BorlandTalk.com

Chris · Guest

Hi

I'm looking for a grid that can do the following/has the following features:

Works like the Delphi Object Inspector, i.e. first column states what the
row is for, the second edits the value
Has simple to use runtime config abilities where the user can add/remove
rows, specifying the data type etc
Has inbuilt data validation (i.e. makes sure an integer is an integer)
Has inbuilt data editors (so a date is edited using a calendar etc)
Can save its schema to a stream (or XML etc)
Can build its rows based on the saved schema
Can save the actual data to a stream (or XML etc)
Can load the data back into the grid (which may have a different schema
because the user added/deleted a row) from the saved stream

What I'm trying to do is; in my app each customer has an account screen that
shows various information, one of my customers has asked for the ability to
store additional information that will be useful to them only so I am
looking at adding 'User Fields' (for want of a better name). What I would
like to do is save the schema to a table in my DB so that once set it can be
used for all account forms, but the actual data from the grid can be saved
to one field in my account table (hence the requirement to save to stream or
XML etc).

Hope this makes sense and that someone can recommend a commercial product as
I want to add this as an 'eleventh hour' feature and I really don't have a
lot of time to create something myself with all the required testing etc.

Best regards

Chris F

Marko Binic · Guest

Take a look at www.bergsoft.net , the NextInspector component should be
exactly what you need.

Marko

Dennis Passmore · Guest

Are you talking about a Win32 app or a .NET app?
If it is a Win32 app then it really is not that hard to do
what you want in a normal DBGRID by adding a runtime Columns
editor and then saving and restoring the GRID configuration
from the server by the end user login information.

Anthoni Gardner · Guest

Hi Chris,

TMS Software offer a suberb grid that is so flexible and really powerful.
They also offer a set of "inspector components" that are very similar to
Delphi's object inspector. Again, they are very customizable and flexible.

Both components come with built in editors, validation etc.

Here is the grids url
http://www.tmssoftware.com/gridpack.htm

Here is the "inspector components" url
http://www.tmssoftware.com/inspbars.htm

I can HIGHLY recommend their component packs. Loads of components and a very
decent price, I might add. Here is the url for that as well, you can also
flick through the pack to see what it offers,
http://www.tmssoftware.com/tmspackt1.htm

The component pack includes both the grid and the inspector bar component
and many many many others.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Anthoni

Nathanial Woolls · Guest

Chris wrote:

Michael Baytalsky · Guest

Marko,

Thanks, I appreciate your response and will check out
the components you suggested. Sorry, I for some reason,
thought you were the owner of http://mxs.bergsoft.net.

Sincerely,
Michael

Marko Binic wrote:

Michael Baytalsky · Guest

Hi Boki,

boyan · Guest

Hello Michael,

I think that my library may fit your requirements.

You may follow news on our home page, or go to our support forum:
www.bergsoft.net/forum/

We are extending components every month (sometime twice per month). It is
not such powerfull as DevExpress, but I have targeting at first place on
speed, small footprint and easy to use. But, there is already some nice
features in grid such as TreeColumn, FixedCols and more. Before some time, I
was working alone but now there is a 2 more people with me.

Best regards
Boki (Berg)
www.bergsoft.net

"Michael Baytalsky" <mike (AT) contextsoft (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:45184c8e (AT) newsgroups (DOT) borland.com...

Michael Baytalsky · Guest

Boyan,

Thanks for information. My first priority is docking
panels and tool/status bars right now. You tabset,
grid and other controls are perfect for me. I will
keep watching your website.

BTW, I mentioned above, there are a few bugs in your
grid demo (nextgrid_demo.zip).
1. In SlideView scrolling (with mouse scroller or keyboard)
does not repaint screen correctly.
2. When you press on Method | Insert Column(3) it gives you
List out of bounds which happens on paint, so it doesn't
repaint grid. You should consider trapping *all* exceptions
that occur inside of Paint. Nothing good can come out of
those exceptions - you can log them if you like for debug
purposes.

Although, these are minor, but bugs done look good in demo Wink

).

Regards,
Michael

boyan wrote:

boyan · Guest

Hello Michael,

I will update demos now, thank you for notifying me.

regards
Boki (Berg)

"Michael Baytalsky" <mike (AT) contextsoft (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:45185dcc$1 (AT) newsgroups (DOT) borland.com...

Chris · Guest

Hi

Thanks for all the suggestions.

For anyone that's interested I eventually bought the DevExpress VerticalGrid
and created my own storage for schema and data, and created a small form to
define new rows. Using the vertical grid it only took a few hours and it
all seems to work great.

I actually tried to use the TMS InspBars (I bought the VCL component package
some time ago) but because I couldn't find any documentation and it didn't
immediately make sence, I gave up on that. This is a real shame as I'm
quite sure that I could have done the same thing with the TMS grid, but I
just didn't have the time to try and work it out.

I failed to mention that I use BCB6 so although the bergsoft.net components
look very good, there is no support for BCB so I couldn't go that route.

Anyway, thanks for the recomendations.

Regards

Chris F