Version History

Version 2.5

• New: A new series of style sheets added (V2 Style Sheets).
  Note that a few new CSS classes are emitted from the grid.
  These are utilized in V2 style sheets only, and inserted into existing css files (near the top).
  

  /* Table enclosing the whole control */
  table.AxpDataGrid {}
  /* Table enclosing grid column headers for scrollable grid */
  table.AXDBTableScroll {}
  /* Data update message */
  .AXDBUpdateMessage {}
  /* Data Edit Button Bar */
  table.AxpDbEditBtnBar {}
  /* Data Edit Button Bar - single row/col*/
  tr.AxpDbEditBtnBar {}
  td.AxpDbEditBtnBar {} /* also present in previous css files */
  			

• Fix : Fixed an issue where the button bar in the form view mode was not rendered when it should be.
• Fix : The Close button is no longer visible in the Form Edit mode when DisplayType="form" and Form View as it does not make much sense.
• Fixes for scrollable grid.
  • The column cells content now has the style attribute overflow:hidden. This will make it easier to creater a nice looking scrollable grid when IE/Opera is the primary browser. Does not work in Netscape/Mozilla.
  • The row number column (the leftmost with column header name=#) was visible, the grid headers did not align properly with the grid column cells.
  • GridColsNoWrap did not have any effect for scrollable grids.

Version 2.4

• New: Scrollable grid.
  New properties:
  Scroll : ScrollType
  ScrollHeight : String. Height of the scrollable area
  ScrollBarWidth : String. Default blank string
  
  Example extract from new Sample24:
  SQL="Select ProductId,ProductName,QuantityPerUnit,UnitPrice,UnitsInStock,UnitsOnOrder From Products"
Scroll="Vertical"
ScrollHeight="150px"
GridCellWidths="30,200,150,40,60,60"
GridDisplayFieldNames="Id,Product Name,Quantity Per Unit,Price,In Order,In Stock"

• Minor but vital changes has been made to all style sheets to accomodate scrolling.
  Please copy and use the new style sheets from the Sample application!
• New: Database update Events.
  OnBeforeInsert, OnBeforeUpdate, OnBeforeDelete
  OnAfterInsert, OnAfterUpdate, OnAfterDelete.
  
  Related Methods and properties to be used inside these events:
  New: Method AbortCommandExecution. Aborts execution of the current database update command
  New: AxpDataGrid.UpdateFields collection. Contains the data value posted from the user. Individual data items can be changed/set to another value, or can be utilized for Server Side validation.
  See new Sample25 for usage.
• New: Property EditFieldItem.Visible
  New: Property EditFieldItem.IsHardCoded
  
• New: A Close button is now also in use in the Edit Form even if Form View is not in use. Pressing Close will then go to Grid View.
• Fix: Html Editor. Added no cache headers to the Rich Edit html code to avoid syncronization problems that could lead to data loss.
• Fix: Record navigation in Form Edit Mode would fail in some special circumstances.
  This was notable when the grid visibility was set dynamically and manual DataBinding was used.
• Visual changes.
  The text link going from Form to View mode has been replaced with a graphical image file, link.gif.
  Make sure to include the new gfx folder into your projects if upgrading from a previous version!
  Other minor cosmetic changes have also been made to the existing image files.

Version 2.3

• New: Property AxpDataGrid.CountSQL.
  If the automatic internal record count query fails or if a manually entered record count query is preferred, specify a complete "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ..." here
• New: Support added for Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere (Tested with ASA version 9.0.1).
  In previous versions of AxpDataGrid, the record count failed.
  
  A typical OleDb connection string for Sybase ASA looks like the following:
  "Provider=ASAProv;Data Source=asademo9;DatabaseName=asademo;UID=dba;pwd=sql"
• New: Support added for Right-To-Left aligned Forms (forms with the attribute dir="rtl"). A set of navigation buttons intended for RTL forms can be found in the Samples directory "gfx/rtl/". Set the AxpDataGrid property ImageDir="../gfx/rtl/" in the sample application to see and use them.
• New: Property EditFieldItem.Disabled (Boolean)
  To make a form input field readonly for the user, but scriptable in javascript, set ReadOnly=True and Disabled=False.
  
