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In the example introducing the ROWTABLEAREA2 control, the header of the grid was built by arranging certain LABEL controls, where the LABEL controls where rendered as headers:

<rowtablearea2 griddataprop="lines" rowcount="10" withborder="true" width="100%">
    <tr>
        ...
        <label name="First Name" asheadline="true">
        </label>
        ...
    </tr>
    <repeat>
...
...
...

It is also possible to use the GRIDCOLHEADER control in order to define the header of a grid. The advantages are:

• GRIDCOLHEADER controls are automatically rendered in "header style".

• GRIDCOLHEADER controls allow to sort the grid content.

• GRIDCOLHEADER controls allow to resize a grid.

This document covers the following topics:

• Flexible Column Sizing

• Flexible Column Sorting

• GRIDCOLHEADER Properties

• Smart Selection of Rows - SELECTOR Control

• SELECTOR Properties

Flexible Column Sizing

Let us have a look on the following grid definition:

<rowarea name="Grid Col Header Example">
    <rowtablearea2 griddataprop="lines" rowcount="10" width="100%" withborder="true"
                   hscroll="true" firstrowcolwidths="true">
        <tr>
            <gridcolheader name=" " width="30">
            </gridcolheader>
            <gridcolheader name="First Name" width="150">
            </gridcolheader>
            <gridcolheader name="Last Name" width="150">
            </gridcolheader>
            <hdist>
            </hdist>
        </tr>
        <repeat>
            <str valueprop="selected">
                <checkbox valueprop="selected" flush="screen" width="100%" align="center">
                </checkbox>
                <field valueprop="firstName" width="100%" noborder="true"
                       transparentbackground="true">
                </field>
                <field valueprop="lastName" width="100%" noborder="true"
                       transparentbackground="true">
                </field>
                <hdist>
                </hdist>
            </str>
        </repeat>
    </rowtablearea2>
</rowarea>

You see:

• The ROWTABLEAREA2 definition was set to always follow the column widths of the first row. The first row of the grid is the row containing the GRIDCOLHEADER controls, this means that this row defines the column sizing for the whole grid.

• The header row of the grid is built out of GRIDCOLHEADER controls, each one specifying a name and a width.

• The header row is closed with an horizontal distance.This is quite important: if your column widths do not horizontally fill the grid, then the remaining space is typically equally distributed among the columns. Even if GRIDCOLHEADER specifies a certain width, this may still be overridden by the browser. A horizontal distance control (HDIST) at the end makes the browser assign the remaining space to the distance control, not to the GRIDCOLHEADER controls.

When the user moves the mouse over the border of the header columns, then the cursor will change and the user can change the width of the columns:

Flexible Column Sorting

The GRIDCOLHEADER allows to bind to a property which is used for sorting. The XML definition of the previous example was extended to demonstrate this:

<rowarea name="Grid Col Header Example">
    <rowtablearea2 griddataprop="lines" rowcount="10" width="100%" withborder="true"
                   hscroll="true" firstrowcolwidths="true">
        <tr>
            <gridcolheader name=" " width="30" propref="selected">
            </gridcolheader>
            <gridcolheader name="First Name" width="150" propref="firstName">
            </gridcolheader>
            <gridcolheader name="Last Name" width="150" propref="lastName">
            </gridcolheader>
            <hdist>
            </hdist>
        </tr>
        <repeat>
            <str valueprop="selected">
                <checkbox valueprop="selected" flush="screen" width="100%" align="center">
                </checkbox>
                <field valueprop="firstName" width="100%" noborder="true"
                       transparentbackground="true">
                </field>
                <field valueprop="lastName" width="100%" noborder="true"
                       transparentbackground="true">
                </field>
                <hdist>
                </hdist>
            </str>
        </repeat>
    </rowtablearea2>
</rowarea>

Each GRIDCOLHEADER control now points to the property that is referenced in the subsequent FIELD/CHECKBOX definition. The control now displays small sort icons. The user can sort the information by choosing the icon.

GRIDCOLHEADER Properties

Smart Selection of Rows - SELECTOR Control

By using the SELECTOR control in combination with the STR control, you can build nice looking grids in which the user can select rows. Have a look at the following screen:

The SELECTOR control is typically is used in the leftmost column. The user can select the control with the mouse or keyboard. In case of using the control for multiple selections, the user can select mulitple rows using a combination of CTRL and click or SHIFT and click.

The SELECTOR control references a boolan property inside a row object that is representing the selection state. The XML layout definition looks as follows:

<rowtablearea2 griddataprop="lines" rowcount="10" width="100%" withborder="true"
               hscroll="true" firstrowcolwidths="true">
     <tr>
         <gridcolheader name=" " width="30" propref="selected">
         </gridcolheader>
         <gridcolheader name="First Name" width="150" propref="firstName">
         </gridcolheader>
         <gridcolheader name="Last Name" width="150" propref="lastName">
         </gridcolheader>
         <hdist>
         </hdist>
     </tr>
     <repeat>
         <str valueprop="selected">
             <selector valueprop="selected" width="30" withlinenum="false"
                       singleselect="false">
             </selector>
             <field valueprop="firstName" width="100%" noborder="true"
                    transparentbackground="true">
             </field>
             <field valueprop="lastName" width="100%" noborder="true"
                    transparentbackground="true">
             </field>
             <hdist>
             </hdist>
         </str>
     </repeat>
</rowtablearea2>

You see the following:

• STR and SELECTOR are referencing the same property selected so that selections done by the SELECTOR control are automatically reflected in the selections of the row.

• SELECTOR is switched to allow multiple selections.

• By using the property withlinenum, you specify that inside the selector no line number is output. Instead, the SELECTOR is left empty if not selected, or it displays an icon if selected.

The selector simplifies programming of the grid selection a lot. When clicking the selector control, it automatically manages the referenced selection property of all rows that are managed inside the corresponding grid collection.

SELECTOR Properties

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