View this page in the latest version of Appian. Use Links in a Grid to Show More Details and Edit Data Share Share via LinkedIn Reddit Email Copy Link Print On This Page Tip: Interface patterns give you an opportunity to explore different interface designs. Be sure to check out How to Adapt a Pattern for Your Application. Goal Allow end users to click a link in a read-only grid to view the details for the row, and make changes to the data. The data available for editing may include more fields than are displayed in the grid. This design pattern is not recommended for offline interfaces because reflecting immediate changes in an interface based on user interaction requires a connection to the server. This scenario demonstrates: How to use links in a grid that conditionally display other interface components. How to allow editable fields to update the individual fields of the a data set. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 a!localVariables( /* We load the employee data into this variable. If you are populating this variable with a query, you would put .data at the end before passing it to the grid. */ local!employees: { a!map( id: 11, name: "Elizabeth Ward", dept: "Engineering", role: "Senior Engineer", team: "Front-End Components", pto: 15, startDate: today()-500), a!map( id: 22, name: "Michael Johnson", dept: "Finance", role: "Payroll Manager", team: "Accounts Payable", pto: 2, startDate: today()-100), a!map( id: 33, name: "John Smith", dept: "Engineering", role: "Quality Engineer", team: "User Acceptance Testing", pto: 5, startDate: today()-1000), a!map( id: 44, name: "Diana Hellstrom", dept: "Engineering", role: "UX Designer", team: "User Experience", pto: 49, startDate: today()-1200), a!map( id: 55, name: "Francois Morin", dept: "Sales", role: "Account Executive", team: "Commercial North America", pto: 15, startDate: today()-700), a!map( id: 66, name: "Maya Kapoor", dept: "Sales", role: "Regional Director", team: "Front-End Components", pto: 15, startDate: today()-1400), a!map( id: 77, name: "Anthony Wu", dept: "Human Resources", role: "Benefits Coordinator", team: "Accounts Payable", pto: 2, startDate: today()-300), }, /* local!teamList would normally come from a constant or data source. */ local!teamList: { "Accounts Payable", "User Acceptance Testing", "User Experience", "Commercial North America", "Front-End Components" }, /* This variable is for storing the grid's selection. */ local!selection, /* This variable is used to for the full row of data on the selected item to be passed to the details section of the interface. */ local!selectedEmployee, local!readOnly: true, /* * You can view values of your local variables in the * Local Variables pane on the right side of your interface, * so you can see you the changes being made to the data in realtime */ { a!columnsLayout( columns: { a!columnLayout( contents: { a!sectionLayout( label: "Employees", contents: { a!gridField( data: local!employees, columns: { a!gridColumn( label: "Name", value: fv!row.name ), a!gridColumn( label: "Team", value: fv!row.team ) }, pageSize: 10, selectable: true, selectionStyle: "ROW_HIGHLIGHT", selectionValue: local!selection, selectionSaveInto: { /* Using the index function to return the last-selected item ensures that only one item will be selected at a time, regardless of how fast the user clicks. */ a!save(local!selectedEmployee, index(fv!selectedRows, length(fv!selectedRows), null)), /* We use the same method as above to limit the selection variable. */ a!save(local!selection, index(save!value, length(save!value), null)) }, shadeAlternateRows: false, rowHeader: 1 ) } ) } ), a!columnLayout( contents: { a!sectionLayout( label: "Details", contents: { a!richTextDisplayField( value: a!richTextItem( text: "No employee selected.", color: "SECONDARY", size: "MEDIUM", style: "EMPHASIS" ), showWhen: isnull(local!selection) ), a!columnsLayout( columns: { a!columnLayout( contents: { a!textField( label: "Name", value: local!selectedEmployee.name, readOnly: true ), a!textField( label: "Department", value: local!selectedEmployee.dept, readOnly: true ) }, width: "MEDIUM" ), a!columnLayout( contents: { /* In the following fields, we display from, and save to local!selectedEmployee. */ a!textField( label: "Role", value: local!selectedEmployee.role, saveInto: local!selectedEmployee.role, readOnly: local!readOnly ), /* Because dropdown components can't be readOnly, we use a textField to display the value and an if() statement to swap it out for the dropdown when it's time to edit. */ if( local!readOnly, a!textField( label: "Team", value: local!selectedEmployee.team, readOnly: true ), a!dropdownField( label: "Team", choiceLabels: local!teamList, choiceValues: local!teamList, value: local!selectedEmployee.team, saveInto: local!selectedEmployee.team, disabled: local!readOnly ) ), /* The link enables editing in the other components, and is hidden when editing is enabled. */ a!linkField( labelPosition: "COLLAPSED", links: a!dynamicLink( label: "Reassign", value: false, saveInto: local!readOnly ), showWhen: local!readOnly ) }, width: "WIDE" ) }, showWhen: not(isnull(local!selection)) ) } ), a!buttonLayout( primaryButtons: { a!buttonWidget( label: "Update", value: local!selectedEmployee, saveInto: { /* When the user clicks UPDATE, we use the updatearray() function to update local!employees with the new values in local!selectedEmployee. */ a!save( local!employees, updatearray( local!employees, where(tointeger(local!employees.id)=local!selectedEmployee.id), local!selectedEmployee ) ), a!save(local!readOnly, true) }, style: "PRIMARY" ) }, secondaryButtons: { a!buttonWidget( label: "Cancel", value: true, saveInto: { local!readOnly, /* If the user has made any changes to local!selectedEmployee, when they click CANCEL, we need to reset local!selectedEmployee to previous values in local!employees in order to keep the selectedEmployee details true. If you don't want to persist the selection, you can simply reset the selections instead with: a!save(local!selectedEmployee, null), a!save(local!selection, null) */ a!save( local!selectedEmployee, cast(typeof({a!map()}), /* Casting the value to "list of map" simplifies subsequent interactions. */ index( local!employees, where(tointeger(local!employees.id)=local!selectedEmployee.id), null ) ) ) }, submit: true, style: "NORMAL", validate: false ) }, showWhen: not(local!readOnly) ) } ) } ) } ) Test it out Click on an employee's name in the grid's left column. Notice that an editable section appears. Change the employee's Team and/or Role and click the Update button. Click on an employee's name, change the department and click Cancel. Notice that the employee's department has not changed. Feedback Was this page helpful? SHARE FEEDBACK Loading...