• New: Property AxpDataGrid.DataExportEncoding
  The name of the encoding to use when exporting data (to Excel).
  Should match the data encoding in the data source. E.g. iso-8859-1
  System.Text.Encoding.Default will be used if DataExportEncoding has not been set.
  Note. In previous versions of AxpDataGrid, no encoding was set when data was exported. This could lead to erronous data export.
• Enhancement: New and more meaningful exceptions have been introduced a few places.
• Change: The Excel Export now displays user supplied Column names instead of database field names.
• Fix: The Excel Export no longer outputs hidden columns.
• Fix: Setting the property ApplyCellFormattingToExcel=True now works as intended.
• Fix: Queries on MS SQL Server containing joins with an order by clause sometimes caused an erronous internal record count query to be executed. This has now been fixed.
• Fix: The index for the method CurrentRecord is now 0-based and not shifted to -1.
  Please check your code and change accordingly if you have used this method!
• Minor fixes in the documentation (help file).
• Sample 22 has been altered. Now shows how to display different images based on a boolean field in the datasource.
• New Sample: A Date Picker Sample has been added. See Sample 23

Version 2.2

• Changes to ReadOnly fields.
  If a default value is set (using EditFieldItem) when inserting records, or an update value is set (using EditFieldItem) when updating a record, and the field is Readonly, the user interface will display a read only field and the insert/update will include the value set in the EditFieldItem. This will also work if the field is hidden.
  
  If on the other hand, no default values is set on an insert, the insert statement will not include the data field (as described for the previous build - see below).
• Added Sample 21, How to use your own datasource and enable data edit.

• The grid now includes a Rich Text Html Editor.
  The editor is implemented as a "Scriptlet" and will only work for newer versions of Internet Explorer on the Windows platform.
  
  The source and graphics for the editor is found in the Samples sub directory htmledit
  
  A new function, EnableRichTextEditor() has been added to EditFieldItem and a new class Axezz.WebControls.HtmlEditor to access the editor from code has also been implemented.
  
  Example Code to enable a rich text editor:
  Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
Handles MyBase.Load
 Dim edit1 As New Axezz.WebControls.EditFieldItem
   With edit1
     .ColumnName = "Notes"
     Dim htmlEditor As Axezz.WebControls.HtmlEditor = .EnableRichTextEditor()
     htmlEditor.Width = "600"
   End With
   AxpDataGrid1.SetEditField(edit1)
End Sub

  Sample 20 is added and contains a working example.
  
• Support added for MS SQL Server GUID data types.
  
  If a Guid is used as an autogenerated primary key (i.e. it the default values is set by SQL Server), set EditNewPKStatement="autoincrement". NOTE. The grid will NOT retrieve a newly inserted record after insert and display it in the Edit Form as is the case for other types of Insert.
• Read Only Data fields: In previous versions of the grid, Read Only fields was used in the database INSERT statement. The value inserted was NULL. This behavior has now changed and Read Only fields is no longer part of the INSERT statement. The net result is that default database values (defined in the database schema) now will be set to a correct value.
• New property OracleDatePattern, default=System.Globalization.DateTimeFormatInfo.CurrentInfo.ShortDatePattern
  
  Set this field to a valid Oracle Date Pattern if the primary field is an Oracle Date field.
  E.g. OracleDatePattern="DD.MM.YYYY HH24:MI:SS"

Version 2.1

• New functionality allows copying of data records.
  To enable it, set a value for the new property CopyFields and also make sure that EditOptions include ADD.
  
  A Copy Button is visible in Form View and Edit mode when Copying is enabled.
  When user clicks the button, data fields in the CopyFields property is copied from the current record to a new edit form. Primary Key Fields are never copied. The record will be stored to the database when user clicks the Save button.
  
  Set CopyFields="*" to copy all data columns from one record to another.
  Set CopyFields to a comma separated list of column names to only include these fields when copying.
  
