Advanced Edit Form with cascading drop-down lists

[Alla]

Hello. Hoping to reach developers with a lot of experience using advanced edit form. I had reviewed a lot of demos and examples, unfortunately can't make any downloaded demos to work. Therefore hard to understand the implementation.

I'm still new to ASP.NET, while I'm very familiar with windows app development. Data is stored in SQL, data connection is done using Linq To SQL.
- in the Edit form I need to implement cascading drop down lists, filtering events by location, add viewing of PDF file that would be attached to each event, need recurrent functionality, need ability to assign to the hidden field the session value.
What would be the best approach? Do I try to use the AdvancedForm.ascx? How do I add it to my web app properly and reference it? I get lots of errors when I try to include it in the project (missing context, fields errors). Can someone provide step by step implementation? Even if it's at a very top level... One of the documentations articles said that if we use the advanced templates, we would lose recurring functionality... Is it still the case or is the documentation old?

Or should I look into advanced edit or insert form in RadDock? Will it allow to use the recurring functionality and cascading drop-downs? Which way is easier?

I appreciate your help!

[Veselin Tsvetanov]

Hello Alla,

Creating an Advanced edit / insert template for RadScheduler is a complicated task. The easiest way to get familiar with its implementation is to use the Telerik VisualStudio extensions to generate such a scenario. You should:
- Create a new Telerik AJAX web-site or web application;
- In solution explorer, left click on the project;
- Go to Telerik > UI for ASP.NET AJAX > Add Telerik Scenario;
- Select RadScheduler scenario > Default advanced form template;

The above will create a project with Advanced form template, which has an XML provider as a data source.

Alternatively, if you don't need such an advanced customization, you could handle the FormCreated event to customize the built-in Advanced form. You could also refer to the following Code library on the same topic.

You will not lose the recurring functionality if you implement an Advanced template or customize the Advanced form. We will have to review our documentation on that matter. You could review the following Demo, where recurring events are available.

Regards,
Veselin Tsvetanov
Telerik

[Alla]

Thank you. Looks like I don't have those scenario options available (grayed out). Seems like it asks me to convert my project to "Telerik Web App". What would it do to my web project? Is it required in order to use advanced edit?

[Alla]

Thanks again. Few more questions - if I use FormCreated event - will I be able to implement cascading drop down lists or combo boxes), filtering events by location, add viewing of PDF file that would be attached to each event? Will it keep recurrent functionality? If yes to all - do I remove ResourceTypes and add the drop-down lists or combo boxes to implement cascading functionality?

For example - currently those are 2 out of 4 drop down lists (see below) that I have on the form, declared under ResourceType, using LinqToSql as data source. Do I delete it from here and do I declare it under FormCreating?

<telerik:ResourceType KeyField="CatID" Name="Category Name" TextField="CategoryName" ForeignKeyField="ActCategID"                     DataSourceID="LinqDS_Cat">          </telerik:ResourceType>          <telerik:ResourceType KeyField="ActN" Name="Type Name" TextField="ActType" ForeignKeyField="ActTypeID"                     DataSourceID="LinqDS_type"></telerik:ResourceType>

Also - is there a way to make Subject field unavailable (user can't edit) and assign the value chosen from the drop down list - put it into the Subject field? I also have another field that I would need to assign the value into based on the session value, but I don't want user to see it. Do I have to put it on the form and make it hidden? Thanks!

[Peter Milchev]

Hello,

To make the scenarios available you should select the Website project as shown in this screenshot.

The  "Convert to Telerik Web Application" button opens the Telerik Conver Project wizard. The wizard lets you choose the assemblies and skins you want to use. Then it adds the dll files to the Bin folder and the references in the web.config file. For further reference use this Converting project documentation article.  After following the steps in the wizard and rebuilding the project you should be able to add various Telerik Scenarios. 

I recommend you to continue the discussion in the support ticket, where I answered the questions of your last post.

Regards,
Peter Milchev
Telerik