The latest release of WebClient contains a new optional pattern library with advanced Ajax web GUI control patterns. The two principle patterns released with WebClient 2010 (1.6) are ~TreeView and ~FlexGrid. ~TreeView enables your web application user to visualize hierarchies via a tree of nodes. Each node can have both text and image, and the nodes can be interactively expanded and contracted. ~TreeView can be used in a variety of business application scenarios: common examples include application menus, product bill of materials, organization charts, and Microsoft Outlook style interfaces. ~FlexGrid is advanced grid control pattern that gives the developer more control over the display and entry of tabular data than the standard CA Plex WinWidgets style grid. Using FlexGrid, you can programmatically set the color and font for individual cells without using states, add columns and rows dynamically, add images to cells, and more. This style of presentation is especially useful in creating spreadsheet-like applications, or in developing scheduling applications where there are not a fixed number of columns to model in the CA Plex panel designer.

TreeView Details

TreeView pattern inherits from and is based on the ACTIVETreeView pattern. For detailed information on constructing hierarchies, consult the CA Plex pattern documentation.

Implementation is straightforward, simply inherit from the ~TreeView pattern

Here are some examples of web trees:

FlexGrid Details

The ~FlexGrid pattern inherits from and is based on the ACTIVEFlexGrid pattern. For basic information on FlexGrid, consult the CA Plex documentation. However, with the WebClient implementation you have much more functionality available to you that you have in the ActiveX version of the control.

Implementation is straightforward, simply inherit from the ~FlexGrid pattern

There is also a more complex pattern called ~ExtendedFlexGrid. Here is a list of operations available:

Here is an example FlexGrid on the web:

Futures

More advanced controls will be added in upcoming WebClient releases. For example, FileOpen, ProgressBar, ListView, RichTextEdit and Slider patterns are all under consideration for development. Customers of the WebClient Advanced Controls pattern library will automatically get these new patterns as they become available. If you have an advanced control you would like to see supported, please drop us a note to info@adcaustin.com.