RelatedEntities

The RelatedEntities component is a popup button with a drop-down list of classes related to the entity displayed in a table. Once the user selects the required entity class, a new browser screen is opened, containing the entity class instances related to the entity instances selected in the initial table.

related entities

Component’s XML-name: relatedEntities.

Basics

Related entities are selected considering the user permissions for entities, entity attributes, and screens.

By default, the browser screen for the class selected in the drop-down is defined by convention (<entity_name>.browse). Optionally, you can specify the screen explicitly in the component.

A browser screen with the list of related entities should contain the Filter component.

A filter configuration selecting records related to the selected entities is dynamically created in the browser window.

Example of using the component in a screen XML-descriptor:

<table id="customersTable"
       width="100%"
       multiselect="true"
       dataContainer="customersDc">
    <buttonsPanel>
        <relatedEntities for="customersTable"
                         openMode="NEW_TAB"/>
    </buttonsPanel>
    <columns>
        <column id="firstName"/>
        <column id="lastName"/>
        <column id="age"/>
        <column id="email"/>
    </columns>
</table>
related entities

Attributes and Elements

The for attribute is required. It contains the identifier of the Table, DataGrid, or Tree component.

The openMode attribute defines how a related screen will be opened. It corresponds to the OpenMode enumeration with the values: NEW_TAB, THIS_TAB, DIALOG, NEW_WINDOW. The entity browser is opened in the current tab by default.

The exclude attribute enables excluding some of the related entities from the drop-down list. The value of the property is a regular expression matching reference attributes to exclude.

<table id="customersTable"
       width="100%"
       multiselect="true"
       dataContainer="customersDc">
    <buttonsPanel>
        <relatedEntities for="customersTable"
                         exclude="city"/>
    </buttonsPanel>
    <columns>
        <column id="firstName"/>
        <column id="lastName"/>
        <column id="age"/>
        <column id="email"/>
    </columns>
</table>

The property element enables explicitly defining the related entity displayed in the drop-down.

property attributes:

  • name - the current entity attribute name, referencing the related entity. The name attribute is required.

  • screen - the string identifier of the browser screen that should be opened. By default, RelatedEntities opens a screen, having identifier in the format of <entity_name>.browse, for example, demo_Order.browse.

  • caption - the custom caption of the related entity displayed in the drop-down.

<relatedEntities for="ordersTable">
    <property name="customer"
              screen="uiex1_Customer.browse-filter"
              configurationName="Related customers:"/>
</relatedEntities>

The framework provides an API for opening related entities screens without the RelatedEntities component: the RelatedEntitiesSupport interface and RelatedEntitiesBuilder.

The RelatedEntitiesSupport class creates a related screen builder.

It is necessary to set MetaClass or entity class and property or MetaProperty to the builder.

Example of creating a screen with entity class and property:

<button id="related"
        caption="Related customer"/>
@Autowired
protected RelatedEntitiesSupport relatedEntitiesSupport;

@Autowired
protected Table<Order> ordersTable;

@Subscribe("related")
protected void onRelatedClick(Button.ClickEvent event) {
    RelatedEntitiesBuilder builder = relatedEntitiesSupport.builder(this);

    Screen customerBrowser = builder
            .withEntityClass(Order.class)
            .withProperty("customer")
            .withSelectedEntities(ordersTable.getSelected())
            .build();
    customerBrowser.show();
}

By default, the standard entity browser screen is opened. RelatedEntitiesBuilder provides a lot of methods to set optional parameters of the opened screen. For example, the following code creates a Customer browser with the uiex1_Customer.browse-filter id opened as a dialog:

@Autowired
protected RelatedEntitiesSupport relatedEntitiesSupport;

@Autowired
protected Table<Order> ordersTable;

@Subscribe("relatedBtn")
protected void onRelatedBtnClick(Button.ClickEvent event) {
    RelatedEntitiesBuilder builder = relatedEntitiesSupport.builder(this);

    Screen customerBrowser = builder
            .withMetaClass(metadata.getClass(Order.class))
            .withProperty("customer")
            .withScreenId("uiex1_Customer.browse-filter")
            .withSelectedEntities(ordersTable.getSelected())
            .withOpenMode(OpenMode.DIALOG)
            .build();
    customerBrowser.show();
}

All XML Attributes

You can view and edit attributes applicable to the component using the Component Inspector panel of the Studio’s Screen Designer.

RelatedEntities XML Element

Property XML Attributes