Excel-like behaior?

[Cactus]

Is there a way to enable the grid for more excel-like behavior? At the very least I expect that when editing the data in a cell, the enter key ends and commits my edit.

Thanks,
  -- m.

[Jack]

Hi Matt,

Thank you for your question.

This behavior will be present in our next service pack, scheduled for the next week. Excel is a great application and we will extend RadGridView's functionality gradually to support excel-like behavior. We will be happy to hear what other features you want to see in our next versions, so that we can schedule them appropriately.
 

Best wishes,
Jack
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[Per Holmqvist]

This post is a year old, but i can't find any Excel like behavior like edit multi rows without a lot of doubleclick.
i want the all in editmode like excdcel to start typing immidiate for easy copy and past.If possible, how lovely wouldn't not a search and replace function in a column became? :)

[Jack]

Hello Per Holmqvist,

Thank you for your suggestion.

Most of our clients are interested in advanced features like hierarchy and extended grid views (which we now offer, as of Q3 2008). But we haven't had many requests for excel-like spread behavior in RadGridView.

Your suggestion nevertheless is interesting, and I have logged it. We will consider adding it in one of our upcoming releases. Do not hesitate to contact us, if you have other questions.
 

Kind regards,
Jack
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[Josh]

Has there been any work done on this?  I am very surprised if this is not often requested.  Almost all of the users we have implemented our software for thus far expect the grid to work like excel.

[Jack]

Hi Josh,

Actually we haven't received further requests for this feature, and currently it is not implemented. However, we appreciate your feedback. Could you please specify which functionality from Excel do you want to see implemented in RadGridView? We will consider this information when developing our future releases.

Thank you in advance for your time. I am looking forward to your reply.

Regards,
Jack
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[Josh]

I should have been more specific on this.  There are a few main features that our users would like to see.  Most of all they would like a highlighted cell to be replaced with what you are typing as soon as you start typing.  This is close to being implemented like excel already with the BeginEditMode property set to BeginEditOnKeystrokeOrF2, however, there are a few problems with it.  On number columns, when the cell is not already in edit mode and you start typing, the first number you type gets entered, but the second number you type is entered in front of the first number.  If you type "40", it apperas as "04".  On gridlookupcolumns the first letter or number you type puts the cell into edit mode but it ignores the first character you typed.  The second and subsequent characters are entered correctly.  Both of these issues only occur if the cell is not already in edit mode when you start typing.  Another feature our users would like to see would be the ability to highlight any rectangular section of cells and then copy and paste them throughout the grid.

Thanks

[Jack]

Hello Josh,

Thank you for these details. The specified issue appears in our previous versions. It is addressed in the latest one -- Q2 2009 SP1. Regarding the copy & paste functionality, RadGridView doesn't implement it directly, however it can be implemented with a few lines of code. Please, look at the following KB article for more details. We will consider implementing this functionality in a future version of RadGridView.

Regards,
Jack
the Telerik team

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[Josh]

Both of the issues I described about editing are still occurring in version 2009.2.9.729.  Is this Q2 2009 SP1?  If not, where can I get SP1?  In addition, highlighting a rectangular section of cells to be copied seems very difficult in the grid and the KB article mentioned does not seem to show any way of alleviating this.  If you click on one cell in a row and then click on another cell in the same row then it goes into edit mode, cancelling any selection that you had.

[Jack]

Hi Josh,

That's strange. Yes, 2009.2.9.729 is Q2 2009 SP1. I tested the case and I could not reproduce the issues. Nevertheless, I will investigate the issue further. Please, send me your application. This will help me locating the problem and finding a proper solution.

