Custom Editor

Introduction

WebGrid.NET Enterprise v3.1 introduced several built-in EditTypes to be used in conjunction with built-in cell editing feature.

In 4.0, only one EditType is added which is Custom. The new version has been configured to use developers' favorite editing control and “hook” it up into WebGrid easily.

This powerful feature will allow developers to use virtually any type of controls as WebGrid's EditType, whether it is an ASP.NET Server Control or a DHTML Client Control.

Core Architecture
The core architecture that made all of these possible – CustomEditor open architecture – is a set of client-side interfaces that need to be implemented by each custom editor in order for it to be interfaced with WebGrid.NET core editing architecture.

These interfaces have been designed to be very flexible, extensible and modular.

Developers can easily wrap their favorite editor into these interfaces and WebGrid.NET will be able to properly interface with the editor functionality and call appropriate methods and events based on user’s action.

Moreover, in conjunction with OnTheFly architecture, the custom editor interface is written once and can be reusable in any numbers of columns, tables and even in different grids on the same page.

Developers don’t have to worry about dealing with custom editor object itself, such as dynamic object creation, object instantiated for each assigned column, and more.

As seen the in following screenshot, a sample of server-side custom editor implementation is presented.

Something that was never possible before is now possible with the new version of WebGrid, enabling even more advanced data and content management application – with even richer and more sophisticated user experience – to be done in much less time and effort than ever before.

With the power and flexibility provided by the CustomEditor and WebGrid.NET built-in editing in general, hopefully this opens a new market and opportunity to 3rd party vendors to develop their editing products to support WebGrid.NET CustomEditor architecture or develop new products specifically targeting WebGrid.NET Enterprise in thenear future.