XtraGrid binding over complex and nested objects model

Question

I'm wondering how to solve/simplify a task that sometimes pop-ups during developement with DevExpress XtraGrid suite. Sometimes i fall into this case: Given these 2 classes that represents the model classes that comes from the Business Logic layer:

 public class Customer
    {
        public Int32 CustomerId { get; set; }
        public String Name { get; set; }
        public String Address { get; set; }
        public List<Order> Orders { get; set; }
    }

    public class Order
    {
        public Int32 OrderId { get; set; }
        public String ItemCode { get; set; }
        public Int32 Quantity { get; set; }
        public Decimal Price { get; set; }
        public DateTime Date { get; set; }
    }

I'd like to create a simple window that shows an XtraGrid that allows edit/add/remove a list of customers and its nested orders. In order to do that, i've created a simple form with a GridControl and a GridView controls with the AllowAddRow and AllowDeleteRow properties == true. Then, in Form1 class i've done the following:

//List of my customers
private List<Customer> _customers;

public Form1()
{

    //Initialize UI components
    InitializeComponent();

    //Call the provider in order to get customers 
    CustomerProvider cp = new CustomerProvider();
    _customers = cp.GetCustomers();

    //Initialize bindingSource
    BindingSource bs = new BindingSource();
    bs.DataSource = _customers;

    //Set GridControl's dataSource
    gridControl1.DataSource = bs;
}

Now i've got beautiful GridControl that shows the content of my List.

enter image description here

But now here's the problem...how can i add or delete row? Infact:

If i set the focus on a row and i press "Delete" key, it doesn't work.
If i try to add a new row, when it looses focus, it suddently disappears.

Obviously i'm missing something. Unfortunately i found the DevExpress documentation a quite confusional (in my opinion) about this kind of argument and the best practises, so i can't reach my goal.

Someone can help me?

PS. This is the hyperlink for the .csproj of my sample.

kenrogers · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-03T19:12:33.340

1

Set the gridControl1.UseEmbeddedNavigator property to true. You'll get a data navigator widget at the bottom of your view.

That only gets you halfway there, however. If you want to be able to add Orders to a Customer from the grid, your Customer class needs to use BindingList instead of List for the Orders property.

See here for more information. If you find the documentation lacking, you can also find helpful resources at the Support Center.

EDIT: Some other options to consider are:

Bind your grid to a database.
Bind to XML data and use a DataSet.

If you're already storing your data in a database, then option 1 would be the way to go. If you're not persisting your data anywhere yet, you could go either way.

edited May 03 '13 at 19:12

answered May 02 '13 at 21:21

kenrogers

1,350
6
17

Thank u very much for your advice! I've tried using bindingList instead of the simple list class and it works...now i can add master rows (customers row in my latest example), but it didn't solved for the details (orders row in my latest example). Obviously the detail gridview is binded directly to the "Orders" property that's a List and not a BindingList. – GiveEmTheBoot May 03 '13 at 18:35
How can i solve without change the type of the "Orders" property from List to BindingList? I don't want to use binding-oriented types in my model layer and also i don't want to recompile all my business logics model container assemblies because they're too much...is there any workaround or a way to wrap my model to make it fully editable and use it as datasource of the gridcontrol? Thanks! – GiveEmTheBoot May 03 '13 at 18:38
None that I know of. At the highest level, your options are 1)Use containers that implement the IBindingList interface, 2)Bind your control to a database, or 3)Bind to XML data via the DataSet class. See http://documentation.devexpress.com/#WindowsForms/CustomDocument2395 for more information. – kenrogers May 03 '13 at 18:54
I can't do it in the 2nd or in the 3rd way, because many of my models aren't either DB entities or XML serializables class. I don't understand the 1st way when you say "Use containers that implement the IBindingList interface". Anyway, i read the documentation but my case is not treated...maybe i'm blind :-) Have you got some other ideas? Thx! – GiveEmTheBoot May 04 '13 at 14:30
By using containers that implement IBindingList I mean to do what I suggested in the answer. Change the "List orders" member to a "BindingList". If none of the methods listed fit your model classes without modification, you'll need to develop another layer (think of an adapter) in between them and the grid to translate them to something the grid can work with. – kenrogers May 04 '13 at 22:42
Adapter layer sounds very very good! Maybe I can make a bunch of model adapter class in my ViewModel layer. I'll give it a try and I'll let you now if it works! Thanks :-) – GiveEmTheBoot May 05 '13 at 08:31

XtraGrid binding over complex and nested objects model

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