Currently, a cell enters edit mode on mouse down event. This could be a problem if you use multiple cell selection. We know about this issue and it will be addressed in one of our upcoming releases. You should inherit from RadGridView and override its OnMouseDown event to work around the issue. Here is a sample:

public class MyRadGridView : RadGridView
{
    bool beginEdit;
    bool mouseIsDown;
    Point mouseDownPoint;

    public override string ThemeClassName
    {
        get { return typeof(RadGridView).FullName; }
        set {}
    }


    protected override void OnMouseDown(MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        mouseDownPoint = e.Location;
        mouseIsDown = true;
        base.OnMouseDown(e);
        mouseIsDown = false;
    }

    protected override void OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        if (e.Location == mouseDownPoint && beginEdit)
        {
            BeginEdit();
        }
        base.OnMouseUp(e);
        beginEdit = false;
    }

    public override bool BeginEdit()
    {
        if (mouseIsDown)
        {
            beginEdit = true;
            return false;
        }
        return base.BeginEdit();
    }
}

I hope this helps.If you need further assistance, please write me back.

Sincerely yours,
Jack
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[Josh]

Thanks very much for your help Jack.  The work around provided does help with multiple cell selection.  To reproduce the other two issues that I am having please create a new windows forms application, place a radgridview on a form, and place the following code in the load event.  Run the application and you should see a grid with 2 rows.  Click just once on "60" in the amount column of the second row and then type "501".  As you type it, it will appear as "015".  Now hit enter to commit the number and click once on "Houston" in the city column of the first row and type the letter "L".  You should see the cell now go into edit mode but it does not select "Louisiana" from the list as I would expect it to.

Thanks again for your support.

Dim dr As DataRow

Dim dt As New DataTable

dt.Columns.Add("Amount", GetType(Integer))

dt.Columns.Add("CityID", GetType(Integer))

dr = dt.NewRow

dr("Amount") = 30

dr("CityID") = 1

dt.Rows.Add(dr)

dr = dt.NewRow

dr("Amount") = 60

dr("CityID") = 2

dt.Rows.Add(dr)

Dim dt2 As New DataTable

dt2.Columns.Add("CityID", GetType(Integer))

dt2.Columns.Add("CityName", GetType(String))

dr = dt2.NewRow

dr("CityID") = 1

dr("CityName") = "Houston"

dt2.Rows.Add(dr)

dr = dt2.NewRow

dr("CityID") = 2

dr("CityName") = "Louisiana"

dt2.Rows.Add(dr)

RadGridView1.DataSource = dt

RadGridView1.Columns.RemoveAt(1)

Dim LookupCol As New Telerik.WinControls.UI.GridViewLookUpColumn

LookupCol.DisplayMember = "CityName"

LookupCol.ValueMember = "CityID"

LookupCol.UniqueName = "City"

LookupCol.FieldName = "CityID"

LookupCol.DataSource = dt2

LookupCol.DropDownStyle = Telerik.WinControls.RadDropDownStyle.DropDown

RadGridView1.Columns.Add(LookupCol)

RadGridView1.Columns("Amount").Width = 120

RadGridView1.Columns("City").Width = 120

[Jack]

Hello Josh,

Thank you for these details. It was my fault. I tested with the current development release but not with Q2 2009 SP1. I confirm that the spin editor issue exists in Q2 2009 SP1. It will be addressed in the upcoming Q3 release. Regarding the second issue, auto complete will work when combobox is in DropDownList mode. It doesn't work in DropDown mode. I will speak with the developers to take this case in account when they plan the future releases. Should you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Greetings,
Jack
the Telerik team

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[Josh]

I'm glad to hear the spin editor issue will be corrected in Q3.  The second issue is not urgent for us, but it would be really cool if the DropDown mode could be corrected in Q3 as well.  Although DropDownList does not have this issue, our actual application has hundreds of items in in the lookup column, many of which start with the same letter.  Setting it to DropDown style makes it much easier for our users to find what they are looking for.

[Victor]

Hi Josh,

RadComboBox auto complete is scheduled for major re-factoring and the updated version will

be probably available for Q1 2010. We estimated that a new virtualization mechanism is more important currently and the task is a pretty major one as we are planning to make the virtualization generic and hence use it across all our suite.

Thank you for your understanding and do not hesitate to write again if you have other questions.

All the best,
Victor
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