Code Customization Tutorial

Iron Speed Designer creates standard .NET web pages and code-behind files containing all of the code necessary to retrieve, display, validate and save the data from the database.  Your application code is easily customizable; you can augment the code to perform additional actions or even replace sections of the code with your own custom code.

Most pages in an Iron Speed Designer application are based on tables and views in your database. Views may be used the same as tables to create pages, keeping in mind that views may not have primary or foreign keys declared initially.

For each database table and view used, we create Business Layer and Data Access Layer code files. From these tables, we create the pages you select and for each page we create a layout file with an .ASPX extension, code-behind and control code files.

Class

Type

Example Class Name

Location

Page

Presentation layer

Edit_Customers

Page code-behind file

Record control

Presentation layer

CustomersRecordControl

Control code-behind file

Table control

Presentation layer

CustomersTableControl

Control code-behind file

Table control row

Presentation layer

CustomersTableControlRow

Control code-behind file

Record

Business layer

CustomersRecord

Business layer

Table

Business layer

CustomersTable

Business layer

 

 

You can customize behavior of the record in the Business Layer which is discussed later.

On this diagram Page content is wrapped in a master page which is located in ..\<app Name>\Master Pages folder

Master page includes:

Page Header (..\<app Name>\Header and Footer\Header.ascx)
Menu (..\<appName>\Menu Panels\Menu.ascx)
Page Footer (..\<app Name>\Header and Footer\Footer.ascx)
PageContent – (..\<app Name>\Customers\Edit-Customers.aspx)

This page has both master record (Record Control) and details table (Table Control) panels. Table control includes a set of rows, each one of which is a Table Control Row (record) control.

 

Application Classes and Methods

Iron Speed Designer uses inheritance to organize the code so your customizations are isolated and protected as the underlying code is regenerated to respond to your design changes.Your custom code will never be overwritten if placed in the appropriate region within the code file.  Using the predefined structure of these classes, you can easily customize code without fear of it being overwritten by subsequent regeneration.

Page class

Key Methods

Description

LoadData

LoadData is where you can modify the way data is read from the database, and how they are assigned to the controls.

SaveData

The SaveData method gives access to record upadate functionality. This method calls Save on all editable records and tables on the page.

SaveButton
CancelButton

Click handlers (SaveButton, CancelButton, etc.) are ideal place to modify buttons behavior and for example add new logic to the button, such as send email, redirect to another page or save something to session.

GetImage
GetRecord<Field>Value

GetImage and Get<RecordField>Value are used by Automatic Type Ahead and image popup functionality. They are called from the client side and you can customize them to change Automatic Type Ahead behavior for example.

SetPageFocus

SetPageFocus tries to set focus on the page to the proper control. It overrides default .NET behavior. Comment its content out if you want to let .NET do its job.

The page’s code-behind class is derived from the Microsoft .NET Framework’s page class.  This class contains event handlers and methods that load the data from the database, display the data in user interface controls and save the updated data back into the database.  The page class event handlers and methods call on some of the other classes to actually perform the specific task.  Most code customization should be performed in these other classes.

Microsoft .NET Framework does not provide the flexibility of sub-classing of page classes where the controls are defined at both the base class and the sub-class.  To provide the ability to customize application code, Iron Speed Designer creates a Base method for each of the methods.  For example, Iron Speed Designer creates LoadData and LoadData_Base methods.  LoadData calls LoadData_Base to perform the actual work.  LoadData can be customized, while LoadData_Base should not be modified.  LoadData can perform additional work before or after the call to LoadData_Base, or the entire call to LoadData_Base can be replaced with custom code in LoadData.

The EditCustomers class is derived from the BaseApplicationPage, BasePage and the .NET Page classes.  The BaseApplicationPage class can be customized to make a common customization across all pages within an application. It is located in <App Name>\Shared\BaseApplicationPage.vb(cs) file. BasePage class is implemented in the BaseClasses.dll however you can customize it also. See instructions on how to customize BaseClasses

Check out a Sample EditCustomers code-behind including methods that can be customized and those that should not be. Note, not all methods are included and often parameters and closing tags are omitted. Important to remember – you should modify only methods in the Section 1 such as SetPageFocus, LoadData,  SaveData but not generated code in Section 2 such as SaveData_Base LoadData_Base, etc.

Normally the methods in Section 1 call the methods in Section 2 to do the required work. You can customize this by executing code before calling the Base method, executing code after calling the Base method, or by copying and modifying the Base code and not calling the Base method. In the following example note calls to generated methods in Section 2 from customizable methods in Section 1

 

Record control class

Key Methods

Description

LoadData

Load the data from the database based on the query specified on the Query Wizard.  This method calls the CreateWhereClause to compose the WHERE clause that will be used to read the data from the database.

CreateWhereClause

For Edit Record and Show Record pages, the CreateWhereClause retrieves the URL parameter and constructs a WHERE clause to read the record from the database.

DataBind

Binds the record read from the database to the user interface controls.  Any formatting of the data such as the conversion of the stored date into a local culture specific date format is performed in this method.  DataBind calls SetField for each field displayed on the web page to bind each individual field.

Set<Field>

Sets the user interface control from the database record.  The Set function checks to make sure that the value is non-NULL, and then formats the field based on the data type and the current localized culture in effect for the web page and the application.  If the value from the database is NULL, the default value from the database is used.  Many of the formatting, display and default value options can be set in the Property Sheet instead of customizing the function.

SaveData

This method calls Validate to perform additional validation of the data, retrieves the data from the user interface controls, and then saves the data in the database.  The transaction must be started prior to a call to this function, and must be committed by the caller.  SaveData calls GetField for each control displayed on the web page to retrieve information from the user interface into a record that can be saved.

Validate

An initially empty Validate method is created in the Base class.  You can override this method in the safe class to perform additional validation.  In case of an error, an exception must be thrown with an appropriate message that can be reported to the end user.

Get<Field>

Gets the value from the user interface control into a record that will be saved by SaveData.  A Get function is created for each of the user interface controls on the page. This method calls the Parse method to parse the value from the user interface control into the database record.  The Parse method first performs validation to ensure the value can be recognized based on the type of the field (e.g., date), and then, if necessary, converts the text value to the data type of the field (e.g., integer).  The Parse method may throw an exception if the value is not recognized.  The exception must be handled by the caller of the SaveData method.

If a page contains a record control such as an Add or Edit Record page, a record control class provides the methods necessary to load the data for the specific record and bind its data to the user interface control.  There are two record control classes created for each record on the page.  A Base record control class contains all the code and is named by prefixing “Base” to the name of the record control (e.g., BaseCustomersRecordControl).  An initially empty “safe” class is also created and is named the same as the name of the record control (e.g., CustomersRecordControl).  Any methods defined in the base class can be overridden in the safe class to customize the functionality of the record control.

