Edit Forms in Blazor Grid

• Feb 13, 2024
• 8 minutes to read

In EditForm or PopupEditForm mode, the Grid displays an inline or pop-up edit form instead of the edited data row. Users can click command buttons to create, modify, and delete grid rows.

Run Demo: Edit Forms

Enable Editing

The built-in edit form shows only the predefined Save and Cancel buttons. Use the EditFormTemplate to populate the edit form with editors. Call the GetEditor(String) method to add an automatically generated column editor in the edit form.

Note

When you place a templated component in the edit form template, a Razor error may occur. To prevent this error, specify the Context parameter explicitly either for the Grid template or for the nested component.

Once you define the edit form content, follow the steps below to enable data editing:

1. Declare a DxGridCommandColumn object in the Columns template to display the command column.

2. If your data object has a primary key, assign it to the KeyFieldName or KeyFieldNames property.

3. Handle EditModelSaving and DataItemDeleting events to save changes and reload Grid data. Refer to the following topic for more information: Edit Model in Blazor Grid.

4. (Optional) Set the EditMode property to PopupEditForm to display the edit form in a pop-up window.

Razor

@using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore
@inject IDbContextFactory<NorthwindContextNorthwindContextFactory>
@implements IDisposable

<DxGrid Data="Data"
        EditModelSaving="OnEditModelSaving"
        DataItemDeleting="OnDataItemDeleting"
        KeyFieldName="EmployeeId">
    <Columns>
        <DxGridCommandColumn />
        <DxGridDataColumn FieldName="FirstName" />
        <DxGridDataColumn FieldName="LastName" />
        <DxGridDataColumn FieldName="Title" />
        <DxGridDataColumn FieldName="HireDate" />
    </Columns>
    <EditFormTemplate Context="editFormContext">
        <DxFormLayout>
            <DxFormLayoutItem Caption="First Name:">
                @editFormContext.GetEditor("FirstName")
            </DxFormLayoutItem>
            <DxFormLayoutItem Caption="Last Name:">
                @editFormContext.GetEditor("LastName")
            </DxFormLayoutItem>
            <DxFormLayoutItem Caption="Title:">
                @editFormContext.GetEditor("Title")
            </DxFormLayoutItem>
            <DxFormLayoutItem Caption="Hire Date:">
                @editFormContext.GetEditor("HireDate")
            </DxFormLayoutItem>
        </DxFormLayout>
    </EditFormTemplate>
</DxGrid>

@code {
    IEnumerable<object> Data { get; set; }
    NorthwindContext Northwind { get; set; }

    protected override async Task OnInitializedAsync() {
        Northwind = NorthwindContextFactory.CreateDbContext();
        Data = await Northwind.Employees.ToListAsync();
    }

    async Task OnEditModelSaving(GridEditModelSavingEventArgs e) {
        var editModel = (Employee)e.EditModel;
        // Re-query a data item from the database.
        var dataItem = e.IsNew ? new Employee() : Northwind.Employees.Find(editModel.EmployeeId);

        // Assign changes from the edit model to the data item.
        if (dataItem != null) {
            dataItem.FirstName = editModel.FirstName;
            dataItem.LastName = editModel.LastName;
            dataItem.Title = editModel.Title;
            dataItem.HireDate = editModel.HireDate;
            // Post changes to the database.
            if (e.IsNew)
                await Northwind.AddAsync(dataItem);
            await Northwind.SaveChangesAsync();
            // Reload the entire Grid.
            Data = await Northwind.Employees.ToListAsync();
        }
    }

    async Task OnDataItemDeleting(GridDataItemDeletingEventArgs e) {
        // Re-query a data item from the database.
        var dataItem = Northwind.Employees.Find((e.DataItem as Employee).EmployeeId);
        if (dataItem != null) {
            // Remove the data item from the database.
            Northwind.Remove(dataItem);
            await Northwind.SaveChangesAsync();
            // Reload the entire Grid.
            Data = await Northwind.Employees.ToListAsync();
        }
    }

    public void Dispose() {
        Northwind?.Dispose();
    }
}

Employee

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

namespace Grid.Northwind {
    public partial class Employee {
        public int EmployeeId { get; set; }
        [Required]
        public string LastName { get; set; }
        [Required]
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        [Required]
        public string Title { get; set; }
        public string TitleOfCourtesy { get; set; }
        public Nullable<System.DateTime> BirthDate { get; set; }
        [Required]
        [Range(typeof(DateTime), "1/1/2000", "1/1/2020",
        ErrorMessage = "HireDate must be between {1:d} and {2:d}")]
        public Nullable<System.DateTime> HireDate { get; set; }
        public string Address { get; set; }
        public string City { get; set; }
        public string Region { get; set; }
        public string PostalCode { get; set; }
        public string Country { get; set; }
        public string HomePhone { get; set; }
        public string Extension { get; set; }
        public byte[] Photo { get; set; }
        public string Notes { get; set; }
        public Nullable<int> ReportsTo { get; set; }
        public string PhotoPath { get; set; }
        public virtual ICollection<Order> Orders { get; set; }
        public string Text => $"{FirstName} {LastName} ({Title})";
        public string ImageFileName => $"Employees/{EmployeeId}.jpg";
    }
}

