WilsonDotNet Forums : Wilson UIMapper

OnLoad

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 13:02:44 GMT

Given that every control is a inside a widget, a custom life cycle method could be added to the widget interface called something like 'OnPrePostBackEventHandler' and then the edit view would just need to call it before handling the form buttons.

This would enable controls to compose their child control's postback data so that they're ready to have their value read during the post back event.

OnLoad

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:05:42 GMT

Hi Ian:

I store the object key in viewstate, and so viewstate has to be restored before I can set things up correctly. But viewstate is restored after the init event, which forces me to use the load event, even if not optimal. That does make things a little trickier given the page lifecycle, but it is doable as you have noted.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

OnLoad

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 18:25:06 GMT

Hi Paul,

I was wondering if there's a specific reason why the widgets are added at onLoad instead of onInit?

For some time I have thought that the asp.net life cycle has a flaw in it. If you add controls at onInit, you can work with their postback data before the postback event in onLoad.

However, if controls are added at onLoad then there's no way of working with the postback data before the postback event because there's no inbetween event! So one ends up having to add tricky onchange handlers and control properties.

Cheers, Ian.

Asp.Net 2.0 Build Please

Wed, 03 May 2006 00:50:09 GMT

Hi Jeff:

Have you looked at the ListView and EditView controls I use in the WebPortal? They have no WebPortal dependencies, so they can be used on their own. They are very similar to the controls in the UIMapper, but you set them up in code instead of with an xml mapping file. I'm also thinking of something else if I can get the time to pull it off -- enough said since I can't promise it.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

Asp.Net 2.0 Build Please

Wed, 03 May 2006 00:42:44 GMT

Maybe instead of the full blown system it was before it could be a simple utility built into ormapper that allows this:

Globals.Mapper.UpdateObject(page/form, ORObject, "obj");
Globals.Mapper.UpdatePage(page/form, ORObject, "obj");

Say ORObject has three properties (Id, Name, CategoryId). The UpdateObject method would essentially do this:

ORObject.Id = page.objId.Text;
ORObject.Name = page.objName.Text;
ORObject.CategoryId = page.objCategoryId.SelectedValue; //because this is a Radio Box or something

UpdatePage would do the exact opposite.

I don't know if this could be something pulled from UIMapper or not, but this is essentially what I would love to have.

Jeff

Asp.Net 2.0 Build Please

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 18:58:52 GMT

Hi Josh:

There never was any content to speak of on the UIMapper Wiki sections, and due to my other plans I didn't recreate them. Other plans? As I recently indicated to subscribers, I'm going to be releasing the UIMapper as open source very soon. I didn't have the opportunities to really use it myself as I had hoped, nor was there much interest in general from others, so I don't think its fair to limit it any longer to my support since my time is now in WebPortal, along with the ORMapper. So expect to see it released soon as open source (coming months), although I was hoping to see someone who was using it to step up to drive that process so it doesn't just die. I still love the concept, but I definitely under-estimated other's interest, including my clients, so I don't want to become a stumbling block in its continuing.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

Asp.Net 2.0 Build Please

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 18:52:47 GMT

For some reason I cant seem to find the wiki. Could someone please point me in the right direction? Thanks, Josh

Getting/Setting Properties Down the Object Graph

Sat, 18 Mar 2006 15:01:07 GMT

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put hacks, but following is just a bit of code I added to two methods in the UIHelper class. With these modifications, you can now access properties down the object graph. E.g.

<control member="Object.Nested1.Nested2.Nested3"... >

The code is tacked on to the first parts of GetValue and SetValue.

public static object GetValue(object entity, string member) {
            // Added by Nick, 3/17/06
            // Searches recursively though the object graph for the specified member
            if (member.IndexOf(".", 0) > 0)
            {
                int dot = member.IndexOf(".", 0);
                object entity1 = entity.GetType().GetProperty(member.Substring(0, dot)).GetValue(entity, null);
                return GetValue(entity1, member.Substring(dot + 1));
            }
            else
            {
                try
                {
                    return entity.GetType().GetProperty(member).GetValue(entity, null);
                }
                catch
                {
                    System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("UIHelper.GetValue Failed for " + entity.GetType().ToString() + "." + member);
                    return null;
                }
            }
        }

        public static object SetValue(object entity, string member, object value) {
            // Added by Nick, 3/17/06
            // Searches recursively though the object graph for the specified member
            if (member.IndexOf(".", 0) > 0)
            {
                int dot = member.IndexOf(".", 0);
                object entity1 = entity.GetType().GetProperty(member.Substring(0, dot)).GetValue(entity, null);
                return SetValue(entity1, member.Substring(dot + 1), value);
            }
            else
            {
                Type type = entity.GetType().GetProperty(member).PropertyType;
                object temp = value;
                if (value != null && value.GetType().IsValueType && type != value.GetType())
                {
                    temp = Convert.ChangeType(value, type);
                }
                entity.GetType().GetProperty(member).SetValue(entity, temp, null);
                return null;
            }
        }