The CustomersRecordControl class is derived from the BaseCustomersRecordControl and BaseApplicationRecordControl classes. The BaseApplicationRecordControl class can be customized to make a common customization across all record controls within an application.

Example of the RecordControl class has only most important methods and events. Most of the content of those methods is omitted, but this example gives you an idea of how the code is organized and different methods are called.

 

 

Table control class

Key Methods

Description

LoadData

Load the data from the database based on the query specified on the Query Wizard.  This method calls the CreateWhereClause to compose the WHERE clause that will be used to read the data from the database.  CreateOrderBy is called to create the ORDER BY portion of the SELECT WHERE clause.  Both CreateWhereClause and CreateOrderBy methods can be overridden in the safe class to add, modify or replace the code.  The LoadData method sets the DataSource of the Table Control class.  The DataSource is used later by the DataBind method to bind each of the rows in the table.

CreateWhereClause

The CreateWhereClause composes and returns a WHERE clause.  The WHERE clause is composed of the static WHERE clause defined at page creation time combined with any filtering and searching criteria specified by the end user.  You can add additional clauses by overriding the CreateWhereClause method.

DataBind

Binds the record read from the database to the user interface controls.  This method loops through each row in the table, sets the DataSource of the row record control to the specific row from the DataSource of the table control, and then calls the DataBind method of the row record control.  Any formatting of the data such as the conversion of the stored date into a local culture specific date format is performed in this method.  Pagination controls are bound by calling BindPaginationControls method.  The data for any drop-down filter controls is loaded and bound in this method by calling Populate methods for each filter.

SaveData

This method is applicable to editable tables and calls the SaveData method for each of the row record controls in the table.  This method also deletes and rows if the user deleted the row.  The row is deleted from the database when the Save button is clicked, not when the delete button is clicked. The transaction must be started prior to a call to this function, and must be committed by the caller.  See the SaveData method for the Record Control described above.

BindPaginationControls

All of the pagination controls are bound in this method.  Some controls are disabled if they are not applicable, such as the first page button if the user is already on the first page of the table.

Populate<Field>Filter

A PopulateFilter method is created for every dropdown filter.  The name of the method is of the form Populate<Field>Filter.  For example, if there is a Country filter, the method will be called PopulateCountryFilter.  This method first calls the CreateWhereClause method for the specific filter (e.g., CreateWhereClause_CountryFilter), and then reads the data from the database, initializes the dropdown list with the values returned, and sets the selected value based on the current value specified in the database.  By default, a maximum of 500 items are retrieved from the database.  This can be changed by modifying the “Maximum generated items” property on the Property Sheet for the specific filter control.

CreateWhereClause_<Field>Filter

The CreateWhereClause_<Field>Filter method can be overridden to add, modify or replace the method. This is the best way to display a subset of items in the filters. Please note that the filter is a Display Foreign Key As field, the query may be run on the foreign key table and not on the table from where the data is being displayed.  This is based on the Property Sheet setting that determines whether All Values or Only Result Set is selected for the filter settings.  For example, if you are displayed the Order Details table containing a Product Id filter that is a foreign key to the Products table, then the Populate method will retrieve data from the Products table if the All Values option is selected.  If the Only Result Set option is selected, then the Populate method will retrieve data from the Order Details table.  Please take this into consideration when modifying the CreateWhereClause_FILTER methods so you can add the right WHERE clause for the applicable table.

Sort_Click

A Click handler is created for every column sort hyperlink in a table control.  The name of the click handler is of the form COLUMNNAME_Click.  For example, if there is a Country1 column header, the method will be called Country1_Click.  This method calls the underlying ColumnSort method to set the CurrentSortOrder variable that will be used later by the CreateOrderBy method to set the sorting column and direction.

The CustomersTableControl class is derived from the BaseCustomersTableControl and BaseApplicationTableControl classes. The BaseApplicationTableControl class can be customized to make a common customization across all table controls within an application.

If a page contains a table control such as a Table Report page, the table control class provides the methods necessary to load, display, filter, search, sort, and paginate the table data.  There are two table control classes created for each table on the page. A Base table control class contains all the code and is named by prefixing “Base” to the name of the table control (e.g., BaseCustomersTableControl).  An initially empty “safe” class is also created and is named the same as the name of the table control (e.g., CustomersTableControl).  Any methods defined in the base class can be overridden in the safe class to customize the functionality of the table control.

In addition to the two classes for each table control, there are two additional classes created that correspond to a row in the table.

Table Control Row class

Key Methods

Description

Page_Load

Calls Authorize to verify if user has access to the page, and then calls LoadData to load the data.

LoadData
LoadData_Base

LoadData calls the LoadData_Base method which in turn calls each of the record and table controls to actually load the data for the respective controls.  The Base method (LoadData_Base) should not be modified, LoadData can be modified to perform additional tasks before or after the call to LoadData_Base or to simply replace the call.

Button_Click
Button_Click_Base

These methods handle the click event of a button and are named based on the name of the button.  For example, a button called SaveButton will have a SaveButton_Click and a SaveButton_Click_Base method created as part of the page class.  The SaveButton_Click calls the SaveButton_Button_Click method which in turn calls each of the record and table controls to actually save the data for the respective controls.  The Button_Click_Base method starts, commits and ends a transaction and all updating of data occurs within this one transaction.  Any errors including validation errors are reported by the lower level methods by throwing an exception. The exception is caught in Button_Click_Base and a Javascript alert is registered for display during the subsequent page load.

If a page contains a table control, then in addition to the table control classes, two additional classes are created.  These classes correspond to a row in the table.  The row classes are exactly the same as the Record Control classes defined above.

It is important to note that the row classes do not load the data from the database individually, but instead rely on their DataSource variable being set by the table control’s DataBind method.

A Row class is the same as a RecordControl class described earlier.  It is derived from the BaseApplicationRecordControl class. The BaseApplicationRecordControl class can be customized to make a common customization across all record controls and rows within an application.

 

Best Practices for Code Customization

While every customization and every need will be different, we have compiled a list of best practices that we recommend you follow.  These best practices will help you add customizations at the most appropriate location for the vast majority of needs.

What is Code tabs and how they help to add customization?

Where to add customizations?

What events to handle or methods to override?

Do Not Forget the IsPostBack Flag

Code methods

The Property Sheet, Code methods group shows the most commonly customized functions for the currently selected control in the Layout Editor.  For data bound controls such as a textbox displayed on the Add or Edit page, the Code methods show the Set, Get and Validate functions.  Similarly, selecting a button control shows its Click function, or selecting a dropdown shows its Dropdown function. Zooming out to the Table Control or the Record Control level will display functions such as CreateWhereClause,LoadData, DataBind and SaveData that are relevant to the selected controls. 

