document "stack" model -- comments ?

figuerres posted on Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Hi, I am working with CSLA and the sample "WinPart" that Rocky provided and I think I see a possible model to re-use and wanted some feedback and comments on this:

I have a UI that has a number of tabs each tab has a "theme" like Products, Employees, Accounts and so on....

I want to keep the UI fairly clean and keep the number of POP-UP windows / dialogs low.

so what I have started doing is using the WInPart with the tab page, using the tab page as the parent container for related "Pages" of UI so for example...

when you first open "Employees" you see a list of them with the ID as a link that opens an edit page in-place in that tab and has a "close" button that returns you to the updated list of employees.

sometimes I can see the "stack" of "pages" getting perhaps 3 deep but not more than that (I think).

So I am thinking of taking the "winpart" logic and having it work with a "Stack of WinPart" base class and go from there....

anyone done this already?

see this as a good idea ?

if I get it right I will be happy to share it on the CSLA contrib site as an "extension"

or if rocky wants to fold it into CSLA that would be fine also -- it's not like it's a huge invention; Just a natural flow from the idea of the WinPart and the idea of a structured UI sequence.

it's a "Drill Down" with a "Pop-Back" if you look at it one way...

All X ==> Edit One X ==> Edit part Y of that X ==> Add a Q to that Y ==> Back to Y ==> Save ==> Back to X == Save ==> Back to List.

that kind of edit - flow - thing.

JHurrell replied on Wednesday, September 06, 2006

I see that nobody responded to this so I figured I'd take a shot.

I'm not sure I understand what benefits your proposal provides that can't already be accomplished with CSLA and some intelligent organizations of Business Objects.

What you're describing is a ParentList (Y), Parent (X) -> Children (Y) -> GrandChildren (Q) structure which can be coded at present with CSLA. The only tricky piece is the population of the GrandChild's data and there are plenty of threads that discuss this.

The flow as you're described isn't something that SHOULD be managed by CSLA but rather by the UI. The user selects a parent from a list and the UI responds to that in some way. Maybe a new form is opened that provides the user with the ability to edit the Parent, Children and GrandChildren. Maybe a panel on the form is made visible that provides the user with the ability to edit the Parent, Children and GrandChildren.

- John

figuerres replied on Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Perhaps I was not clear; I am talking about the UI *NOT* the BO's

in Rocky's sample app he uses a usercontrol based on a usercontrol called "WinPart" it has some logic in it and there is a small bit of logic in his "Main Form" that provide a model that is good for a list of documents.

I am thinking of a variation / expansion on that UI behavoir.

UI not BO.