Asp.Net 2.0 Build Please

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 12:29:43 GMT

Hi Chad:

Unfortunately my time right now is being divided between the ORMapper and my new WebPortal -- and my paying job. Someone did note in the Wiki about a change needed for ASP.NET v2.0: "Change all client script registrations to ClientScript, use the typeof(enclosing class) as that argument."

Thanks, Paul Wilson

Asp.Net 2.0 Build Please

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 03:32:08 GMT

I think I read some code changes were needed to get the UIMapper to work with Asp.Net 2.0. Would you please put a new 2.0 build on your site for download along with an updated template dll to read 2.0 entities?
Currently when I try mapping my business entity with the CodeSmith template the dll to do so doesn't recognize my entity and I'm guessing that's because it was created in .net 2.0.

Chad Biggerstaff

How to generate UI with the help of UI config file

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 05:17:55 GMT

Both the UIMapper and the ORMapper do all "generation" at runtime -- not at design time. For the ORMapper that means you create your business objects and xml mappings and the sql is generated behind the scenes at runtime. For the UIMapper you place the list and edit controls in your pages and create the xml mappings to connect your business objects -- and the actual UI is dynamically rendered at runtime. If you want actual UI code at design time then you should use regular code generation, like CodeSmith.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

How to generate UI with the help of UI config file

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 05:08:12 GMT

Hello Wilson,

I have generated the UI config files and i am using the OR mapper. After generating the UI config file can you tell me the next step to generate the ui.

Please help

Thanks in advance

Regards

Trisoft Systems

Version Exception

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 08:39:09 GMT

I don't think xml supports a space around the = sign if you actually have that -- try version="4.0" instead. If that's not it then send me a zip of what you're working with as I can't think of anything that would cause that with 4.0.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

Version Exception

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 22:37:03 GMT

Hi Paul

I have used your ORMapper against an MSSQL Database and now wish to try your UIMapper as well. I get this exception when I run my project: Wilson.ORMapper.MappingException: Mappings: Version is not compatible.

I created my own DataManager class to instantiate the ORMapper and UIMapper objects. Here is the constuctor that throws the exception (it is thrown on the 'this.orManager = new ObjectSpace(...' line):

private Manager()
{
string uiMappings = "MYAPP.UIMappings.UIMappings.config";

Assembly assembly = Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(Manager));

Stream mappingStream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(uiMappings);

this.orManager = new ObjectSpace(mappingStream, "MYCONNSTRING", Provider.MsSql);
IORMapper orMapper = new ORManager(this.orManager);

this.uiManager = new UIManager(uiMappings, orMapper);
}

I Used your ORMapper 3.1 templates (althought the mapping file reads '<mappings version = "4.0">').

What Could Be the cause of this?

Many thanks
Cobus

Different Design

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 11:54:34 GMT

So far at least, Linq is still using your classes. It does however create "query" classes internally as needed -- or at least that's a good way to view it I think.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

Different Design

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 10:37:08 GMT

Having an ORMapper generate classes at runtime seems similar to what Linq enables.

Filtering combos

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 09:45:24 GMT

>>not too many others have been jumping at the UIMapper

Based on the assumption that nobody in their right mind would want to spend their life creating CRUD pages, I can only conclude that they just don't get it.

Its strange though because ASP.net 2.0 comes with a 'DetailsView' control which contain 'BoundField' elements and the whole thing can be hooked up to a 'SqlDataSource'.

It feels like an incomplete implementation of a UIMapper.