 

The Code methods allow editing of the functions by simply modifying them within the code editor. Modification of the code in the code editor automatically places a copy of the function in Section 1, and changes the font (makes it bold) of method name to easily indicate that the function has been modified.  At any point, clicking Restore will remove all the customizations and replace the function to its originally created code.  Subsequent builds will also preserve the customizations, and the changes made will never be overwritten, unless explicitly restored.

Within the Code editor, the functions can be modified:

  1. By a line or two of the code;

  2. Changed to call the base function followed by additional lines of code; or

  3. Changed in its entirety based on your needs.

All changes to the code will be preserved and never overwritten no matter how many times you rebuild your application. The code is well documented to ensure that it is easy to follow and change if the need arises.

Detailed documentation about the function can be viewed by clicking the Code Docs button. The Code Docs button displays customized documentation for the specific function being reviewed.  The documentation describes the function, displays a calling hierarchy, shows how to customize and even displays a link to the underlying Microsoft .NET Framework control documentation when relevant.  The documentation can also be opened in a separate window so the code and the documentation can be viewed side-by-side if necessary.

 

Where to add customizations?

In general you can handle events or override methods at the page class level, at the table or record control level or even at an individual field control level.  For example, if you want to initialize the Country field to United States on a page, you can handle the PreRender event at the Page level, at the Record Control level or even the Country field level.  So what is the best place to add this code customization?

We recommend that you add your code customizations at the Record Control class level.  There are many reasons for this including:

See Also

Where to add customizations?

What events to handle or methods to override?

Do Not Forget the IsPostBack Flag

 

What events to handle or methods to override?

Some code customizations can be performed by handling the following events.  For each event, please pay special attention to the recommended class for handling the event.

DataBind Method

If you want to initialize a value, format a value, compute a value, hide or display a control based on some criteria, or change the look and feel of a control, we recommend you override the DataBind method for the Record Control class to make these customizations.  Remember to first call the MyBase.DataBind or base.DataBind to perform the underlying functions.

C#

public override void DataBind()

{

     base.DataBind();

 

     // Pre-initialize Title if blank

     if (this.ContactTitle.Text == "")

     {

          this.ContactTitle.Text = "Manager";

     }

}

Visual Basic .NET

Public Overrides Sub DataBind()

     MyBase.DataBind()

 

     ' Pre-initialize Title if blank

     If Me.ContactTitle.Text = "" Then

          Me.ContactTitle.Text = "Manager"

     End If

End Sub

Validate Method

Two specific validators can be automatically created based on the values selected in the Property Sheet:

In addition to these two validators, you can add your own custom validation logic very easily by overriding the Validate method at the Record Control class level.  The Validate method is called from the SaveData method before the GetUIData method is called.  Note that GetUIData retrieves the data from the user interface controls and converts it into the internal format required for saving.  For example, a date specified as a text string “12-1-2006” will be converted to a Date object with the appropriate month, day and year values.

To validate fields from the user interface controls, use their user interface controls to validate the data.  Validation errors must be grouped together and an exception thrown to abort the saving of data.

C#:

public override void Validate()

{

     base.Validate();

 

     //  Additional Validation

     if (this.State.Text != "CA")

     {

          throw new Exception("State must be CA (California).");

     }

}

Visual Basic .NET:

Public Overrides Sub Validate()

     MyBase.Validate()

 

     '  Additional Validation

     If Me.State.Text <> "CA" Then

          Throw New Exception("State must be CA (California).")

     End If

End Sub

GetUIData Method

If you want to make changes to the values before they are saved, we recommend you override the GetUIData method at the Record Control class level.  The GetUIData method is called from within SaveData and retrieves all of the values from the user interface controls prior to the data being saved in the database.  You can even set fields that are not displayed to the user, such as audit control fields.

C#:

public override void GetUIData()

{

     base.GetUIData();

 

     // Set additional field values here

     this.DataSource.LastUpdateDate = DateTime.Now();

}

Visual Basic .NET:

Public Overrides Sub GetUIData()

     MyBase.GetUIData()

 

     ' Set additional field values here

     Me.DataSource.LastUpdateDate = DateTime.Now()

End Sub

CommitTransaction Method

If you want to access the Id of the record or send an email after the record is saved, we recommend you override the CommitTransaction method at the page class level.  The CommitTransaction is defined in the BasePage class and calls DBUtils.CommitTransaction.  If you override the CommitTransaction method, make sure to call the base CommitTransaction.

C#:

public override void CommitTransaction(object sender)

{

     // Call the base CommitTransaction

     base.CommitTransaction(sender);

 

     // Use the Me.CustomersRecordControl.GetRecord() to retrieve the record that was just updated.

     CustomersRecord myRecord;

     myRecord = this.CustomersRecordControl.GetRecord();

 

     // Send a confirmation email with the CustomerId.

     try

     {

          BaseClasses.Utils.MailSender email = new BaseClasses.Utils.MailSender();

          email.AddFrom("[email protected]");

          email.AddTo("[email protected]");

          email.AddBCC("[email protected]");

          email.SetSubject("Confirmation");

          email.SetContent("Thank you for your request. Your Customer Id is: " + myRecord.CustomerID);

          email.SendMessage();

 

     }

     catch (System.Exception ex)

     {

          // Report the error message to the user.

          Utils.RegisterJScriptAlert(this, "UNIQUE_SCRIPTKEY", "Could not send an email. Error was: " + ex.Message);

     }

}

Visual Basic .NET:

Public Overrides Sub CommitTransaction(ByVal sender As Object)

     ' Call the base CommitTransaction

     MyBase.CommitTransaction(sender)

 

     ' Use the Me.CustomersRecordControl.GetRecord() to retrieve the record that was just updated.

     Dim myRecord As CustomersRecord

     myRecord = Me.CustomersRecordControl.GetRecord()

 

     ' Send a confirmation email with the CustomerId.

     Try

          Dim email As New BaseClasses.Utils.MailSender

          email.AddFrom("[email protected]")

          email.AddTo("[email protected]")

          email.AddBCC("[email protected]")

          email.SetSubject("Confirmation")

          email.SetContent("Thank you for your request. Your Customer Id is: " & myRecord.CustomerID)

          email.SendMessage()

 

     Catch ex As System.Exception

          ' Report the error message to the user.

          Utils.RegisterJScriptAlert(Me, "UNIQUE_SCRIPTKEY", "Could not send an email. Error was: " & ex.Message)

     End Try

End Sub

Redirect Method

If you want to modify the URL before redirection, we recommend you override the CommitTransaction method (described above) at the Page class level and redirect after the commit.  The SaveButton_Click method calls the SaveButton_Click_Base method on the page class to save and commit the database records.  Once the save and commit happens, the SaveButton_Click_Base redirects to the URL specified in the Property Sheet.  As such, you cannot add code after the call to the SaveButton_Click_Base method in SaveButton_Click because once the redirect happens, control will not return back to the SaveButton_Click method.

