I have a SAP UI5 V2 odata model with a two way binding to a table and to a form.
The table is displaying all records, and when clicking on a record, I am using setBindingContext to bind the selected table record to the form for editing. When typing in the form, the values dynamically update in the table (because of the two way binding). model.submitChanges() writes the change back to the server.
So displaying the list, and editing records in the list are working just fine.
Now for the problem How to create records with the same form?
I also want to use the same form for adding new records, but I cannot figure out how to unbind the form from a previously selected record, or otherwise create a new blank entry in the data model to be sent to the server.
All of the tutorials I have been able to find on doing UI5 Odata CRUD operations don't really address this problem.
I discovered this example in the documentation which pointed me in the correct direction.
In summary, you use the oModel.createEntry method to create a new entry in the oData Model. You then have to bind this new entry to your form with setBindingContext - this is the part I was missing.
Thanks in advance for your advice!
Background
I’m creating a database to track orders placed by customers.
An ‘Orders’ table stores general details about an order like the customer’s name, order date, and delivery-required date.
A separate ‘Order_Items’ table stores the specific items that the customer has ordered.
The is a one-to-many relationship between the ‘Orders’ table and ‘Order_Items’ table, i.e. one ‘Order’ can have many ‘Order_Items’, but each ‘Order_Item’ must be associated with only one ‘Order’.
Current State
Currently, I have a page where the user creates a new ‘Order’ record. The user is then taken to another page where they can create as many ‘Order_Item’ records as are needed for the order.
Desired State
What I would like to achieve is: When a user creates new ‘Order_Item’ records, it automatically allocates the current ‘Order’ record as the foreign key for the new ‘Order_Item’ record.
What I've Tried So Far
Manual Action By The User: One way of establishing the link between an 'Order' and all of its 'Order_Items' would be to add a drop-down widget which which effectively asks the user something like "Which order number do all of these items belong to"? The user's action would then establish the link between the two tables and associate one 'Order' with many 'Order_Items'. However, my goal is for this step to be handled programatically instead.
Official Documentation: I’ve referred to the offical documentation which was useful, but as I'm still learning I don’t really know exactly what to search for. The prefetch feature appeared promising but does not actually establish a link; it just loads associated records more efficiently.
App Maker Tutorials: I found an App Maker tutorial which creates an HR App where a user can create a list of ‘Departments’, then create a list of ‘Employees’, and then link an ‘Employee’ to a ‘Department’. However, in the example app this connection is established manually by the user. In my desired state I would like the link to be established programatically.
Manual Save Mode:
I’ve also tried switching to manual save mode so that the user has to create a draft ‘Orders’ record and then several draft ‘Order Items’ records and then save them all at once. However, I haven’t managed to make this work. I’m not sure whether the failure of this approach is because 1) I’m try to create draft records on more than one table, 2) I’m just not doing it correctly, or 3) I thought I read somewhere that draft records are deprecated.
Other Ideas
I'm very new to this field and am may be wrong, but I have a feeling I may need to use some scripting to establish the link. For example, maybe I could use a global variable to remember which 'Order' the user creates. Then, for each 'Order_Item' I could use the onBeforeCreate event to trigger a script that establishes the link between the 'Order_Item' and the 'Order' that was remembered from the previously established global variable.
Updated Question
Thanks Markus and Morfinismo for your answers. I have been using both answers with some success.
Morfinismo: I've successfully used the code you directed me to on existing records but cannot seem to get it to work for newly created records.
For example:
widget.datasource.createItem(); // This creates a new record
var managerRecord = app.datasources.Manager.item; // This sets the Manager of the currently selected parent record as a variable successfully.
var teamRecord = app.datasources.Teams.item; // This attempts to set the Manager of the currently selected record as a variable. However, the record that was created in line 1 is not selected. Therefore, App Maker does not seem to know which record this line of code relates to and returns the error Cannot set property ‘Manager’ of null.
// Assign the manager to the team.
teamRecord.Manager = managerRecord; // This successfully assigns the manager but only in cases where the previous line of code was successful (i.e. existing records and not newly created ones).
Do you have any suggestions or comments on how to apply this code to records that are created by the initial line of code in line 1?
I have found the easiest way to create related items for situations such as yours is to actually import a form with the datasource set to Parent: Child (relation) or Parent: Child (relation) (create). So in your case the datasource would need to be set to Order: Order_Items (relation).
You can get this accomplished in two different ways using the form widget wizard:
Option 1:
If your page datasource is set to Order_Items, drag your form on your page.