Filtering combos

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 02:54:13 GMT

I haven't thought much about XAML yet -- it looks great, but its still a little way out (although not too far). Also, its clear that not too many others have been jumping at the UIMapper -- a lot of talk in architectural circles on similar things, but not much of anything else -- so I'm not sure what the future is right now.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

Filtering combos

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 19:35:53 GMT

>>Please feel free to offer some other methods in this IORMapper interface that might work better

Well LLBLGen likes things described using compiled code.
The drawback to the UIMapper is that you only get to describe mappings using XML text. So in order to run code specific to an entity type, I've had to look up classes and delegates in a hashtable using a string identifier added to the mappings.

With standard aspx you can have code behind your markup but I appreciate that the UIMapper is designed to support Windows apps too which don't support aspx, ascx style of programming.

So this leads me to ask... when XAML comes out, will you be updating the UIMapper so that the mapping files are actually compiled into classes? That way it would be very easy to reference custom code for an entity in the code behind.

I'm not sure if this could be made to work with asp.net too.

__dopostback

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 14:29:55 GMT

Paul,

My apologies. I was using your demo code as a starting point, removed the master pages references in the html, but forgot to put in the form tag. Without the form tag, the __dopostback script wasn't being inserted.

Sorry... Gregg

__dopostback

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 13:28:03 GMT

Hi Gregg:

It should automatically be rendered when its needed -- and its simply not needed for all pages. Are you seeing something not working? If so, I'll probably need a lot more details.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

__dopostback

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 10:37:43 GMT

Paul,

I'm setting up my own web app w/UIMapper, and the listview isn't finding the __dopostback javascript. I don't find it in the source. Could you remind me how to have the __dopostback javascript show up in the html?

Thanks!
Gregg

EntityAssembly...

Fri, 09 Sep 2005 08:02:17 GMT

I've got UIMapper (WEB) working fine under ASP.Net 2.0. Not much to change other than rescoping the Client-side script block registrations. I'll send my cleaned up version to Paul later today (what he does with it is up to him!).

EntityAssembly...

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 12:10:23 GMT

I honestly haven't tried the UIMapper with .NET v2.0 yet. Many apps will work with no changes, so it may, but then again it may take some tweaks -- I simply haven't tried yet since v2.0 is still in beta. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprise if CodeSmith can't load a v2.0 dll, since CodeSmith is compiled with the v1.1 framework and won't know about any changes.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

EntityAssembly...

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 00:30:40 GMT

Hi Paul,

thank you very much for your answer. Doesn't work UIMapper with .NET 2 or just the WilsonUIHelper.cst?

I'm working with .NET 2.

If UIMapper works with .NET 2, can you give me some hints how to start?

EntityAssembly...

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 18:12:43 GMT

Hi Timur:

The cst file is a codesmith template to help you get started -- it is not the UIMapper itself. I'm not sure why your dll would be "invalid", unless its maybe compiled in .net v2.0, since its just trying to load a .net dll and reflect on its classes. You'll need to send me the dll and the code that was used to create it -- and even then I can't promise I can solve something related more to codesmith than anything of mine.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

EntityAssembly...

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 10:12:15 GMT

Hi Paul,

I'd like to know how the UIMapper works. There is a WilsonUIHelper.cst and wants a EntityAssembly. If I choose my Data.dll generated with ORMapper, it says that "The format of the file 'Data.dll' is invalid".

Why is this invalid? What I've to give him? Could the entities not the C# Classes?

Thank you very much in advance.

Timur Zanagar

EntityAssembly...

Sat, 20 Aug 2005 09:08:14 GMT

Wow, I've never had anyone say there was documentation for the ORMapper before. :) I agree there is more though, but its been a slow process that didn't happen right away, and mostly came about from Q&A. The UIMapper just hasn't been out that long and hasn't had much of an interest so far, so there just hasn't been much need on my time or Q&A. Note that I never expected the UIMapper to be as popular as the ORMapper, but I suppose I was hoping there would be more interest than there has been. Anyhow, feel free to ask questions, and I'll do my best as time allows to answer them.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

EntityAssembly...

Sat, 20 Aug 2005 07:40:09 GMT

Thank you very much for your answer.

This file is in the same directory as the cst file. I don't know how to start with the UIMapper. There is no documentation like at the ORMapper.

EntityAssembly...

Sat, 20 Aug 2005 05:37:27 GMT

The AssemblyHelper.dll that is needed is in the same directory as the cst file -- I believe that's all that is required. BTW, I got that dll from the CodeSmith samples themselves.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

EntityAssembly...

