
The insertScreen element is optional: just forget it and the adding button disappears.

Adding a column of a linked table, and displaying an agregate - simple version

Here is an example:

  <listForm db='dbContact' delete='yes'>
    <bounds x='10' y='90' w='600' h='350' />
    <schemaTableRef schemaTable='tblContact' />
    <instanceColumnList>
      <instanceColumn schemaColumn='tblContact_ContactName' />
      <instanceColumn schemaColumn='tblContact_ContactFirstname' />
      <instanceFkColumns join='inner'>
        <instanceFk schemaFk='fk_tblContact_tblProfession' />
      </instanceFkColumns>
      <agregatInstanceColumn schemaFk='fk_tblAddress_tblContact' letterCount='4'
                             sort='desc' type='count'>
        <title>Nb Adr</title>
      </agregatInstanceColumn>
    </instanceColumnList>
    <doubleClicScreen screen='SCtblContact' />
    <insertScreen screen='SCtblContact' schemaFk='fk_tblContact_tblProfession' />
  </listForm>
  <!-- ... -->

The instanceFkColumns element displays the user-key columns of the referenced table (cf userKey element in the environment part of the Sashipa code).

NB: the attribute "join='inner'" means that join is an "inner join". It's better for good performances when executing the SQL query. But if your foreign key can be null, then "join='left'" must be used. Otherwise rows with a null foreign keys will be ignored !

The agregatInstanceColumn element displays the number of rows in tblContactaddress, that reference the current Contact. Here a left join is needed.

Attributes in instanceColumn elements

The Attributes of an instanceColumn element are optional. Default values for these attributes are defined in the schemaColumn element (in the environment part). Here is an instanceColumn with all attributes:

  <instanceColumn schemaColumn='tblContact_ContactName' letterCount='20' sort='asc' order='0' />

Explications:

The letterCount attribute defines the column width (in number of letters). This width is just used for displaying in the listForm. But in the export panel, all letters are exported. You can set letterCount to '-1' if you want to not define one same width for each value.
The sort attribute specifies that values are sorted in ascendent order ('asc') or descendent ('desc').
By default, columns sorts are ordered from left to right. You can change this by setting the order attribute. You can use numeric values that you want: the result will be sorted from the smallest to the highest order value. Columns without an order attribute - or with an order attribute set to '-1' - will be sort at last position from left to right.

How to define the screen that displays the content of a row

The screen that displays the content of a row is defined in the element doubleClicScreen. More often the referenced card is filtered on the primary key value of the selected row. Like this :

  <listForm db='dbContact' delete='yes'>
    ...
    <schemaTableRef schemaTable='tblContact' />
    ...
    <doubleClicScreen screen='SCtblContact' />
    <insertScreen screen='SCtblContact' schemaFk='fk_tblContact_tblProfession' />
  </listForm>
  <!-- ... -->

Here the same card 'SCtblContact' is used for both adding and modifying. But the value of a foreign key can be used too (and not this of the row primary key). For example when the listForm display the content of a SQL table, that contains only two foreign keys : modifying the content of a row is not usefull. An example:

  <listForm db='dbContact' delete='yes'>
    ...
    <schemaTableRef schemaTable='tblRegisteredInGroup' />
    ...
    <doubleClicScreen screen='SCtblIndividual'>
      <filterWithInstanceFk schemaFk='fk_tblRegisteredInGroup_tblIndividual' />
    </doubleClicScreen>
    <insertScreen screen='SCtblRegisteredInGroup' schemaFk='fk_RegisteredInGroup_tblGroup' />
  </listForm>
  <!-- ... -->

In this example there are "Groups" composed by "Individuals", each individual can be registered in several groups. This listForm is in the card of "Group". It displays individuals that are registered in the group. When adding, the card of Registration (SCtblRegisteredInGroup) is displayed. But on double-click the card of the referenced individual is directly displayed.

Another example of using this skills is about displaying SQL views.

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