DonB
|
| Posted: 03/03/2004, 5:02 PM |
|
I have been working on a tree control to display hierarchical data (a
self-referencing or recursive table relationship). This is the same
organization of the CCS "Directory" control, but is a true tree with an
arbitrary number of levels, not just two, visible at once.
It is still not completely done, as there are some cosmetic issues to work
out.
Some info about it's construction:
It uses XML/XSLT/Xpath to do the transformation. The data is pulled from
the source table as a flat recordset, transformed into a hierarchical
arrangement of node, then translated into HTML for display. I have tried to
make it as CCS friendly as possible. The styles from the projects theme are
parameters so you can control the fonts and colors. Likewise, the column
names are parameters. So it should be fairly straightforward to setup and
use it.
It loads data ON DEMAND - that means it doesn't load the entire hierarchy in
one lump. So it's very quick. I have it set up to experiment with at
http://www.gotodon.com/ccbth/tree/showtree.asp if you want to take a look.
There are 4000 rows/nodes of data in my test database, so you can get a feel
for how fast it loads. I'd have generated more test data except the Access
database is already 16MB!
There are some (I think) interesting state-preserving things happening
behind the scenes. Taking inspiration from the Editable Grid, I collect
state information about which nodes were clicked and pass this back and
forth. This is done via Post parameters so you don't see it, and gets
stored in a hidden field in the tree. The Tree itself is created entirely
on-the-fly. There is a Record control on the page, but it's empty and is
little more than a way to "hang" a data source on the page. This might
prove to be its achille's heel, as there is potentially the issue of having
too many nodes in the state array, causing the query to fail (Access is
fairly limited in the number of terms it allows in the WHERE clause).
When the tree control is finished, it will be available for download as
"clickware" (that means click my advertising links - on CCbth - from time to
time to send a few pennies my way).
If you have comments or ideas for the tree, let me know by leaving feedback
on the site or via email.
The inevitable question of "can you port it to PHP?" is under consideration
already. This all depends on the XML support PHP provides and whether I can
implement equivalent functions to what is done with ASP. We'll see.
--
DonB
http://www.gotodon.com/ccbth
|
|
|
 |
ryanc
|
| Posted: 03/03/2004, 5:22 PM |
|
amazing DonB, I'm not gonna comment on browser compatibility issues but what you've done can be CCS plugged right?
Wow
|
|
|
|
ryanc
|
| Posted: 03/03/2004, 5:38 PM |
|
This type of features that are coded by the developer for long hours and will be viewed in less than a minute deserves a credit.
I myself would like a feature similar to this but for now i will go with Javascript, DHTML/applet style. See the milonic menu http://www.milonic.co.uk/ now that's one big thing to be CCS plugged.
I was also thinking of uniques things to be CCS custom function plugged but unfortunately I deserve less reply.
Most likely I suck in CCS and ASP he he he
Themes applied in forum
http://www13.brinkster.com/charmangel/_forum/ccswww/For...seATheme=TSPACE
Excel Freeze row column style (maximize your screen)
http://www13.brinkster.com/charmangel/testproject/event...ed=3-March-2004
Yup these are all CCS custom functions, I envy your XML/XLST/XPath concept man :)
|
|
|
|
DonB
|
| Posted: 03/03/2004, 6:13 PM |
|
Did you find a browser that didn't look right? I know that IE, Mozilla,
Netscape 7.1 and Opera work OK. But there are many others I just can't test
myself (like Mac or any of the Linux/GNU/unix ones)
This is not something that just "plugs in" to CCS - it's more accurate to
say it integrates. It relies on a CCS-defined Data Source, a bit of Before
Show event code and the external XSLT files. So it's pretty self-contained.
I wish that I could create a component to put in the Toolbox panel.
I probably should wrap it in a Class module. There's only about 25 lines of
actual code in CCS - the rest of the work takes place on is in two XSLT
files.
--
DonB
http://www.gotodon.com/ccbth
"ryanc" <ryanc@forum.codecharge> wrote in message
news:6404684f3b620a@news.codecharge.com...
> amazing DonB, I'm not gonna comment on browser compatibility issues but
what you've done can be CCS plugged right?
>
> Wow
> ---------------------------------------
> Sent from YesSoftware forum
> http://forums.codecharge.com/
>
|
|
|
|
|
