How to: Bind an ASPxScheduler to XPO via the Unit of Work
- 5 minutes to read
This topic provides guidelines on binding the ASPxScheduler control to an XPO (eXpress Persistent Objects) data source using the UnitOfWork session class. The complete project you may download at How to bind ASPxScheduler to XPO via the Unit of Work - sample project.
Five steps are required to accomplish the task.
1. Prepare the Data Sources
Define two persistent object classes - one for appointments, the other - for resources. Name them Task and Employee. The code is shown below:
using System;
using DevExpress.Xpo;
public class Task : XPObject {
public Task(Session session) : base(session) { }
public bool AllDay; // Appointment.AllDay
[Size(SizeAttribute.Unlimited)] // !! To set the Memo field type.
public string Description; // Appointment.Description
public DateTime Finish; // Appointment.End
public int Label; // Appointment.Label
public string Location; // Appointment.Location
[Size(SizeAttribute.Unlimited)] // !! To set the Memo field type.
public string Recurrence; // Appointment.RecurrenceInfo
[Size(SizeAttribute.Unlimited)] // !! To set the Memo field type.
public string Reminder; // Appointment.ReminderInfo
public DateTime Created; // Appointment.Start
public int Status; // Appointment.Status
public string Subject; // Appointment.Subject
public int AppointmentType; // Appointment.Type
public Employee Employee;
}
public class Employee : XPObject {
public Employee(Session session) : base(session) { }
[Size(SizeAttribute.Unlimited)] // !! To set the Memo field type.
public string Name; // Resource.Caption
}
Add two XPO data sources to your project by dragging them from the toolbox onto a form. Specify the IDs and XPObjectType.TypeName for these controls - the first will be the appointmentDataSource with the Task type assigned, the second will be the resourceDataSource with the Employee type assigned.
You may also find the Tutorial 5 - An ASP .NET Application for Data Editing document helpful, to learn how to use the XPO data source component.
2. Specify the Mappings
Since the data source assignment is done at runtime via code, the mappings should be specified manually. Review the code below which illustrates this:
ASPxScheduler1.Storage.BeginUpdate();
try {
ASPxAppointmentMappingInfo aptMappings =
ASPxScheduler1.Storage.Appointments.Mappings;
aptMappings.AllDay = "AllDay";
aptMappings.Description = "Description";
aptMappings.End = "Finish";
aptMappings.Label = "Label";
aptMappings.Location = "Location";
aptMappings.RecurrenceInfo = "Recurrence";
aptMappings.ReminderInfo = "Reminder";
aptMappings.ResourceId = "Employee!Key";
aptMappings.Start = "Created";
aptMappings.Status = "Status";
aptMappings.Subject = "Subject";
aptMappings.Type = "AppointmentType";
aptMappings.AppointmentId = "Oid";
ASPxResourceMappingInfo resourceMappings =
ASPxScheduler1.Storage.Resources.Mappings;
resourceMappings.Caption = "Name";
resourceMappings.ResourceId = "Oid";
}
finally {
ASPxScheduler1.Storage.EndUpdate();
}
3. Post Data Back to the Database
Handle the ASPxSchedulerDataWebControlBase.AppointmentsInserted, ASPxSchedulerDataWebControlBase.AppointmentsChanged and ASPxSchedulerDataWebControlBase.AppointmentsDeleted events to commit changes in the data source. Call the UnitOfWork.CommitChanges method of the Unit of Work object for this purpose.
4. Provide the Correct Appointment Identifier
It is necessary to obtain a correct appointment identifier to track the newly created appointment. To accomplish this, a new XPORowInsertionProvider class is defined. It is aimed at retrieving the key identifier value of the last inserted appointment, and correct the corresponding value of the appointment in the storage. It handles the Session.ObjectSaved event of the Session object and the ASPxSchedulerDataWebControlBase.AppointmentsInserted event of the ASPxScheduler. The code for this class is presented below:
public class XPORowInsertionProvider {
object lastInsertedAppointmentId;
ASPxScheduler control;
Session session;
public void ProvideRowInsertion(ASPxScheduler control,
XpoDataSource dataSource, Session session) {
this.control = control;
this.session = session;
session.ObjectSaved +=
new ObjectManipulationEventHandler(Session_ObjectSaved);
control.AppointmentsInserted +=
new PersistentObjectsEventHandler(ControlOnAppointmentsInserted);
}
void Session_ObjectSaved(object sender,
ObjectManipulationEventArgs e) {
this.lastInsertedAppointmentId = ((XPObject)e.Object).Oid;
}
void ControlOnAppointmentsInserted(object sender,
PersistentObjectsEventArgs e) {
// Autoincremented primary key case
int count = e.Objects.Count;
System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert(count == 1);
Appointment apt = (Appointment)e.Objects[0];
ASPxSchedulerStorage storage = (ASPxSchedulerStorage)sender;
storage.SetAppointmentId(apt, lastInsertedAppointmentId);
}
}
5. Attach the Data Sources
Now you should set the ASPxSchedulerDataWebControlBase.AppointmentDataSource and ASPxSchedulerDataWebControlBase.ResourceDataSource values to the corresponding XPO data sources (appointmentDataSource and resourceDataSource) and call the ASPxWebControl.DataBind method to perform binding.
After completing these steps, run the project and observe the result - a web site with the ASPxScheduler control bound to an XPO data source. Note that you can connect XPO to a database server as described in the Connecting XPO to a Database Server (ASP.NET) article. By default, your data persists in the .mdb file of MS Access format within the App_Data folder.