  Added the related event CopyClick.
• New property DisplayErrorMessage, default True. Set to False to hide the exception messages handled by the grid. These are the error messages one will find below the grid. The error message itself is available in the property ErrorMessage (as before).
• Sample 19 added. Shows how Server Side Data Edit Validation can be done.
• It is now possible to edit and update Primary Key Fields (the database engine might not allow primary field update, so take care to avoid exceptions)
  Set the new property IsPrimaryKeysUpdateable=True to enable update of primary keys.
• The EditFieldItem.HtmlAfter property setting will now also be rendered for ReadOnly fields.
• Added support for Oracle Date Primary Keys.
• The German buttons now have German text written on them.
• The Close button did not work if clicked immediately after the user clicked the Add button.
• Posted field values will now be displayed on an Update or Insert button click if the property .EditPerformUpdates=false
• Repeated calls to the DataBind() method during a single page request now have the desired effect.
• Fix. Grid events did not fire until DataBinding was performed (internally or manually) This could cause the events not firing at all if UseDataBinding was set to true and DataBinding was called manually after all postback events should normally occur. This would typically be if DataBind was called in the Page PreRender event.
• Fix. Primary Key Field string values containing apostrophes (') or commas would cause grid exceptions in most cases. (Thanks John Paul)
• Fix. The grid did not interpret the correct primary key field data type in some rare occurances (Thanks Nadine)

Version 2.0

• Fix. The AllowNulls parameter of the method AddEditLookup did not have any effect anymore.
• Fix. Primary key fields was read only in the edit form in some circumstances when they should be editable.
• Fix. Better support for string based primary keys. If they contained e.g. a space, functionality would be lost. This has been fixed by adding an URL decoding internally.
• Change. In all previous version, repeatably setting the .SQL (or .FormSQL) property to different values during a single page request, could lead to unexpected results. This has now changed for the better.

• Slight alterations made to Sample 8.
• Fixes for empty data grids or database tables.
  When .SQL and .EditSQL differed and the database table was empty, the edit form would attempt to display an edit form containing fields from .SQL.
  It was not possible to test if the property CurrentDataRow was null / Nothing.
• The properties FromRow and ToRow are now available in the Grid's Load event as promised in the documentation.
• The grid would fail if a dataset or a connection string was set before the grid's Load event occured. This could cause problems in certain circumstances for those relying on DataBinding (i.e. the property .UseDataBinding=True)
• Some exception handlers added internally to give better error messages
• At last, Sample application for C# added. (Visual Studio 2003 Solution)
• Fix: The property GridColsNoSort="*" did not work.
• Fix: The current record position was lost for a newly inserted record if an update was made directly after insert.
• Fix for Oracle. Edit input fields was often readonly when they should not be.
• Better Intellisense support.
  
  Place the file AxpDBNet.xml in your project's bin directory.
  Visual Studio will then retrieve this information and use it to display AxpDataGrid Intellisense information.
  
  The file AxpDBNet.xml is also duplicated in the sample applications.
• Fixed some Excel export issues.

• Behavioral changes
  
  In previous releases, AxpDataGrid did most of its work when rendering. This has changed and might have consequences on existing installations using the grid. See the note about UseDataBinding below.
  
  The change was needed to accomodate Events and the various new objects and functionality available in this release.
• It is now possible to use a DataSource as input to the grid.
  Any datasource that can be evaluated to a DataView can be used.
  This allows the use of .Net DataSet, DataTable and DataView as a DataSource.
  
  Note If a DataSource is set, it will be used both for Grid Mode and Form View Mode even if a Form SQL is set.
  
  Data Editing and the corresponding Form Edit still requires setting ConnectionString, EditSQL and other properties, as it was in the previous versions of AxpDataGrid.
  
  Set the corresponding property DataMember to a table name of a dataset if the datasource is a DataSet.
  
• After inserting a new data record and the data record has a single Autonumber/Identity (Access/MS SQL) primary key or an Oracle Sequence has been specified, AxpDataGrid will attempt to retrieve and display the newly inserted record.
• New Property UseDataBinding Boolean, default=False
  If set to True, a call to the new Method DataBind() must be made.
  
  The properties on the grid that normally would be available after the grid's Load event will not be available until DataBind is called.
  
  This can be useful in circumstances where the grid properties are set dynamically and maybe depends on other controls on the page. If resorting to default behavior (i.e. UseDataBinding=False) other controls on the page will probably load after AxpDataGrid has loaded, thus making it impossible to dynamically set grid properties.
  
  If UseDataBinding=True, one can programmatically decide when AxpDataGrid should perform the vital DataBinding. This might f.ex. be done in the Page PreRender event . See also Sample 16 - Searching using WebControls.TextBox.
• It is now possible to sort the grid on individual columns if a Stored Procedure is used.
• New property LookupDataSet() As DataSet
  One DataTable per lookup needed.
  The Lookup DataTable.TableName MUST have the same name as the Master table column name.

