[Solved] Validating page before Insert/update button click.

[Shoshanah]

I have a radgrid placed on a web form that uses PeterBlum's RequiredValidator and CustomValidator to validate some data on the page. 
I would like to validate the web form data before performing an Insert or Update on the grid.   
I am using radgrid's automatic insert and update actions.

The following approach succeeds in preventing the insert form from loading if the validation fails, but doesn't continue on to displaying the validation messages.
Any suggestions?

Protected Sub Grid_ItemCommand(source As Object, e As GridCommandEventArgs) Handles PreferredMediaEditableGrid.ItemCommand

    Select Case e.CommandName

      Case RadGrid.InitInsertCommandName

        PeterBlum.DES.Globals.Page.Validate()
        If Not PeterBlum.DES.Globals.Page.IsValid Then

          ' cancel automatic insert.
          e.Canceled = True

        End If

    End Select

  End Sub

[Angel Petrov]

Hello Shoshanah,

Probably the reason for this behavior is that you are canceling the insert. Since you are using automatic operations I strongly suggest that you review our Automatic CRUD operations demo which I think should suite your requirements.

All the best,
Angel Petrov
the Telerik team

[Shoshanah]

Re-reading my earlier post, I realize I didn't do a good job communicating my issue. :) 

The automatic CRUD for the grid is working great. What I am really struggling with is how to validate data *outside* the grid, before Insert or Update actions are taken.
 
Here's the scenario:
1. I have a web page for inserting a new person into our system.
2. On this page, there's a grid for adding the person's preferred contact methods.
3. Before the user can enter a preferred contact method in the grid, I need to validate the web page, and insert the Person record.

I can use the ItemCommand to validate and save the page before initializing Insert or Update. If there are no errors, this works great. However, if the page doesn't validate (some client-side validation fails), I don't know how to display the validation messages. 

If the "Insert New Record" link on the grid was an actual button, I could set it's   "CausesValidation" property to True, and then the client-side web form validation would fire before initializing any action.

Is there a way to achieve the same effect with the Insert Record and EditCommand actions?

Here's the grid, along with one of the web form fields that I am validating (email address):

<tr>
    <td>

      <des:LocalizableLabel
        ID="EmailAddress"
        runat="server"
        Text="E-Mail Address">
      </des:LocalizableLabel>

    </td>
    <td colspan="4">

      <aec:TelerikTextBox
        ID="Operator__buOperator__Email_Address"
        runat="server"
        MaxLength="50"
        Columns="50"
        DefiningTitle="Email Address. Example: [e-mail].">
      </aec:TelerikTextBox>

    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

<br />

<aec:SectionHead
  ID="SectionHead7"
  runat="server"
  SubHeading="True"
  Title="Preferred Media" />

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>

      <telerik:RadAjaxPanel
        ID="RadAjaxGridPanel"
        runat="server"
        ClientEvents-OnRequestStart="AERadAjaxJSManager.PanelRequestStarted">

        <telerik:RadGrid
          ID="PreferredMediaEditableGrid"
          SkinID="DataEntry"
          runat="server"
          AllowAutomaticDeletes="true"
          AllowAutomaticInserts="true"
          AllowAutomaticUpdates="true"
          DataSourceID="sqlOperatorPreferredMedia"
          ShowStatusBar="True"
          AutoGenerateColumns="False"
          AllowSorting="True"
          AllowPaging="True"
          AllowMultiRowEdit="False">

          <MasterTableView
            Width="100%"
            EditMode="PopUp"
            CommandItemDisplay="Top"
            DataKeyNames="Operator_Preferred_Media_Assign_ID"
            ItemStyle-VerticalAlign="Top"
            AllowMultiColumnSorting="True">

            <EditFormSettings
              CaptionFormatString="Edit Preferred Media"
              InsertCaption="Add New Preferred Media"
              PopUpSettings-Modal="false">
            </EditFormSettings>