C#:

public void SaveButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs args)

{

     SaveButton_Click_Base(sender, args);

     // Code below will never get executed since SaveButton_Click_Base will

     // redirect to another page.  To customize, either replace SaveButton_Click_Base

     // functionality here, or override CommitTransaction.

}

Visual Studio .NET:

Public Sub SaveButton_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal args As EventArgs)

     SaveButton_Click_Base(sender, args)

     ' Code below will never get executed since SaveButton_Click_Base will

     ' redirect to another page. To customize, either replace SaveButton_Click_Base

     ' functionality here, or override CommitTransaction.

End Sub

CreateWhereClause Method

If you want to modify the query before it is executed, the best place to do it is by overriding the CreateWhereClause method at the Table Control level for Table Report pages, and the CreateWhereClause method at the Record Control class level for the Add, Edit, and Show Record pages.  Please note that CreateWhereClause is not available at the Page level since each table and record control has its own query.  You can override the CreateWhereClause and add your own WHERE clause.

C#:

protected override BaseClasses.Data.WhereClause CreateWhereClause()

{

     WhereClause wc;

 

     wc = base.CreateWhereClause();

 

     if (IsNothing(wc))

     {

          // Get a blank WHERE clause if the base function returned null.

          wc = new WhereClause();

     }

 

     wc.iAND(CustomersTable.City, Starts_With, "Mountain");

}

Visual Basic .NET:

Protected Overrides Function CreateWhereClause() As BaseClasses.Data.WhereClause

     Dim wc As WhereClause

 

     wc = MyBase.CreateWhereClause()

 

     If IsNothing(wc) Then

          ' Get a blank WHERE clause if the base function returned null.

          wc = New WhereClause

     End If

 

     wc.iAND(CustomersTable.City, Starts_With, "Mountain")

End Function

The CreateWhereClause method creates a WhereClause object that contains clauses joined together using AND, OR and NOT operators.  The default CreateWhereClause created by Iron Speed Designer combines three different types of clauses to compose the entire WHERE clause for the query.

Static Clause: The static clause defined at design time by the developer. Note that the static clause may contain multiple clauses including clauses that support role-based security and custom function calls.

Filter Clause(s): The static clause is ANDed with one or more filter settings such as from a dropdown list or date filter textbox. For dropdown list boxes, an Equals comparison operator is used. For textbox filters, you can specify the operator such as greater-than, less-than, etc.

Search Clause: This entire clause is ANDed again with a search clause that compares the search string with the various search fields. The search clause is composed of a series of OR clauses that checks whether any of the search fields contain the text value entered in the search text box. You can configure the search fields and the operator it uses (default is Contains) via the Query Wizard in the Data Sources tab.

In pseudo-code, this clause looks like:

[Psuedo-code]

     StaticClause AND

     FilterField1 = SelectedValue1 AND

     FilterField2 = SelectedValue2 AND

     ...more filter clauses... AND

     (SearchField1 Contains SearchText OR

     SearchField2 Contains SearchText OR ...)

The CreateWhereClause must return a WhereClause object. One of the main reasons Iron Speed Designer uses a WhereClause object instead of a Where string is to insulate you from knowing the syntax based on the specific database product you are using. Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and Microsoft Access each have a slightly different syntax for the SQL they use. Another reason to use the WhereClause is to specify whether a clause compares the raw value or the display foreign key value. This is described below.

You can override the CreateWhereClause in the derived class such as ProductsRecordControl. You can either call the base CreateWhereClause and add your own clauses to it, or completely replace the call.

The iAND and iOR take three required parameters and up to two optional arguments. It is important to understand the two optional arguments since they provide finer control over the WHERE clause.

Column: The column object is the first parameter to iAND and iOR. The column object is used to determine the actual column name. Sometimes the column name may contain spaces and other characters not easily specified in code, so by passing the column object, the WhereClause can determine and use the correct name. The format of the first parameter is typically TableTable.Field. For example if you have a field called FirstName in a table called Customers, the column object can be specified by using CustomersTable.FirstName. If a View or a Query is used, the suffix is changed from Table to View or Query respectively. For example, the FirstName field in vwActiveCustomers view would be specified as vwActiveCustomersView.FirstName.

Operator: The operator used by the WHERE clause. Operator can be one of the following:

Value: The value is always specified as a string. Date and other objects must be converted to a string appropriately.

(Optional) ExpandForeignKey: If the Column or Field is a foreign key field, then sometimes it is convenient to pass the Display Foreign Key As (DFKA) value instead of the Id of the foreign key. For example, if there is a CustomerId field in the Orders table, you can create a clause to compare Orders.CustomerId = "3" or Orders.CustomerId = "Tom Jones".

The ExpandForeignKey parameter must be True if using the DFKA value such as “Tom Jones” in the above example. If the ExpandForeignKey is True, the SELECT statement will contain a JOIN with the foreign key table and the actual WHERE clause will compare the DFKA field with the value. For example:

SELECT * FROM Orders, Customers

WHERE Orders.CustomerID = Customers.CustomersID AND

Customers.Name = "Tom Jones"

If ExpandForeignKey is FALSE, then the SELECT statement created is a simple statement on a single table as shown below:

SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE Orders.CustomerID = "3"

By default, all static clauses specified on the Query Wizard will expand the foreign key (set to True). By default all filter clauses based on the end-user filter selection will not expand the foreign key (set to False) since in most cases we will have the Id values available in the dropdown

(Optional) IsCaseSensitive:  If the IsCaseSensitive parameter is True, the comparison is case sensitive.  For the Search filter, this setting can be specified via the Query Wizard (Data Sources tab) or the Property Sheet.  For the static search filter clause, the IsCaseSensitive is set to False, while the parameter is set to True for a dynamic filter dropdown control.

To add parenthesis in a WHERE clause, you can simply create another new WHERE clause and AND or OR it with the earlier clause. The pseudo-code below shows you how to specify the following clause:

A AND B AND (C OR D)

You can do the following:

C#:

WhereClause wc1 = new WhereClause();

wc1.iAND(A);

wc1.iAND(B);

 

// Create OR portion of the clause

WhereClause wc2 = new WhereClause();

wc2.iOR(C);

wc2.iOR(D);

 

// AND the OR portion of the clause.

wc1.iAND(wc2);

Visual Basic .NET:

Dim wc1 As WhereClause = New WhereClause

wc1.iAND(A)

wc1.iAND(B)

 

' Create OR portion of the clause

Dim wc2 As WhereClause = New WhereClause

wc2.iOR(C)

wc2.iOR(D)

 

' AND the OR portion of the clause.

wc1.iAND(wc2)

PopulateFilter Method

If you want to pre-initialize a filter with a URL, cookie, or session value, the best place to do this is to override the PopulateFilter method for the specific field filter at the Table Control class.  You can call the base method and then set the current value.  You must also override the CreateWhereClause method to add the initial setting of the filter to the WHERE clause.  You can also customize the WHERE clause used by the Populate Filter to limit the type of records retrieved, such as only Active customers.  For additional customization, you can even replace the entire PopulateFilter method with your own method.

