GridForm Designer is used to design how eGridForm web control works on the web form. eGridForm web control is used to display multiple rows of records on the web form. Besides the functionality of native asp.net DataGrid web control, it has some additional powerful features:

• It's an editable DataGrid. It providers Create, Read, Update and Delete (CRUD) functions.
• It supports one-one, one-many relations among GridForms (each GridForm maps to a table, view or stored procedure). The relations can be defined by foreign key constraint or between any two fields if relation between them makes sense; The level of relations can be unlimited as well as the number of children GridForms;
• Click column header to sort data;
• Built-in paging navigation, such as turning page by page or jumping from page to page;
• Export to external file;
• To use all features of GridForm, you need write only ONE line of .net code (Call DataBind() method). No other code needed; No .net code, SQL command or Javascript required.

The properties of GridForm are divided into four sections:

• General
  
  • Friendly Name will show up in the GridForm's Toolbar.
  • Page Size the number of items to display on a single page of the DataGrid control.
  • Allow Paging indicates whether paging is enabled.
  • Allow Sorting indicates whether sorting is enabled.
• Toolbar
  
  • Show Top Toolbar indicates whether the toolbar is visible in the eGridForm web control.
  • Refresh icon reloads data and display them on the page.
  • Add New Record icon lets user be able to create a new record to the database.
  • Export icon lets user be able to export data in current GridForm to external file. Four formats are supported, CSV, EXCEL, WORD and HTML.
  • Multi-Delete icon deletes all selected records on the eGridForm web control. To use this feature, please also add Checkbox Column to the GridForm.
• Master/Details
  
  • GridForm Relations show the detail GridForms of current GridForm. Please note, the sequence of the detail GridForm ID in the text box also decides the sequence that detail GridForms will be displayed on the page. (See Figure 1) Click Edit link to manage the Relations among the GridForms.
  • Children Show By field specifies the control IDs of either eGridForm or eGridFormGroup web controls that are placed on the web form. If it's empty, all children GridForms are shown by the built in eGridFormGroup control. If this field is not empty, the number of IDs here has to be the same as the GridForm Relations, which means every child GridForm must have a web control for it. Same eGridFormGroup ID can be put here multiple times as all corresponding GridForm will be shown in one eGridFormGroup web control.(see Figure 1)
• Editing
  
  • DataForm for Insert indicates the DataForm that is used to insert record. Sometimes, you may want the different DataForms for insert. For instance, stored procedure is used as datasource to display data, but it can not be used to add new records. So you can specify a DataForm for inserting records.
  • eDataForm for Insert specifies the eDataForm web control which is used for adding new record. If this field is empty, the built-in eDataForm web control will be used.
  • DataForm for Edit indicates the DataForm that is used to update or view record. If the specified DataForm is used to update record, the datasource of DataForm can only be Table. View or Stored Procedure can only be used for showing data.
  • eDataForm for Edit specifies the eDataForm web control which is used for editing existing record. If this field is empty, the built-in eDataForm web control will be used.

After creating a DataForm.NET, check on/off "In use" checkbox next to the column name and save the GridForm.

The properties of field in DataForm Designer are most used properties.

• The first checkbox column is used to enable/disable fields. The difference between "disable " and "delete" is whether or not the properties of field are removed from system. If a field is deleted, the properties of field are removed from system. If the field is needed again, all properties needs to be set again. However, if a field is disabled only, that field's properties are still in system. Just re-enable it and it can be used again.
• Column Name is the name of column retrieved from table in database. This column is not editable. Click the link to open a window for editing more attributes.
• Field Title gives field a friendly name. Default field title is Column Name.
• Datasource Name indicates that from which table the field was retrieved. Datasource can be Table, View or Stored Procedure.
• Column Type is a column type for the DataGrid control that is bound to a field in a data source. In additional to the two native column types, there are several new column types, such as Delete Column, Edit Column, File Column, View Column, Selective Column, Checkbox Column and Template Column.
• Visible indicates whether the column will show up in the GridForm.
• Order are used to set the display sequence of column in GridForm.

You can also display multiple tables' data in one GridForm. To do so, add Extra Field to the GridForm. Enter Column Name, Field Title, pick a Table Name(optional) and Column Type, then click "Add Column " button to add an additional field to the GridForm. If the table name is specified, you need to specify the Join statement for this field as well.

More field properties can be accessed by clicking field's ID. Please refer to GridForm Field Property or eGridForm class for more information.