NorthwindContext

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
#nullable disable

namespace Grid.Northwind {
    public partial class NorthwindContext : DbContext {

        public NorthwindContext(DbContextOptions<NorthwindContext> options)
            : base(options) {
        }
        // ...
        public virtual DbSet<Employee> Employees { get; set; }

        protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder) {
            if(!optionsBuilder.IsConfigured) {
                optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer("Server=.\\sqlexpress;Database=Northwind;Integrated Security=true");
            }
        }

        protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder) {
            modelBuilder.HasAnnotation("Relational:Collation", "SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS");
            // ...
            modelBuilder.Entity<Employee>(entity => {
                entity.HasIndex(e => e.EmployeeId, "EmployeeId");
                entity.HasIndex(e => e.LastName, "LastName");
                entity.HasIndex(e => e.FirstName, "FirstName");
                entity.HasIndex(e => e.Title, "Title");
                entity.HasIndex(e => e.BirthDate, "BirthDate");
                entity.HasIndex(e => e.HireDate, "HireDate");
                entity.HasIndex(e => e.Notes, "Notes");
            });
            OnModelCreatingPartial(modelBuilder);
        }

        partial void OnModelCreatingPartial(ModelBuilder modelBuilder);
    }
}

Program.cs

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
// ...
builder.Services.AddDbContextFactory<NorthwindContext>((sp, options) ={
    var env = sp.GetRequiredService<IWebHostEnvironment>();
    var dbPath = Path.Combine(env.ContentRootPath, "Northwind-5e44b51f.mdf");
    options.UseSqlServer("Server=(localdb)\\MSSQLLocalDB;Integrated Security=true;AttachDbFileName=" + dbPath);
});

Customize Pop-Up Edit Form

You can set the EditMode property to PopupEditForm to display the edit form in a pop-up window. Specify the PopupEditFormCssClass property to apply a CSS class to the pop-up edit form. The PopupEditFormHeaderText property allows you to change text in the edit form header.

The example below changes the pop-up edit form’s size and header text:

Razor

<DxGrid Data="Data"
        EditModelSaving="OnEditModelSaving"
        DataItemDeleting="OnDataItemDeleting"
        KeyFieldName="EmployeeId"
        EditMode="GridEditMode.PopupEditForm"
        PopupEditFormHeaderText="Edit Employee"
        PopupEditFormCssClass="my-style">
    <Columns>
        <DxGridCommandColumn />
        <DxGridDataColumn FieldName="FirstName" />
        <DxGridDataColumn FieldName="LastName" />
        <DxGridDataColumn FieldName="Title" />
        <DxGridDataColumn FieldName="HireDate" />
    </Columns>
    <EditFormTemplate Context="editFormContext">
        <DxFormLayout>
            <DxFormLayoutItem Caption="First Name:">
                @editFormContext.GetEditor("FirstName")
            </DxFormLayoutItem>
            <DxFormLayoutItem Caption="Last Name:">
                @editFormContext.GetEditor("LastName")
            </DxFormLayoutItem>
            <DxFormLayoutItem Caption="Title:">
                @editFormContext.GetEditor("Title")
            </DxFormLayoutItem>
            <DxFormLayoutItem Caption="Hire Date:">
                @editFormContext.GetEditor("HireDate")
            </DxFormLayoutItem>
        </DxFormLayout>
    </EditFormTemplate>
</DxGrid>

CSS

.my-style {
    min-width: 800px;
}

Hide Predefined Edit Form Buttons

Disable the EditFormButtonsVisible option to hide the predefined Save and Cancel buttons. Instead of them, you can implement your own buttons. Note the following specifics:

• Instead of the Save button, you can use a submit button or a button that calls the SaveChangesAsync method on click.

• To discard changes and hide the edit form, call the CancelEditAsync method in a custom button’s click event handler.