C#:

protected override WhereClause CreateWhereClause()

{

     //  Call the MyBase.CreateWhereClause()

     WhereClause wc = base.CreateWhereClause();

     //  If MyBase.CreateWhereClause() returns nothing then create a new

     //  instance of WhereClause

     if ((wc == null))

     {

          wc = new WhereClause();

     }

     //  Add a WHERE clause based on the querystring

     string country = this.Page.Request.QueryString("Country");

     if (!this.Page.IsPostBack && country != "")

     {

          wc.iAND(CustomersTable.Country, EqualsTo, country);

     }

     return wc;

}

 

// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

protected override void PopulateCityFilter(string selectedValue, int maxItems)

{

     string country = this.Page.Request.QueryString("Country");

     //  The selected value only will be set when the page loads for the first time.

     if (!this.Page.IsPostBack && country != "")

     {

          base.PopulateCityFilter(country, maxItems);

     }

     else

     {

          base.PopulateCityFilter(selectedValue, maxItems);

     }

}

Visual Basic .NET:

Protected Overrides Function CreateWhereClause() As WhereClause

      ' Call the MyBase.CreateWhereClause()

     Dim wc As WhereClause = MyBase.CreateWhereClause()

 

      ' If MyBase.CreateWhereClause() returns nothing then create a new

      ' instance of WhereClause

     If (IsNothing(wc)) Then

          wc = New WhereClause

     End If

 

     ' Add a WHERE clause based on the querystring

     Dim country As String = Me.Page.Request.QueryString("Country")

     If Not (Me.Page.IsPostBack) AndAlso country <> "" Then

          wc.iAND(CustomersTable.Country, EqualsTo, country)

     End If

 

     Return wc

End Function

 

‘ -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Protected Overrides Sub PopulateCountryFilter(ByVal selectedValue As String, ByVal maxItems As Integer)

 

          Dim country As String = Me.Page.Request.QueryString("Country")

 

     ' The selected value only will be set when the page loads for the first time.

     If Not (Me.Page.IsPostBack) AndAlso country <> "" Then

          MyBase.PopulateCountryFilter(country, maxItems)

     Else

          MyBase.PopulateCountryFilter(selectedValue, maxItems)

     End If

End Sub

See Also

Where to add customizations?

What events to handle or methods to override?

Do Not Forget the IsPostBack Flag

 

Do Not Forget the IsPostBack Flag

By far the most common mistake made by .NET developers is to ignore the IsPostBack flag when handling an event or overriding a method.  Note that each method and event handler will be executed at least twice, once when the page is being displayed and once when the user presses a button to save or go to another page.  If you set AutoPostBack on a field to handle a TextChanged or SelectedItemChanged event, then each of the event handlers will be executed three or more times.  When you add custom logic, make sure you check for the IsPostBack flag to decide whether to execute your code the first time the page is displayed, or only during a postback such as a button click or always.

C#:

if (!this.Page.IsPostBack)

{

     //  This code executes when the page is first loaded.

}

else

{

     //  This code executes during a button click or other postback.

}

//  This code executes in all cases.

Visual Basic .NET:

If Not (Me.Page.IsPostBack) Then

     ' This code executes when the page is first loaded.

Else

     ' This code executes during a button click or other postback.

End If

' This code executes in all cases.

See Also

Where to add customizations?

What events to handle or methods to override?

Do Not Forget the IsPostBack Flag

Referencing Page Controls in Code

The user interface controls defined on the page can be accessed easily within each of the page, table control and record control classes in the code-behind or the controls file. Please note that user interface controls within a table control are initialized and defined when data is loaded into the table control since the number of rows displayed is determined by the result set returned by the query.  As such we recommend that you make most of your code customizations at the Record Control class level since this class is available both when displaying a single record on a page as well as for each row within a table.

Page Class

You can access any user interface control from the page class except the controls that are repeated for each row in a table.  To access the controls from the page, you simply specify the name of the control that is used in your web page.  For example, if you have an Add Customer page, you may have a field label called CompanyNameLabel and a field value text box called CompanyName.  To access this control, you can:

C#:

this.CompanyName

this.CompanyName.Text   // to access the text entered by the user

Visual Basic .NET:

Me.CompanyName

Me.CompanyName.Text ' to access the text entered by the user

If you are displaying an Add, Edit or Show Record page, you will have a record control on the page.  The record control corresponds to the record control class in the page’s code-behind file.  If the page is a Table Report page, you will have a table control on the page and a record control for each row in the table.  Both the table control and the record control will have corresponding classes in the page’s code-behind file.  You can access the record and table controls within the page as follows:

C#:

this.CustomersRecordControl          // to access the record control

// to access the company name within the

// record control

this.CustomersRecordControl.CompanyName

this.CustomersTableControl             // to access the table control

Visual Basic .NET:

Me.CustomersRecordControl ' to access the record control

' to access the company name within the

' record control

Me.CustomersRecordControl.CompanyName

Me.CustomersTableControl ' to access the table control

Table Control Class

The table control class corresponds to the table control on the page.  You can directly access all of the controls within the table except the rows of a table.  To access the rows of a table, you can either override or handle events at the record control class level, or use functions such as GetRecordControls or GetSelectedRecordControls to get an array list that can loop through to get an individual row.  To access the first (or only) selected row, use GetSelectedRecordControl function.  The search, filter, pagination and column sorting controls can be accessed directly from the table control class.

The following example is for a button placed on the button bar of a table control that sets the Discontinued flag on all selected rows of the table control.  The function calls GetSelectedRecordControls to retrieve the list of all selected rows.  For each of the rows (TableControlRow objects), we use the RecordUniqueId to retrieve the database record.  The database record is retrieved using the data access layer function GetRecord on the data access layer Table class (not the TableControl user interface class).  The second argument passed to GetRecord is True to retrieve an updateable record.  The Discontinued flag is modified and the Save function is called to save the record in the database.  The entire For loop is enclosed in a Start, Commit and End Transaction block to ensure that all of the records are committed at the same time.  Finally, the DataChanged variable is set to True so that the PreRender method on the table control refreshes the page with the latest settings from the database.

C#:

public override void MarkDiscontinued_Click(object sender, ImageClickEventArgs args)

{

     ProductsTableControlRow rc;

 

     try {

          DbUtils.StartTransaction();

 

          // Get all of the selected record controls.

          // Record controls are UI controls.

          foreach (rc in this.GetSelectedRecordControls()) {

              ProductsRecord rec;

 

              // Using the RecordUniqueId, read the Product record

              // from the database.