  E.g. We want to have a lookup for the column ShipRegion in the Orders table in the Northwind database. Dim dt As New DataTable("ShipRegion") ' Lookup DataTable.TableName=Master table column name
dt.Columns.Add("Value") ' The Value field for the lookup must be the first column, i.e. Column 0. The name of the column does not matter
dt.Columns.Add("Name") ' The Name field for the lookup must be in column 1
dt.Rows.Add(New String() {"", ""})
dt.Rows.Add(New String() {"RJ", "Rio de Janeiro"})
dt.Rows.Add(New String() {"SP", "Spain"})
AxpDataGrid1.LookupDataSet.Tables.Add(dt)


• Events:
  
  UpdateClick Raised when the Save button is clicked for an existing data record.
  InsertClick Raised when the Save button is clicked for a new data record.
  AddClick Raised when the Add button is clicked (a new empty data form is displayed).
  DeleteClick Raised when the Delete button is clicked
  EditClick Raised when the Edit button is clicked or just when the grid is displaying a form for updating a data record, e.g. as a result of moving to next record using the navigation buttons when already in edit mode.
  
• Public Method GetUpdateValue(ByVal FieldName As String) As String.
  Returns the posted value of an input field in an Edit Form.
  Available after Grid's Init event.
• New object model for setting properties on grid or form view columns.
  Availabe in AxpDataGrid.Load event.
  Property GridColumns() As DataColumnCollection
  Property FormViewColumns() As DataColumnCollection (Collection of DataColumn objects)
  Properties on DataColumn:
    .ColumnName
    .Caption
    .DataType
    .IsBlob
    .IsLongText
    .Visible
    .Wrap
    .Width
    .IsSortable
    .GridHeadHtmlAttributes
    .CellHtmlAttributes
    .FormatCellFunction
    .FreeFormatCell
  
  Example usage:
  AxpDataGrid1.GridColumns("ShipVia").Width = "30"
AxpDataGrid1.GridColumns("Status").FreeFormatCell = "<img src='statusimg#Status#.gif'>"

• New object model for setting various properties to individual EditFields.
  New method SetEditField(ByVal EditField As EditFieldItem)
  Properties on EditFieldItem:
    .ColumnName
    .DefaultValue
    .UpdateValue
    .HtmlAfter
    .Columns
    .Rows
    .Wrap
    .IsReadOnly
    .Updateable
    .Required
  
• New property CurrentDataView() As DataView. Check on null before use.
  Available in AxpDataGrid.Load event.
  Will contain the the DataSource set on that property as a DataView
  OR
  an internally created DataView based on the SQL currently in use.
  
  The internally created DataView will contain the data cells for the currently active page.
  
  Note!
  The data content can be inspected and ALTERED before rendering if needed.
  
• New property CurrentDataRow() As DataRow.
  Check on null (C#) / Nothing (VB) before use. Can be used instead of CurrentRecord.
  Available in AxpDataGrid.Load event.
  Example usage:
  Private Sub AxpDataGrid1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles AxpDataGrid1.Load
  If Not AxpDataGrid1.CurrentDataRow Is Nothing Then
    Dim MyColumnValue as String = AxpDataGrid1.CurrentDataRow.Item("MyColumnName").ToString
  End If
End Sub

• New Property ClearState (Boolean, default = False).
  Useful when the SQL is changed dynamically between page updates.
• It is no longer needed to assign a value to the .Tag property if there are more than 1 grid on a single page.
  The grid will now assign Tag values automatically.
• NB! The public method RenderGridJavascript introduced in 1.3 Beta is removed.
  (The grid now utilize Page.RegisterClientScriptBlock)
• Increased execution spead, especially notable against Oracle databases.
  (Changed internal method of retrieving dbschema attributes Column.IsReadonly, Column.AllowDBNull. These values are now read from data row schema information instead of the database dictionary information structure.) [Use SetEditFields if the schema information does not retrieve these values]
• New property ExcelFileName. Default="DataExport"
• Some properties that only allowed a value consisting of comma separated data column numbers now accepts column names. This includes GridFieldsShow, GridFieldsHide, GridColsNoWrap, GridColsNoSort, FormFieldsShow, FormFieldsHide.
• Added support for DateTime fields in the AddEditLookUp method.
• Change: Various properties accepting values in a comma separated list, would not recognize items in the list if blank characters was present (before or after a comma).
• Previously undocumented feature for the properties
  GridTRTag, GridTROddTag, GridTREvenTag, GridTDTag, GridTDOddTag, GridTDEvenTag.
  
