Category Archives: XML

Affecting page during WebDataGrid AJAX calls

When Infragistics WebDataGrid perform AJAX operations such as sorting and paging – it sends grid data directly to page’s DOM. But it also allows you to send your own custom data via server-side GridResponse object and its client-side counterpart. This feature allows you to establish effective link between server and client to perform custom operations otherwise available only during full postback or partial postback via update panel. There’re multiple cases where this can be used, let’s take a look at 3 most common:

  • Updating a related control with server-side generated data
  • Running a server-side generated JavaScript
  • Handling server-side errors, for example Session timeout

Continue reading →

Solution for ‘previousSibling’ is null or not an object error in grouped UltraWebGrid

Infragistics UltraWebGrid offers standard keyboard navigation for record selection. For example you can click a row, and holding Shift key press Down Arrow to select multiple records. This works fine for a flat grid, but try this with grid in OutlookGroupBy mode and you’ll get an error ‘previousSibling’ is null or not an object:

Error selecting records in grouped UltraWebGrid

After some digging I found the culprit. Continue reading →

Opening SpreadsheetML 2003 in Excel 2010

If you’re trying to open an Excel 2003 XML file (SpreadsheetML) in Excel 2010 and getting “The file is corrupt and cannot be opened” error, try opening that file in WordPad (it will open as text XML) and save it back. Now try opening it in Excel 2010 again. You will still get “The file you’re trying to open is in a different format than specified by the file extension” warning, but after that the file should open.

Making HoverCssClass work in WebDataTree

Infragistics WebDataTree control offers extensive support of CSS for tree styling. One of the options HoverCssClass is intended to alter tree node appearance when mouse pointer hovers over it:

HoverCssClass properting in Infragistics WebDataTree

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have any effect on the tree appearance. When I set that class to simple underline node:

.fnTreeHover {text-decoration:underline}

nothing happened. I found the workaround when I noticed that the tree is rendered as an ancor tag <A> inside of <LI> tag:

WebDataGrid rendered in HTML

The solution is to apply style to this combination:

LI A:hover {text-decoration:underline}

Bingo. Now tree nodes are underlying when mouse is over them.

WebHierarchicalDataGrid: Helpful client functions for row selection

Working with row selection in Infragistics WebHierarchicalDataGrid can be complicated since it maintains independent row selection collection for each row island and basic operations (select/unselect) aren’t that obvious. I put together a few functions to make it a little bit easier.

This first function is very basic, it returns total count of selected rows across all expanded row islands, no matter what depth. The key here is get_selectedRowsResolved() method of Selection behavior which returns an array of all selected rows:

// Returns number of selected rows from all rowislands in WebHiearchicalDataGrid
// i_oGrid: Infragistics WebHiearchicalDataGrid object
function selRowsCount(i_oGrid) {
    return  i_oGrid.get_gridView().get_behaviors().get_selection().get_selectedRowsResolved().length 
}

The following function loops thru all selected rows, collecting values from specific column (useful for example for collecting IDs of selected rows). It accepts 3 parameters – WebHiearchicalDataGrid object, column key and separator character and returns a string in which selected values are separated by that character (if nothing is passed – default separator is comma). Continue reading →

Infragistics WebDataMenu CSOM addItem/removeItem workaround

Infragistics Aikido WebDataMenu control has extensive (albeit poorly documented) client-side library of classes, method and properties. 2 methods addItem and removeItem supposedly allow you to add/remove menu items in JavaScript. These methods have been public since 9.2 release probably even earlier, but have a lot of drawbacks, one of the major ones – for every method call an AJAX call to server is made, which slows performance dramatically, breaks code flow and won’t let you set properties of newly added item.

Method described below is a bit of a hack, but it works purely client-side, no slow round trips, no waiting for AJAX call to return and you have full control of all menu items. Continue reading →

If HtmlEncode doesn’t work for WebDataGrid…

While working with Infragistics WebDataGrid/WebHierarchicalDataGrid I noticed a strange thing: column’s HtmlEncode property (which should control whether HTML value of grid’s cell is rendered as HTML or shown as is in raw tags) had no effect. Maybe I was doing something wrong, maybe it was the fact that grid columns were generated in server-side code (here is short snippet):

oGridCol = New GridControls.BoundDataField()
oGridCol.DataFieldName = sDataColName
oGridCol.Header.Text = sCaption
oGridCol.Key = sKey

if '(some condition) then
   oGridCol.HtmlEncode = False
   oGridCol.CssClass = "nowrapHTML"
Else
   oGridCol.HtmlEncode = True
   oGridCol.CssClass = "nowrapPLAIN"
End If

Here if a certain condition is met – column should render HTML (HtmlEncode = False) otherwise it should display HTML tags (HtmlEncode = True). To make cell expand to data width, 2 simple CSS classes were used:

.nowrapHTML {white-space:nowrap}
.nowrapPLAIN {white-space:pre}

In following grid first column was being set with HtmlEncode = True, second with HtmlEncode = False, yet both columns were rendered as HTML.

HtmlEncode doesn't work

Continue reading →

Improved Auto-size columns for Infragistics WebHierarchicalDataGrid

In the previous post I described a method to automatically resize columns for Infragistics grid control. It works (most of the times) for flat WebDataGrid, but if you try same approach with WebHierarchicalDataGrid – it will fail for child bands.

Lets review what we’re trying to accomplish. A grid column should automatically resize to whichever is wider: either size of widest data in a column cell, or size of column header’s caption.

First is accomplished by not setting column width explicitly and by setting white-space attribute of cell’s style to nowrap. It can be done by either opening grid CSS class file located at ~/ig_res/[Your Style Name]/ig_dataGrid.css, locate tbody.igg_[Your Style Name]Item>tr>td class and add one more line at the end: white-space:nowrap. Here is an example with Office 2007 Style:

tbody.igg_Office2007BlueItem>tr>td
{
	background-color:White;
	border-right:solid 1px #D0D7E5;
	border-bottom:solid 1px #D0D7E5;
	padding:2px 5px 2px 5px;
	height: 18px;
	overflow: hidden;
	text-align:left;
	vertical-align:middle;
	white-space:nowrap;
}

Or (if you don’t want to touch original style) same can be achieved by *CssClass properties exposed by the grid.

Second (resizing column to header’s caption width, if it is wider then cells’ data) is a bit tricker. Continue reading →

Auto-size columns in Infragistics WebDataGrid

Ever wished your WebDataGrid could have Table Layout = Auto like old UltraWebGrid? Then it could automatically resize columns width to data width with respect line breaks. Well, it can, and in style (pan intended). Thanks to Infragistics tech-support for starting me in the right direction – here’s first 2 steps that need to be taken:

  1. Don’t set column width property – either default or for specific column either in server-side code or declaratively and don’t set grid’s width property
  2. Open your grid CSS class file, it’s located at ~/ig_res/[Your Style Name]/ig_dataGrid.css.
    Locate tbody.igg_[Your Style Name]Item>tr>td class and add one more line at the end: white-space:nowrap. Here is an example with Office 2007 Style:

    tbody.igg_Office2007BlueItem>tr>td
{
	background-color:White;
	border-right:solid 1px #D0D7E5;
	border-bottom:solid 1px #D0D7E5;
	padding:2px 5px 2px 5px;
	height: 18px;
	overflow: hidden;
	text-align:left;
	vertical-align:middle;
	white-space:nowrap;
}

Run your project – you will get a nicely autoresized grid columns:

WebDataGrid with autosized columns

But there’s one problem with this approach. Continue reading →