              // Use True as the second argument to make sure you

              // get a Writable record.

              rec = ProductsTable.GetRecord(rc.RecordUniqueId, true);

              if (rec != null) {

                   // Mark as Discontinued

                   rec.Discontinued = true;

                   rec.Save();

              }

          }

 

          DbUtils.CommitTransaction();

     }

     catch (Exception ex) {

 

          Utils.MiscUtils.RegisterJScriptAlert(this, "BUTTON_CLICK_MESSAGE", ex.Message);

     }

     finally {

          DbUtils.EndTransaction();

     }

 

     // Mark the data as changed so the data is refreshed

     this.DataChanged = true;

}

Visual Basic .NET:

Public Overrides Sub MarkDiscontinued_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal args As ImageClickEventArgs)

     Dim rc As ProductsTableControlRow

 

     Try

          DbUtils.StartTransaction()

 

          ' Get all of the selected record controls. 

          ' Record controls are UI controls.

          For Each rc In Me.GetSelectedRecordControls()

              Dim rec As ProductsRecord

 

              ' Using the RecordUniqueId, read the Product record

              ' from the database.

              ' Use True as the second argument to make sure you

              ' get a Writable record.

              rec = ProductsTable.GetRecord(rc.RecordUniqueId, True)

              If Not (IsNothing(rec)) Then

                   ' Mark as Discontinued

                   rec.Discontinued = True

                   rec.Save()

              End If

          Next

 

          DbUtils.CommitTransaction()

 

     Catch ex As Exception

          Utils.MiscUtils.RegisterJScriptAlert(Me, "BUTTON_CLICK_MESSAGE", ex.Message)

 

     Finally

          DbUtils.EndTransaction()

     End Try

 

     ' Mark the data as changed so the data is refreshed

     Me.DataChanged = True

End Sub

To retrieve all the currently displayed rows instead of only the selected rows, use the GetRecordControls function.  To retrieve the first (or only) selected row, use the GetSelectedRecordControl function.

All controls within the row can be accessed directly using the name of the control.  In the example above, if the row contained a ProductName control, it can accessed directly by using rc.ProductName.  If the control is a textbox, all properties of the textbox can be accessed directly as well, such as rc.ProductName.Text.

Record Control Class

We recommend most of the code customizations to be made at the record control class.  The record control class corresponds to the record being displayed on the page.  If there is a table displayed on the page, the record control class corresponds to each row within a table.  The customizations will be the same regardless of whether the record control class corresponds to a single record control or to a row within a table.

You can access all of the fields within a record control including column values as shown below:

C#:

this.CompanyName

this.CompanyName.Text   // to access the text entered by the user

Visual Basic .NET:

Me.CompanyName

Me.CompanyName.Text ' to access the text entered by the user

Referencing Data Access Functions in Code

Iron Speed Designer creates two classes for each table in your database.

The Record classes represent a record from the database.  Some of the record classes specify an actual physical record in the database while others correspond to a virtual record – the result of a join between tables.  A “Record” suffix is added to the name of the table to get the name of the class.  For example, if you have a Customers table in your database, the class will be called CustomersRecord.  The record class is different from the record control class described elsewhere.  A record class corresponds to a database record, while a record control class corresponds to a user interface control that contains other fields that display or edit data.

The Table class is one of the most important classes used in Iron Speed Designer applications.  This class is created for each table in your application to provide the methods necessary to retrieve a group of records based on a query.  A “Table” suffix is added to the name of the table to get the name of the class.  For example, if you have a Customers table in your database, the class will be called CustomersTable.  A “View” or a “Query” suffix is added to the name if the class is for a view or query respectively.

To read data from the database you can use the GetRecords function on the Table class.  There are a number of variations of the GetRecords functions that either take a string-based WHERE clause or an object that specifies the clause.  Each of the GetRecords functions can take optional arguments that specify the order by clause, the number of records to retrieve, and the starting page number.

GetRecords with a WHERE clause string

The following examples show how to use the GetRecords functions with a string based WHERE clause.  This case is typically used to make a call to GetRecords when there is only one WHERE clause that is not combined with another clause using an AND or OR operator.  While the clauses can be combined in a string, it is better to use a WhereClause object defined later in this section.

C#:

CustomersRecord[] myRecords;

 

myRecords = CustomersTable.GetRecords("Country = USA");

if (myRecords != null)

{

     foreach (CustomersRecord rec in myRecords)

     {

          // To access a field in the record, simply specify

          //   rec.<FieldName>

          String s = "Company: " + rec.CompanyName;

     }

}

Visual Basic .NET:

Dim myRecords As CustomersRecord()

myRecords = CustomersTable.GetRecords("Country = USA")

 

If Not (IsNothing(myRecords)) Then

     For Each rec In myRecords

           ' To access a field in the record, simply specify

          '    rec.<FieldName>

          Dim s As String = "Company: " & rec.CompanyName

     Next

End If

The GetRecords function takes a WHERE clause and retrieves all records that meet that criteria.  Please note that the number of records returned is dependent on the number of records in the database.  If you want to limit the number of records, you can pass additional parameters to the GetRecords function.  The following code will return the third set of 50 records.

C#:

CustomersRecord[] myRecords;

myRecords = CustomersTable.GetRecords("Country = USA", null, 3, 50);

 

if (myRecords != null)

{

     foreach (CustomersRecord rec in myRecords)

     {

          // To access a field in the record, simply specify

          //   rec.<FieldName>

          String s = "Company: " + rec.CompanyName;

     }

}

Visual Basic .NET:

Dim myRecords As CustomersRecord()

myRecords = CustomersTable.GetRecords("Country = USA", Nothing, 3, 50)

 

If Not (IsNothing(myRecords)) Then

     For Each rec In myRecords

          ' To access a field in the record, simply specify

          ' rec.<FieldName>

          Dim s As String = "Company: " & rec.CompanyName

     Next

End If

The above examples demonstrate how you can read a set of records from the database.  If you want to access the records that are being displayed on a page, you would need to call the GetRecords() function on the Table Control class within the page.

In addition to the above example, you can also use the GetRecord function to read a single record from the database.  GetRecord takes a WHERE clause similar to GetRecords and will return the first record that matches the query.

GetRecords with a WhereClause object

The following examples show how to use the GetRecords functions with a WhereClause object.  This case is typically used to make a call to GetRecords when there are more than one WHERE clauses that must be combined with AND or OR operators.  The CreateWhereClause method created by Iron Speed Designer uses this method to retrieve data from the database.

You can defined a WhereClause object and then call the iAND and iOR methods to define clauses.  The iAND and iOR methods take a field name, an operator and a value.  The field name may contain spaces or other characters, so it is safer to use the name as provided by the database schema.  The database schema field name can be specified using the Table class followed by the column name such as CustomersTable.CompanyName.

