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Configuring Knockout Support (igGrid)

Topic Overview

Purpose

This topic explains how to configure the igGrid™ control for binding it to View-Model objects managed by the Knockout library.

Required background

The following table lists the topics and external resources required as a prerequisite to understanding this topic.

In this topic

This topic contains the following sections:

Introduction

The igGrid control’s support for the Knockout library provides developers with an easy means for using the Knockout library and its declarative syntax to instantiate and configure grid controls.

The Knockout support is implemented as a Knockout extension which is initially invoked when Knockout bindings are applied to a page and during the page life (when external updates to the View-Model take place).

To instantiate an igGrid bound to Knockout-managed data structure, you need to specify igGrid configuration options into the data-bind attribute of a table element. This renders the grid at the specified location on the element just like creating the control using JavaScript. For information on configuring this option refer to Configuring igGrid with Knockout section below. Additionally, you may specify any of the other igGrid options that have relevance to your business case using the data-bind attribute.

Using the Knockout extension for the igGrid control ensures that anytime changes occur to the igGrid data, either by editing, adding or deleting a row, the extension notifies the observable and updates all its corresponding views. It also ensures that if some external view is updated, the observable in the extension will update the igGrid data. (This is the expected behavior from all knockout extension.)

Additionally, you can configure the Knockout extension for igGrid such that the igGrid reacts to changes in the data source to it which it is bound. This means that, if a row is added, deleted or updated in a data source configured as observable, the extension will be able to track additions and removals of elements and update the grid’s rows accordingly. Please refer to Code Example: Grid Bound to a Knockout View-Model Object for detailed information.

Configuring igGrid with Knockout Support

The following table maps the configuration tasks of the igGrid control related to Knockout usage scenarios to the respective properties that manage those tasks. A code example of a practical implementation follows the table.

Configuration task Required? Details Properties
Binding the View-Model object’s field to the column keys of the grid Required When binding to data using Knockout, the minimum requirement is to configure the key property of the grid’s columns. This enables the data exchange between the grid and the View-Model.
Specifying data source for the grid Required The property for configuring the data source for the grid is dataSource
Updating of the View-Model object Optional By default, the grid updates the View-Model through its KnockoutDataSource. For this to occur:
  • The updating feature must be enabled
  • Changes are made
You have the choice of configuring the updates to occur with each addition, deletion or update completion of a row in the grid (if autoCommit is enabled) or when dataDirty event is executed (in case that autoCommit is not enabled).

Code Examples

The following lists the code example included in this topic.

Code Example: Grid Bound to a Knockout View-Model Object

This procedure demonstrates the basic configuration of an igGrid control bound to a Knockout observable View-Model object. Using the declarative syntax of Knockout, the grid is instantiated from the data-bind attribute of a table element and bound to the View-Model observable properties.

Prerequisites

To complete the procedure, you need the following:

  1. The required Ignite UI for jQuery JavaScript and CSS files for version 13.1 and later
  2. The knockout library referenced on the page

In JavaScript:

<script src="{IG Resources root}/js/extensions/infragistics.datasource.knockoutjs.js"></script>

<script src="{IG Resources root}/js/extensions/infragistics.ui.grid.knockout-extensions.js"></script>

Overview

  1. Create the View-Model object
  2. Apply the declared Knockout bindings to the page
  3. Declare the binding properties for igGrid in the View
  4. Result

Steps

Following are the general conceptual steps for binding igGrid to a Knockout observable View-Model object

  1. Create the View-Model object

    The following code demonstrates a View-Model object that declares observable properties managed by Knockout.

    Observe that both the array structures and individual object fields are declared as observable. Hence it will be able to update the view when a data item is added, removed or changed, or it can change the View-Model when the user makes edits.

    In JavaScript:

     var itemsModel, db = nwCustomersWithOrders;
     var Item = function (ID, ContactName, City, Country) {
         var self = this;
         this.ID = ko.observable(ID);
         this.ContactName = ko.observable(ContactName);
         this.City = ko.observable(City);
         this.Country = ko.observable(Country);
     }
     function ItemsViewModel() {
         var self = this;
         self.data = ko.observableArray([]);
         self.selectedItemID = ko.observable(0);
         for (var i = 0; i < db.length; i++) {
             self.data.push(new Item(db[i].ID, db[i].ContactName, db[i].City, db[i].Country));
         }
         self.selectionChanged = function (evt, ui) {
             var rowdata = ui.row;             
             var selectedItemInArray = 
                 ko.utils.arrayFirst(self.data(), function (item) {
                 return item.ID() === rowdata.id;
             });                      
             self.selectedItemID(parseInt(rowdata.index));
         };           
     }
     itemsModel = new ItemsViewModel();
    
  2. Apply the declared Knockout bindings to the page

    The following code snippet demonstrates how to apply the declared Knockout bindings to the page.

    Observe that the ko.applyBindings() call is made within the ready callback of the Infragistics Loader. This is necessary because the grid extension for Knockout needs to be loaded into the page before the bindings are applied.

    In JavaScript:

     $.ig.loader({
         scriptPath: "http://{IG Resources root}/ig_ui/js/",
         cssPath: "http://{IG Resources root}/ig_ui/css/",
         resources:  "igGrid.*,extensions/infragistics.datasource.knockoutjs.js,extensions/infragistics.ui.grid.knockout-extensions.js",
         ready: function () {
             ko.applyBindings(itemsModel);
         }
     });
    
  3. Declare the binding properties for igGrid in the View

    The following code demonstrates how to declare the binding properties for igGrid in your View. The most important part is the declaration of the instantiation properties in the data-bind attribute of the corresponding table element.

    Observe that all the columns’ key and datasource properties of the View-Model object are observable. For the key property, this means that the View-Model object will be able to update the igGrid data dynamically and vice-versa: igGrid will be able to update the View-Model object. If you configure the dataSource to be an observable array, igGrid will be able to track additions and removals of elements and update the rows’ list accordingly. It is possible to declare any of these properties as non-observable, which means that you will lose the corresponding functionalities. If no View-Model object properties are defined as observables, you will not have Knockout support for the igGrid and it does not make sense to use the declarative syntax and the Knockout binding extension.

    In HTML:

     <table id="grid" data-bind="igGrid: {
                 dataSource: data, 
                 width: 700, 
                 primaryKey: 'ID', 
                 autoCommit: true, 
                   features: [ 
                     {
                      name: 'Updating', 
                         editMode: 'row',
                         columnSettings: [
                             {
                                 columnKey : 'ID',
                                 readOnly : true
                             }
                         ]
                         },
                     {
                         name: 'Selection', 
                         mode: 'row', 
                         multipleSelection: true,
                         activation: true,
                         rowSelectionChanged:itemsModel.selectionChanged
                     },
                     {
                         name: 'Paging', 
                         type: 'local', 
                         pageSize: 5
                     }
                   ],
                 autoGenerateColumns: false, 
                 columns: [
                     { headerText: 'Customer ID ', key: 'ID', dataType: 'string'},                  
                     { headerText: 'Contact Name', key: 'ContactName', dataType: 'string' },  
                     { headerText: 'City', key: 'City', dataType: 'string' },
                     { headerText: 'Country', key: 'Country', dataType: 'string' }
                 ]
         }">
     </table>
    
  4. Result

Related Content

Topics

The following topics provide additional information related to this topic.

Resources

The following information is available outside the Infragistics family of content and provides additional information related to this topic.

  • Knockout Home: This is the home page of the Knockout library containing complete documentation, live examples and developer forum.

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