Sat, 20 Aug 2005 04:17:07 GMT

Hi folks,

I just downloaded the UIMapper and wanted to make a test project. I wanted to use the WilsonUIHelper.cst for generating the files, but I don't what EntityAssembly is.

How should be this Assembly. Are there some documentation, which I don't know?

Didn't find something.

Thank you very much in advance.

Wiki and Subscriber Forums

Tue, 24 May 2005 05:43:02 GMT

Please note that the Wiki and Subscriber Forums are both working and allow logged-in subscribers to have control. That means you can start creating your own documentation in the Wiki (just keep in mind its viewable by all) and you can post to each other totally unmoderated in the Subscriber Forums (not even viewable by others). I've also made it easier to login from any page at any time, and to know when you are logged in -- so hopefully that's less of an issue now too. I'll certainly try to find time to participate in both the Wiki and the Subscriber Forums too -- but these are yours to do what you want to do -- so don't wait for me!

Thanks, Paul Wilson

Filtering combos

Tue, 17 May 2005 11:39:12 GMT

That's fair -- again its definitely ideal for simple admin-like screens. In many systems I've dealt with that was 80% of the screens, but every system is different.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

Filtering combos

Tue, 17 May 2005 09:42:19 GMT

Wait,

Are we talking about a listVIEW or a listWIDGET? I think the OP mentioned widget?

My two cents: the Edit Views are simply to simplified to do much in the way of advanced filtering for list controls. I just do a standard .aspx .

Jason

Filtering combos

Sun, 15 May 2005 06:47:47 GMT

The current API lets you assign a "where clause" to the list -- which gives you the flexibility to build the GUI for that filter capability better than I could do so. Keep in mind that this "where clause" is just a string that is passed to your implementation of the IORMapper interface. That means that if your implementation expects something that isn't a sql where clause then you simply have to find the right type of string that will make sense for your implementation. I'm not sure exactly how LLBL Gen Pro does this, so it may require some type of ugly switch statement, but hopefully not. I tried to get some input from other mappers, but everyone is understandably busy so that didn't work out. Please feel free to offer some other methods in this IORMapper interface that might work better.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

Filtering combos

Sat, 14 May 2005 14:44:46 GMT

Hi Paul,

I'm having loads of fun with your UI Mapper.

A question though...

Say I wanted to filter the records which appeared in a ListWidget, how would I do this?

I suppose I could specify that the source be a view which contains the necessary where clause but I'd rather not create a view and resulting class just to filter some results.

Secondly, I could add a 'where' parameter to the ListWidget and pass this along to the ORMapper. The problem here though is that I'm using LLBLGen which doesn't allow one to specify a where clause using a string. You have to code it.

What I'm currently doing is specifying on the ListWidget a string identifier for a method which returns the necessary filtering object which can be passed to LLBLGen. To get to this method, the method is stored inside a delegate which is stored in a hashtable and keyed on the string identifier stored in the ListWidget.

What do you think?

Ian.

IResources

Wed, 11 May 2005 11:34:24 GMT

The IResources interface is there for you to implement -- it allows you to specify all the strings in ways of your own choosing instead of relying on the labels in the mappings. So if you choose to implement it, then the label (or the member is used if the label is not specified) becomes the key for your own resource implementation. You could choose to use that key and the user's thread locale to lookup the actual string in a resource dll or in a database table -- the implementation is totally up to you. There are also a couple of hard-coded strings, like the delete message, that you can override by implementing this interface -- in this case the key is "ListView_ConfirmDelete". By the way, the MockResources class is there to both give you a trivial example and to make the design view of the controls work at least somewhat.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

IResources

Wed, 11 May 2005 10:08:56 GMT

Hey Paul,

Could you tell me the purpose of the IResources interface in the UIMapper? I can't find a single class that implements it except for MockResources, and that appears to be a very thin class.

I'm asking because in looking for a way to have a nice static delete message for the list views there doesn't appear to be a fully implemented way of doing so.

Different Design

Sat, 30 Apr 2005 12:13:45 GMT

Yes that makes sense. It just interests me to consider how things might be a little different.

Different Design

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 10:31:53 GMT

Hi Ian:

Well, I suppose we can agree to disagree. I have no problem admitting there would be value in what you want, I just don't find that its what I want. And as it is now anyhow, the UIMapper doesn't really manage the data as much as it works with an ORMapper (or something else you provide that works with the defined interface). By the way, I thought I'd point out that DataSets are typically heavier than custom objects, including using more memory, and being slower at least for smaller sets of data (and hopefully you're paging data unless you're doing reports to only work with smaller sets of data).

