Vertical Repeater
Description
Any UI-heavy applications have some need for repeated input, such as forms that collect the same types of data for different objects, locations, or products. This node and its counterpart "Smartgrid", or horizontal repeater, give you the ability to present horizontal or vertical tabular input forms. The sample project linked to below gives you additional guidance on using the repeaters.
Release Note: The vertical repeater is only available on the Nodes Toolbox from Release 7.4 on. Please contact LogicNets Support if you would like to use this part in an earlier release.
Use
You can use vertical repeaters when you need to collect repeated input but the size or number of fields are not conducive to using a horizontal table. When your users run your application, the system presents the fields and displays PLUS and DELETE buttons to allow them to add new records or to remove erroneous ones. The system stores the results in a data collection that can be used for downstream calculations or display.
Simple implementations of the vertical repeater display blank fields your application users can complete. It is also possible for you to prepopulate a vertical repeater with information from an external source or a project table. This allows your application users to add data to the data collection. The Parameters tab in the editor contains options that let you prevent application users from adding/removing lines, and the section below gives more information about these options.
Editor Fields
The Vertical Repeater node has configuration options on both the call and parameters tabs of the editor. The call tab options replicate the options available on a regular call node and call the grid contents, which are created in a logicnet, and the collection where the result is stored. The parameters tab contains options that control the behavior and layout of the repeater.
Call Tab
| Field Name |
Description/Use |
Type/Options |
Optional/Mandatory |
| Library project |
The logicnet to call can reside in the main project or in a library. Click here for more information on library projects. |
Text |
Optional |
| Logicnet to call |
This is the name of the logicnet that contains the form parts that correspond to the columns on the grid. |
Text |
Mandatory |
| Context path |
This is usually left blank, except in applications requiring careful scoping of the data. For example, if you use the same call in multiple places, you would want to add a context path. This would allow each call node to set a different set of values in the context. If you did not add a context path, when a user went to the second call node the application would already show the results of the first. The context path would also be useful if you wanted to use the same collection name for your data. |
Text |
Optional |
| Collection |
Repeating forms use this field to name the array in which the system stores all of the form data. |
Collection |
Mandatory |
| Class | This field references the default templates used by the Smartgrid. It defaults to h_repeating_line_items. | Text | Mandatory |
Parameters Tab
- Allow New - If you select this the system displays the PLUS icon and allows the application user to add a new set of information to the collection. Note: You can turn this option off if you prepopulate a repeater from setup/external data and only require the user to answer questions about it.
- Allow Delete - If you select this the system displays the DELETE icon and allows the user to remove an existing set of information from the collection.
- Confirm delete? - If you select this the system displays a popup confirmation for the user to confirm when they have pressed the delete icon.
Example Project
Download and import the project ASF How-To Guide - Repeating Inputs for guidance on how to set up the vertical or horizontal repeaters, and it also shows you the "Tab Control" part, which provides an alternative UI and more sophisticated tools for repeated inputs.