DataBindings Property

Posted by GregHiggins on 17-Oct-2008 03:52

Ignoring (for now) the (Advanced) property, what is the difference between DataBindings Tag, DataBindings Text and DataBindings Value properties.

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Posted by Admin on 17-Oct-2008 04:38

Databinding is a dynamic concept. The control vendor did define which properties of a control should become databindable.

Those properties are synchronized (bidirectional) with a field in an OpenEdge Datasource (that's already ABL speech - in pure .NET it would be a data member of the binding sources data source).

The Tag property is something like a PRIVATE-DATA property.

The Text property comes close to SCREEN-VALUE.

The Value property comes close to INPUT-VALUE.

So you have the choice which property of a Control should be synchronized with a value from a Progress record buffer (DB or Temp-Table/ProDataset). Bidirectional, so it works for display and update.

As mentioned in a previous task. I never, ever did databind the Tag property.

If it's a formatted control or a calender combo etc. I bind to Value. For simple text controls, I bind to Text. For a toggle box (ultraCheckEditor) I might bind the Checked property.

(Note that by intention, I try to keep the casing of .NET property names/type names as found in the documentation of the Control).

By the way: There's WebEx on databinding on Monday afternoon (CET), morning US time. I'll discuss this in the presentation as well.

Posted by rbf on 17-Oct-2008 04:43

Depending on the control, you sometimes need to set the Text propery (e.g. UltraGroupBox) and sometimes the Value property (e.g. UltraFormattedLinkLabel). I find that confusing as well.

The Tag property is comparable to PRIVATE-DATA, so you might never in your life set it. Or you might find a very clever use for it.

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