            <CommandItemSettings
              AddNewRecordText="Add New Preferred Media" />

            <Columns>

              <%-- Logic for Edit record icon --%>

              <telerik:GridEditCommandColumn
                ButtonType="ImageButton"
                UniqueName="EditCommandColumn"
                Reorderable="false"
                Resizable="false"
                HeaderText="Edit"
                HeaderTooltip="Edit Vending Machine">
                <HeaderStyle
                  Width="70px"
                  HorizontalAlign="Center" />
                <ItemStyle
                  HorizontalAlign="Center"
                  CssClass="MyImageButton" />
              </telerik:GridEditCommandColumn>

              <telerik:GridNumericColumn
                UniqueName="Priority"
                DataField="Priority"
                HeaderText="Priority"
                DecimalDigits="0"
                DefaultInsertValue="1"
                NumericType="Number"
                DataType="System.Int32"
                SortExpression="Priority">
                <HeaderStyle
                  Width="70px"
                  HorizontalAlign="Center" />
              </telerik:GridNumericColumn>

            <telerik:GridDropDownColumn
                UniqueName="Media_Type_Desc"
                DataField="Media_Type_Desc"
                HeaderText="MediaType"
                DataSourceID="sqlMediaTypeLookupList"
                ListValueField="Media_Type_Desc"
                ListTextField="Media_Type_Desc"
                DropDownControlType="RadComboBox">



              </telerik:GridDropDownColumn>

              <%-- Logic for delete record icon --%>

              <telerik:GridButtonColumn
                ConfirmText="Delete this Preferred Media?"
                ConfirmDialogType="RadWindow"
                ConfirmTitle="Delete"
                Reorderable="false"
                Resizable="false"
                ButtonType="ImageButton"
                CommandName="Delete"
                Text="Delete"
                HeaderText="Delete"
                HeaderTooltip="Delete Preferred Media"
                UniqueName="DeleteCommandColumn">
                <HeaderStyle
                  Width="70px"
                  HorizontalAlign="Center" />
                <ItemStyle
                  HorizontalAlign="Center"
                  CssClass="DeleteConfirmPopup" />
              </telerik:GridButtonColumn>

            </Columns>

          </MasterTableView>

          <ClientSettings>

            <ClientEvents
              OnPopUpShowing="AERadAjaxJSManager.RadGridCenterPopUpToSelectedRow" />

          </ClientSettings>

        </telerik:RadGrid>
      </telerik:RadAjaxPanel>

[Angel Petrov]

Hello Shoshanah,

Actually you can set the CausesValidation property for the insert and edit buttons. In order to achieve this you will have to intercept the OnItemCreated event. A sample demonstration of this is shown in the code snippet below:

protected void RadGrid1_ItemCreated(object sender, GridItemEventArgs e)
    {

        if(e.Item is GridCommandItem)
        {
            Button newRecordButton = ((e.Item as GridCommandItem).FindControl("AddNewRecordButton") as Button);
            newRecordButton.CausesValidation = true;
            LinkButton linkButton = ((e.Item as GridCommandItem).FindControl("InitInsertButton") as LinkButton);
            linkButton.CausesValidation = true;
        }
        if (e.Item is GridDataItem)
        {
            ImageButton editButton=((e.Item as GridDataItem)["EditCommandColumn"].FindControl("EditButton") as ImageButton);
            editButton.CausesValidation=true;
        }
    }

Using this code snippet you should be able to achieve your goal.

Kind regards,
Angel Petrov
the Telerik team

[Shoshanah]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I added the suggested logic, but it didn't change the behavior - the page's ValidationSummary messages are not displaying if an error is found. I tried removing ajax to see if that was interfering, but didn't affect the outcome either. 

I will send an example that will hopefully describe what I'm trying to accomplish.

[Angel Petrov]

Hi Shoshanah,

Sending a sample would facilitate us to resolve the problem more quickly. Maybe the validators that you are using have a different behavior. I suggest that you try using regular ASP.NET validators and see if there is a difference.

All the best,
Angel Petrov
the Telerik team