C#:

public virtual void LoadData()

{

     try

     {

          DbUtils.StartTransaction();

 

          // The WHERE clause will be empty when displaying all records in table.

          WhereClause wc = CreateWhereClause();

          this.DataSource = CustomersTable.GetRecords(wc);

     }

     catch (Exception ex)

     {

          throw ex;

     }

     finally

     {

          DbUtils.EndTransaction();

     }

}

 

protected virtual WhereClause CreateWhereClause()

{

     // Start with a blank WhereClause

     WhereClause wc = new WhereClause();

 

     // Create a WhereClause that is as follows:

     // Country = "USA" AND State = "California" AND (Name Contains "Jones" OR CompanyName Contains "Jones")

 

     // Add the value selected in the Country filter dropdown

     if (this.CountryFilter.SelectedValue != "")

     {

          wc.iAND(CustomersTable.Country, EqualsTo, this.CountryFilter.SelectedValue);

     }

 

     if (this.StateFilter.SelectedValue != "")

     {

          wc.iAND(CustomersTable.State, EqualsTo, this.StateFilter.SelectedValue);

     }

 

     // Now we need to create a separate WhereClause that OR's the search string and then

     // this separate clause is ANDed with the rest of the clauses)

 

     if (this.CustomersSearchArea != "")

     {

          WhereClause search = new WhereClause();

 

          search.iOR(CustomersTable.Name, Contains, this.CustomersSearchArea.Text);

          search.iOR(CustomersTable.CompanyName, Contains, this.CustomersSearchArea.Text);

 

          // Now AND this with the WhereClause wc defined earlier.

          wc.iAND(search);

     }

 

     return wc;

}

Visual Basic .NET:

Public Overridable Sub LoadData()

     Try

          DbUtils.StartTransaction()

 

          ' The WHERE clause will be empty when displaying all records in table.

          Dim wc As WhereClause = CreateWhereClause()

          Me.DataSource = CustomersTable.GetRecords(wc)

 

     Catch ex As Exception

          Throw ex

     Finally

          DbUtils.EndTransaction()

     End Try

End Sub

 

Protected Overridable Function CreateWhereClause() As WhereClause

 

     ' Start with a blank WhereClause

     Dim wc As WhereClause = New WhereClause

 

     ' Create a WhereClause that is as follows:

      ' Country = "USA" AND State = "California" AND (Name Contains "Jones" OR CompanyName Contains "Jones")

 

     ' Add the value selected in the Country filter dropdown

     If Me.CountryFilter.SelectedValue <> "" Then

           wc.iAND(CustomersTable.Country, EqualsTo, Me.CountryFilter.SelectedValue)

     End If

 

      ' Add the value selected in the State filter dropdown

     If Me.StateFilter.SelectedValue <> "" Then

          wc.iAND(CustomersTable.State, EqualsTo, Me.StateFilter.SelectedValue)

     End If

 

     ' Now we need to create a separate WhereClause that OR's the search string and then

     ' this separate clause is ANDed with the rest of the clauses)

 

     If Me.CustomersSearchArea.Text <> "" Then

          Dim search As WhereClause = New WhereClause

          search.iOR(CustomersTable.Name, Contains, Me.CustomersSearchArea.Text)

          search.iOR(CustomersTable.CompanyName, Contains, Me.CustomersSearchArea.Text)

 

          ' Now AND this with the WhereClause wc defined earlier.

          wc.iAND(search)

     End If

 

     Return wc

End Function

The GetRecords function takes a WHERE clause and retrieves all records that meet that criteria.  Please note that the number of records returned is dependent on the number of records in the database.  If you want to limit the number of records, you can pass additional parameters to the GetRecords function.  The following code will return the third set of 50 records.

C#:

// By default we want to expand foreign keys and to sort in a case sensitive order

OrderBy orderBy = new OrderBy(true, true);

 

// Order by Name in Ascending order

orderBy.Add(CustomersTable.Name, Asc);

 

this.DataSource = CustomersTable.GetRecords(wc, orderBy, 3, 50);

Visual Basic .NET:

' By default we want to expand foreign keys and to sort in a case sensitive order

Dim orderBy As orderBy = New orderBy(True, True)

 

' Order by Name in Ascending order

orderBy.Add(CustomersTable.Name, Asc)

 

Me.DataSource = CustomersTable.GetRecords(wc, orderBy, 3, 50)

The above examples demonstrate how you can read a set of records from the database.  If you want to access the records that are being displayed on a page, you would need to call the GetRecords() function on the Table Control class within the page.

In addition to the above example, you can also use the GetRecord function to read a single record from the database.  GetRecord takes a WHERE clause similar to GetRecords and will return the first record that matches the query.

Handling Post Back Events

In ASP.NET, each page is reloaded when a button is pressed or if you set the AutoPostBack property of a control to be True when its value has changed.  Since the same overridden methods are called and the same event notifications are sent during a post back, you need to make sure that you check the post back property of a page when writing your custom code.  For example, if you want to initialize a field to a value when the page is first displayed then you can handle an event and initialize this value.  But if you do not check the post back property in the event handler, your field will be initialized again when the page is being reposted and thus overwrite any user entered value.  This is perhaps the most common mistake made by .NET programmers.

C#:

if (!this.Page.IsPostBack)

{

     //  This code executes when the page is first loaded.

}

else

{

     //  This code executes during a button click or other postback.

}

//  This code executes in all cases.

Visual Basic .NET:

If Not (Me.Page.IsPostBack) Then

     ' This code executes when the page is first loaded.

Else

     ' This code executes during a button click or other postback.

End If

' This code executes in all cases.

Page code behind example

Partial Public Class Edit_Customers

        Inherits BaseApplicationPage

       

#Region "Section 1: Place your customizations here."

   

      Public Sub SetPageFocus()          

      Public Sub LoadData()

          LoadData_Base()

      End Sub

     

      Private Function EvaluateFormula(…) As String

          Return EvaluateFormula_Base(…)

      End Function

 

      Public Sub Page_InitializeEventHandlers(…) Handles MyBase.Init

           Me.Page_InitializeEventHandlers_Base(sender,e)

      End Sub

     

      Public Sub Page_PreRender(…) Handles Me.PreRender

          Me.Page_PreRender_Base(sender,e)

      End Sub

     

      Public Overrides Sub SaveData()

          Me.SaveData_Base()

      End Sub

                   

      Public Sub Page_PreInit(…) Handles Me.PreInit

              Me.PreInit_Base()

      End Sub

     

#Region "Ajax Functions"

        <Services.WebMethod()> _

        Public Shared Function GetRecordFieldValue(…) As Object()

            Return GetRecordFieldValue_Base(…)

        End Function

 

        <Services.WebMethod()> _

        Public Shared Function GetImage(…) As Object()

            Return GetImage_Base(…)

        End Function

#End Region

 

        Public Sub CancelButton_Click(…)

          CancelButton_Click_Base(…)

        End Sub

           

        Public Sub SaveButton_Click(…)

           SaveButton_Click_Base(…)

        End Sub                           

      

        Public Sub SetCustomersRecordControl()

            SetCustomersRecordControl_Base()

        End Sub

       

        Public Sub SetSaveButton()

            SetSaveButton_Base()

        End Sub             

                        

#End Region

 

#Region "Section 2: Do not modify this section."