The following example demonstrates how to display custom Save and Cancel buttons in the edit form:

<DxGrid Data="Data"
        EditModelSaving="OnEditModelSaving"
        DataItemDeleting="OnDataItemDeleting"
        KeyFieldName="EmployeeId"
        EditFormButtonsVisible="false">
    <Columns>
        <DxGridCommandColumn />
        <DxGridDataColumn FieldName="FirstName" />
        <DxGridDataColumn FieldName="LastName" />
        <DxGridDataColumn FieldName="Title" />
        <DxGridDataColumn FieldName="HireDate" />
    </Columns>
    <EditFormTemplate Context="editFormContext">
        <DxFormLayout>
            <DxFormLayoutItem Caption="First Name:">
                @editFormContext.GetEditor("FirstName")
            </DxFormLayoutItem>
            <DxFormLayoutItem Caption="Last Name:">
                @editFormContext.GetEditor("LastName")
            </DxFormLayoutItem>
            <DxFormLayoutItem Caption="Title:">
                @editFormContext.GetEditor("Title")
            </DxFormLayoutItem>
            <DxFormLayoutItem Caption="Hire Date:">
                @editFormContext.GetEditor("HireDate")
            </DxFormLayoutItem>
            <DxFormLayoutItem ColSpanMd="12">
                <DxButton SubmitFormOnClick="true" Text="Save" />
                <DxButton Click="@(() => MyGrid.CancelEditAsync())" Text="Cancel" />
            </DxFormLayoutItem>
        </DxFormLayout>
    </EditFormTemplate>
</DxGrid>

Related API

This section contains a comprehensive editing-related API reference.

Show API Reference

DxGrid API member	Type	Description
CustomValidators	Property	Allows you to declare custom validator components.
EditFormButtonsVisible	Property	Specifies whether the edit form contains the predefined Save and Cancel buttons.
EditFormTemplate	Property	Specifies the template used to display the edit form.
EditMode	Property	Specifies how users edit Grid data.
EditNewRowPosition	Property	Specifies the position of the edit form used to create new rows.
PopupEditFormCssClass	Property	Specifies the name of the CSS class applied to the pop-up edit form.
PopupEditFormHeaderText	Property	Specifies text displayed in the pop-up edit form’s header.
ValidationEnabled	Property	Specifies whether the Grid validates user input in DevExpress data editors located in the edit form or edit cells.
CancelEditAsync()	Method	Cancels row editing and discards changes.
GetColumnEditSettings<T>(String)	Method	Returns editor settings of the column bound to the specified data source field.
IsEditing()	Method	Returns whether the Grid is being edited.
IsEditingNewRow()	Method	Returns whether a new Grid row is being edited.
IsEditingRow(Int32)	Method	Returns whether the specified Grid row is being edited.
SaveChangesAsync()	Method	Triggers validation and raises the EditModelSaving event if validation succeeds. The method immediately raises this event if validation is disabled.
ShowDataItemDeleteConfirmation(Object)	Method	Displays the delete confirmation dialog for the specified data item. If a user confirms the operation, the method raises the DataItemDeleting event.
ShowRowDeleteConfirmation(Int32)	Method	Displays the delete confirmation dialog for the specified row. If a user confirms the operation, the method raises the DataItemDeleting event.
StartEditDataItemAsync(Object, String)	Method	Starts editing the specified data item.
StartEditNewRowAsync(String)	Method	Starts editing a new row.
StartEditRowAsync(Int32, String)	Method	Starts editing the row with the specified visible index.
CustomizeDataRowEditor	Event	Allows you to customize a cell editor in a data row.
CustomizeEditModel	Event	Allows you to create a custom edit model or customize an automatically generated edit model.
DataItemDeleting	Event	Fires when a user confirms the delete operation in the delete confirmation dialog.
EditCanceling	Event	Fires before the Grid cancels the edit operation and discards changes.
EditModelSaving	Event	Fires if validation succeeds after a user saves changes or you call the SaveChangesAsync() method.
EditStart	Event	Fires before the Grid starts editing a row.

DxGridCommandColumn API member	Type	Description
CellDisplayTemplate	Property	Specifies a template used to display command column cells.
DeleteButtonVisible	Property	Specifies whether the command column displays Delete buttons.
EditButtonVisible	Property	Specifies whether the command column displays Edit buttons.
HeaderTemplate	Property	Specifies a template used to display the command column header.
NewButtonVisible	Property	Specifies whether the command column displays the New button.

DxGridDataColumn API member	Type	Description
DataRowEditorVisible	Property	Specifies whether to render the editor associated with this column in the column edit cell, edit form, or pop-up edit form.
EditSettings	Property	Allows you to customize the editor associated with this column.
ReadOnly	Property	Specifies whether a user can change the column editor value when the Grid is in edit mode.