  It is possible to include data fields in the Html properties for these tags.
  Enclose column name in double set of #'s (e.g. ##CUSTOMERID##).
• Some properties and methods that used to be available after grid rendering are now available after the AxpDataGrid.OnLoad event. This includes FromRow, CurrentMode, CurrentRecord, RecordCount
• When the grid entered Form Edit mode and there was no records in the data set, the grid used to display the text line "No more records" and no input fields appeared. This has changed. The control will now display the std Add New record form in these cases.
  This can also be utilized to make a data record input form for new records only.
  Append a where clause that ensure no records are returned in the SQL property. E.g. "select ... WHERE ID=-99999"
• BugFix : SQL Server Binary fields caused a cast error. Value of Binary fields will now not be displayed, as intended.
• Bug Fix : Button bar First and Previous button was active when inserting a new record in an empty table.
• New samples and changes to existing samples.
  
  Make sure to check out the changes in the Master-Detail samples.
  
  All samples can now be run against MS SQL Server 2000 Northwind database in addition to the Access NWIND database.

Version 1.3

• Fix. Date formatting using SetGridFormatCellFunction (ColNumber, "Format, format style") did not work too well for some Cultures (languages).
  Symptoms:
  If using the Format function as in the following code
  AxpDataGrid1.SetGridFormatCellFunction(5, "Format, dddd MMM dd yyyy")
  the grid would display the format style string (dddd MMM dd yyyy) and not the formatted date.
• Fix for stored procedures. Navigation issues are now solved. (Involved next page, last page and general position issues when switching from grid to form and edit views)
• Fix. An internal method caused problems when the property .FormSQL contained a WHERE clause.
  E.g. FormSQL="SELECT OrderId, Name=(SELECT CompanyName FROM Customers WHERE Customers.CustomerID=Orders.CustomerId) FROM Orders"
• Fix for the case when you have more than 1 grid on a single page and the grid with .Tag="1" is invisible (.Visible=False)
  
  In previous version, the grid javascript would not be emitted to the html page, causing errors.
  New method RenderGridJavascript.
  This method can be called from inline aspx code. Place the call after the grid tag itself:
  
  <%If Not AxpDataGrid1.Visible Then AxpDataGrid1.RenderGridJavascript()%>
  
  
• New property ApplyCellFormattingToExcel (default=False).
  Apply data formatting if GridFormatCellFunction is set for selected columns.
  Excel might have problems parsing the data properly if formatting is applied.
  
• Fix. Export to Excel did not work for stored procedures.
• Fix. Setting the property FormCellWidths did not work correctly for the Edit Form. It would use the first width specified for both columns (the field name and value) in the Edit form.
• Enhancement. The grid will now attempt to establish if the AxConnection.DatabaseEngine is MS Acccess (ACCESS) or MS SQL Server (MSSQL) based on the given connection string.

Version 1.2

• Changes to help file.
  The Help file now contains more information and samples.
  There is now 3 versions of the help file with different links to the .Net Framework.
  The chm file in the root folder links to MSDN online
  The chm file in the NET10 folder links to .Net SDK 1.0 Help files
  The chm file in the NET11 folder links to .Net SDK 1.1 Help files
  
• New samples added to the sample application (Sample 10 and 11)
• The attribute FromRow has been made Writable. It can be used to set the initial starting record. E.g. If the grid displays 20 records per page and you want the initial display to start at page 2, set FromRow=21.
• Fix. Long text fields would display data from previous record when the Add button was clicked.
• Fix. Setting the property GridColsNoWrap in Design mode had no effect. (The values disappeared)
• Tabs and leading space characters are now removed from the SQL properties to avoid query errors.
• Fix. Setting Visible to False caused errors to be displayed in design mode.
• Fix. If binary or long var binary fields was included in the edit query, database updates would fail. These fields are now ignored as intended.
• The Format function referenced in the documentation for the method SetGridFormatCellFunction was not implemented.
• Fix. Setting the property OrderByDesc=True had no effect.

Version 1.1

• Fix. Editing empty tables or operating on empty recordsets caused errors.
• Fix. Hidden fields and read only fields did not always have the intended behavior.
• Added a new sample to the Sample application (Sample 9. Master-Detail)

Version 1.0

• Initial public release.