        Protected Sub Page_InitializeEventHandlers_Base(…)                                    

              AddHandler Me.CancelButton.Button.Click, AddressOf CancelButton_Click

              AddHandler Me.SaveButton.Button.Click, AddressOf SaveButton_Click

        End Sub

 

       Protected Overridable Sub Page_Load(…) Handles MyBase.Load

   

           Me.SetPageFocus()

           Me.Authorize("")

           If (Not Me.IsPostBack OrElse Me.Request("__EVENTTARGET") = "ChildWindowPostBack" OrElse ( Me.Request("__EVENTTARGET") = "isd_geo_location")) Then

                Me.LoadData()

            End If

        End Sub

 

        Public Shared Function GetRecordFieldValue_Base(…) As Object()

        Public Shared Function GetImage_Base(…) As Object()

        Public Sub SetControl_Base(ByVal control As String)

            Select Case control

               Case "CustomersRecordControl"

                 SetCustomersRecordControl()

               Case "OrdersTableControl"

                 SetOrdersTableControl()

             End Select

         End Sub         

        Public Sub SaveData_Base()

           Me.CustomersRecordControl.SaveData()

        End Sub

 

        Public Sub PreInit_Base()

     

        Public Sub Page_PreRender_Base(…)

        Public Sub LoadData_Base()

            DbUtils.StartTransaction()

            Me.DataBind()

            SetCustomersTabContainer()

            SetOrdersTabPanel()

…         

               SetSaveButton()

…             

               DbUtils.EndTransaction()

        End Sub

        Public Overridable Function EvaluateFormula_Base(…) As String

       

        Public Sub SetCustomersTabContainer_Base()          

        Public Sub SetOrdersTabPanel_Base()          

        Public Sub SetCustomersRecordControl_Base()          

…          

        Public Sub SetSaveButton_Base()               

             

        Public Sub CancelButton_Click_Base(…)

        Public Sub SaveButton_Click_Base(…)

                DbUtils.StartTransaction

              If (Not Me.IsPageRefresh) Then        

                  Me.SaveData()

              End If       

       

               Me.CommitTransaction(…)

               DbUtils.EndTransaction

        End Sub   

#End Region

End Class

 

Record Control code example

#Region "Section 1: Place your customizations here."

    Public Class CustomersRecordControl

        Inherits BaseCustomersRecordControl

    End Class
#End Region

 

#Region "Section 2: Do not modify this section."

    Public Class BaseCustomersRecordControl

        Inherits MyApp42.UI.BaseApplicationRecordControl

 

        Protected Overridable Sub Control_Init(…) Handles MyBase.Init

        End Sub

 

        Protected Overridable Sub Control_Load(…) Handles MyBase.Load

            AddHandler Me.Address.TextChanged, AddressOf Address_TextChanged

            AddHandler Me.City.TextChanged, AddressOf City_TextChanged

        End Sub

 

 

        Public Overridable Sub LoadData()

            Dim wc As WhereClause = Me.CreateWhereClause()

            Dim recList() As CustomersRecord = CustomersTable.GetRecords(wc, Nothing, 0, 2)

            Me.DataSource = CustomersTable.GetRecord(recList(0).GetID.ToXmlString(), True)

        End Sub

 

        Public Overrides Sub DataBind()

            MyBase.DataBind()

            SetAddress()

            SetCity()

        End Sub

 

        Public Overridable Sub SetAddress()

        End Sub

 

        Public Overridable Sub SetCity()

        End Sub

 

        Public Overridable Function EvaluateFormula(…) As String

        End Function

 

 

        Public Overridable Sub SaveData()

            Me.LoadData()

            Me.Validate()

            Me.GetUIData()

            If Me.DataSource.IsAnyValueChanged Then

                Me.DataSource.Save()

            End If

        End Sub

 

        ' To customize, override this method in CustomersRecordControl.

        Public Overridable Sub GetUIData()

            GetAddress()

            GetCity()

        End Sub

 

 

        Public Overridable Sub GetAddress()

        End Sub

 

        Public Overridable Sub GetCity()

        End Sub

 

        Public Overridable Function CreateWhereClause() As WhereClause

        End Function

 

        Protected Overridable Sub Control_PreRender…) Handles MyBase.PreRender

            ' PreRender event is raised just before page is being displayed.

            Try

                DbUtils.StartTransaction()

                    Me.LoadData()

                    Me.DataBind()

            Catch ex As Exception

                Utils.MiscUtils.RegisterJScriptAlert(Me, "BUTTON_CLICK_MESSAGE", ex.Message)

            Finally

                DbUtils.EndTransaction()

            End Try

        End Sub

 

    End Class

#End Region

 

Additional Page Lifecycle References

Understanding ASP.NET View State and Page Lifecycle:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms972976.aspx

The ASP.NET Page Object Model:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479007.aspx

Customizing and Debugging Inside Iron Speed Base Classes

Iron Speed Designer applications use a library of Base Classes that extend the functionality provided by Microsoft .NET Framework. The source code for the Base Classes is provided to you as part of Iron Speed Designer so you can modify or debug using this library.

By default the Base Classes are compiled in Release mode and do not contain debugging information.  If you want to debug inside the Base Classes, you must recompile the Base Classes in Debug mode using the Visual Studio version for the .NET framework used by your application.

Step 1: Using Visual Studio .NET, open:

<Designer installation folder>\BaseClasses\BaseClasses.2005.vbproj

<Designer installation folder>\BaseClasses\BaseClasses.2008.vbproj

<Designer installation folder>\BaseClasses\BaseClasses.2010.vbproj

<Designer installation folder>\BaseClasses\BaseClasses.2012.vbproj

Step 2: Go to the Build menu in Visual Studio .NET (not Iron Speed Designer), select Configuration Manager and select the Debug compilation mode.

Step 3: Select Build, Rebuild Solution.

Step 4: Copy the BaseClasses.dll and BaseClasses.pdb files from the Bin folder, e.g.:

<Designer installation folder>\BaseClasses\Bin\VS2005  or VS 2008 or VS2010 or VS 2012

to your application’s Bin folder, e.g.:

C:\MyApp\Bin

Step 5: Rebuild you application using Visual Studio .NET in debug mode.

You should be able to debug within Base Classes in addition to your application.

If you do not need to debug but only to change code and include new BaseClasses.dll into the application you can skip changing compilation mode from Release to Debug.