In the datasource selection section, your datasource in the form widget should default to `Inherited: Order_Items'. Click the 'Advanced' button in the bottom left corner, then from the datasources category find Order as your datasource, then select relations in the next field, and then Order_Items in the next field, choose 'Insert only' or 'Edit' form and then the appropriate fields you want in the form.
Now every item that gets created in that form will automatically be a child record of the currently selected record in your Order datasource.
Option 2:
If your page datasource is set to Order, drag your form on your page.
In the datasource selection section, your datasource in the form widget should default to Inherited: Order. Scroll down in your datasource selection section until you find Order: Order_Items (relation), then choose 'Insert only' or 'Edit' form and then the appropriate fields you want in the form.
Now every item that gets created in that form will automatically be a child record of the currently selected record in your Order datasource.
In your Order model, make sure that the security setting is set appropriately that a user is allowed to create relations of Order_Items in Order. That is the simplest approach in my opinion since you don't have to hard code the parent into your form or client/server scripts. It is automatically based on the currently selected parent, and is essentially doing the same thing that #Morfinismo explained in the client script section.
The comment I placed under your question included a link to the official documentation that explains what you need. Anyways, your question is not clear enough to determine whether you are creating the records via client script or server script, hence this is a very general answer.
To manage relations via client script:
var managerRecord = app.datasources.Manager.item;
var teamRecord = app.datasources.Teams.item;
// Assign the manager to the team.
teamRecord.Manager = managerRecord;
// Changes are saved automatically if the datasource in auto-save mode
// Add a team member to a Manager's team.
// Note: Retrieve Members on the client before proceeding, such as by using prefetch option in datasource - datasources Team -> Members)
var engineerRecord = app.datasources.TeamMember.item;
teamRecord.Members.push(engineerRecord);
To manage relations via server script:
// Get the record for the Team to modify.
var teamRecord = app.models.Teams.getRecord("team1");
// Assign a manager to the Team.
var managerRecord = app.models.EmployeeDB.getRecord("manager1");
teamRecord.Manager = managerRecord;
// Note: The new association is not saved yet
// Assign a team member to the Team.
var engineerRecord = app.models.EmployeeDB.getRecord("engineer1");
teamRecord.Members.push(engineerRecord);
// Save both changes to the database.
app.saveRecords([teamRecord]);
The above information is taken directly from the official documentation, which like I said, I referred to in the comment I placed under your question.
I would like to create a Dialog PageFragment that functions exactly as the default Insert Form widget does, except with my own collection of dropdowns and text boxes. It should fill out a ‘draft’ record of the user-inputted data as the user enters it, as explained in the documentation here, then when the user clicks Create/Insert/Submit, the draft is inserted as a new record into a data model, which is displayed as a Table widget. The draft record is then emptied.
I'm sure that I can implement this by calling a server script that create a new item/record in the datasource, but I'm not sure of how exactly to begin implementing that.
I'm trying to create a view of approval tasks that also includes a column from the related form library. I have tried creating a linked data source between the tasks list and the form library, but have trouble finding much information on creating linked views with the task list.
I have tried:
http://deannaschneider.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/joining-the-task-list-with-related-content-in-a-dvwp/
without luck - it just tells me "there are no items to show in this view." which I assume means it couldn't be joined correctly with the specified table.
I am using the standard approval workflow.
Here is the closest solution I've found so far
1.) Create task form fields in SharePoint designer.
2.) Go into Approval(1) to add the task form fields.
3.) Click 'Change the behavior of a single task'. Add 'Set task field' action in the Before a task is assigned section to set the task form fields to get the value of Current Item:ID.
4.) Use the new task field to create your subview on your linked datasource
While not optimal - and it created me many different problems - I was able to create the view desired.
Hopefully someone will come up with a better solution.
I'm using Visual Studio 2010 to create a dynamic data site with scaffolding according to: http://www.asp.net/web-forms/videos/aspnet-dynamic-data/your-first-scaffold-and-what-is-dynamic-data
The site displays a SQL table with an "Insert New Item" link, which takes you here:
I have another SQL table which holds some of the information already. I would like to add a function that is called when the user navigates away from the "account" field; the function will query the other SQL table and populate the fields that it already holds for that account.
I'm stuck on where to put the function and how to setup the account field to call it.
It's a couple of years since I did one of these so pardon the details being a bit short.
You can 'override' the default New Item form. In that you can pre-populate the fields with anything you want. I think you have to take care of the Save also, and of setting out the controls on the form and populating them (you've overridden the generated form after all).
Another possibility is to create a partial class which extends the Model class and populates it in a constructor extension (I remember doing various stuff with this technique). There might also be some extension points on the model Context (or whatever its called) which you can tap into - it's pretty flexible as I remember.