Thanks, Paul Wilson

Many-to-Many Relationships

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 09:59:59 GMT

A few questions:
1. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to display a many-to-many relationship. My old form has 2 listboxes with add/remove buttons to relate groups to an employee. Is this possible?

2. Is it possible to include an second group that are from a different but related table/object?
- Group1: Employee Info
- Group2: Login Info

3. Finally, what can the ActionEvent be used for?

-JakeM

Different Design

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 07:12:30 GMT

Hi Paul,

You write..

'So why not have the ORMapper generate the classes at runtime, or just use datasets? That would be exactly the opposite of what an object-oriented developer would want, since its the objects that are central to our work.'

I'm not sure I agree with this. A DataSet is still an object. Its just not as strongly typed as a generated business object.

The question is, given that the UIMapper is managing data automatically, does it really benifit from programming strongly typed business objects?

I think not. So if it were to use DataSets then the process of generating business object could be avoided and one would save the memory which is used to store them.

Ian.

Width set each time on widgets

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 04:18:09 GMT

Hmm..

Ok. I haven't toy'd around with the WinForm version. It still has to work here as well. Then I'm back to removing the property entirely. At least make sure at all style issues can be controlled with a stylesheet class (right now they are overrided by the local "style" attribute).

/Rasmus

embedded config files

Thu, 28 Apr 2005 09:35:40 GMT

Sorry, found that shortly after making the post.
- Jake

Width set each time on widgets

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:08:19 GMT

I originally allowed percents in the beta, but once I added the WinForms support that no longer worked. Any thoughts?

Thanks, Paul Wilson

embedded config files

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:07:22 GMT

Have you tried the embedded attribute?

<file path="SourceNet.Data.OR.UIMap_Emp.config" embedded="true" />

Thanks, Paul Wilson

embedded config files

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 14:41:20 GMT

I know there is a post that talks about how the cs template doesn't support embedded resource files, but i'm getting an error when calling new UIManager(uiMap, ormgr) even though i'm using fully qualified namespaces.

System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for "SourceNet.Data.OR.Manager" threw an exception. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at Wilson.UIMapper.UIHelper.GetFullPath(String filePath) at Wilson.UIMapper.UIHelper.GetXmlDocument(String filePath, Boolean embeddedResource) at Wilson.UIMapper.UIMappings.ParseFile(XmlNode fileNode) at Wilson.UIMapper.UIMappings.ParseMappings(XmlDocument mappings) at Wilson.UIMapper.UIMappings..ctor(XmlDocument mappings) at Wilson.UIMapper.UIManager..ctor(String mappingFile, IORMapper orMapper, IResources resources) at Wilson.UIMapper.UIManager..ctor(String mappingFile, IORMapper orMapper) at SourceNet.Data.OR.Manager..ctor() in c:\data\sourcenet\data\or\manager.cs:line 43

uiMap = "SourceNet.Data.OR.UIMappings.config"
which has the following:
<mappings version="1.0">
<file path="SourceNet.Data.OR.UIMap_Emp.config" />
</mappings>

any ideas?

Width set each time on widgets

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 06:32:41 GMT

Another option could also be to accept "100%" in the mapping file (well.. that would work in my case ;o) )

So is this something we will see in a future release?

/Rasmus

Width set each time on widgets

Fri, 22 Apr 2005 09:02:18 GMT

I agree I at least need a setting to turn off that default. I originally didn't use the fixed widths in my beta version, but there seemed to be a common desire to get the "fixed" look.

Thanks, Paul Wilson

Width set each time on widgets

Tue, 19 Apr 2005 08:03:45 GMT

Hey Paul

Great work on the UI mapper.

I have a small problem, I would really like to set the width of a text widget to 100%. Well easy I think i just make a css class for it.

But this won't do the trick, I then look at the html and sees that there is a style="width:500px" in the input tag.

Ok... I go to my mapping file and delete the width attribute, but the style is still there. I then go to the code to and finds out that it ALWAYS defaults to 200px if nothing else is set. I could of course just make my own text widget ;o) but it would be nice to be able to configure the widgets through css styles only and it wouldn't start to make assumptions ;-)

A small thing in a great product. I'm in the process og implementing a more "xp look" to the list and edit view.

/Rasmus Lindgren