Data Editing

Default In-place Eremex Editors

The DataGrid control's default behavior is to use Eremex in-place editors to display and edit cell values of common data types.

datagrid-editing

The following list shows Eremex editors associated with common data types:

Boolean values — CheckEditor
Double values — SpinEditor
Enumeration values — ComboBoxEditor
Properties with a TypeConverter attribute whose TypeConverter.GetStandardValuesSupported method returns true — ComboBoxEditor
Other values — TextEditor

You can explicitly specify cell editors for DataGrid columns to override the default editor assignment, and to customize settings of in-place editors. The following sections provide more details about assigning editors.

When an edit operation starts in a cell, you can access and modify the active in-place editor. See the Access the Active In-place Eremex Editor section for more information.

Assign In-place Eremex Editors

To explcitly assign an in-place Eremex editor to cells (columns), use the GridColumn.EditorProperties property.

You can set the EditorProperties property to the following objects that specify the in-place editor type (all of these objects are BaseEditorProperties descendants):

ButtonEditorProperties — Contains settings specific to the ButtonEditor control.
CheckEditorProperties — Contains settings specific to the CheckEditor control.
ComboBoxEditorProperties — Contains settings specific to the ComboBoxEditor control.
DateEditorProperties — Contains settings specific to the DateEditor control.
HyperlinkEditorProperties — Contains settings specific to the HyperlinkEditor control.
MemoEditorProperties — Contains settings specific to the MemoEditor control.
PopupColorEditorProperties — Contains settings specific to the PopupColorEditor control.
SegmentedEditorProperties — Contains settings specific to the SegmentedEditor control.
SpinEditorProperties — Contains settings specific to the SpinEditor control.
TextEditorProperties — Contains settings specific to the TextEditor control.

Assume that you set the EditorProperties property to a SpinEditorProperties object. In display mode (cell editing is not active), the DataGrid control emulates a SpinEditor in the target column's cells, using the settings of the SpinEditorProperties object. No real SpinEditor is created until an edit operation starts in a cell. When a user starts cell editing, the DataGrid control creates a real SpinEditor in-place editor in the focused cell. After the edit operation is complete, the control destroys the real SpinEditor and starts emulating a SpinEditor in this cell. See Access the Active In-place Eremex Editor to learn how to access the real cell editor.

Example - How to use ButtonEditor as an in-place editor in a DataGrid column

The following code assigns a ButtonEditor in-place editor to a DataGrid column.

xmlns:mxdg="https://schemas.eremexcontrols.net/avalonia/datagrid" 
xmlns:mxe="https://schemas.eremexcontrols.net/avalonia/editors"

<mxdg:DataGridControl.Columns>
    <mxdg:GridColumn Header="Name" FieldName="Name">
        <mxdg:GridColumn.EditorProperties>
            <mxe:ButtonEditorProperties>
                <mxe:ButtonEditorProperties.Buttons>
                    <mxe:ButtonSettings Content="Clear" 
                     Command="{Binding 
                      $parent[mxdg:CellControl].DataControl.DataContext.ClearValueCommand}"/>
                </mxe:ButtonEditorProperties.Buttons>
            </mxe:ButtonEditorProperties>
        </mxdg:GridColumn.EditorProperties>
    </mxdg:GridColumn>
</mxdg:DataGridControl.Columns>

Assign In-place Eremex Editors Using Templates

You can use templates to assign Eremex editors to DataGrid columns. Use the GridColumn.CellTemplate property for this purpose.

Set the x:Name property to "PART_Editor" for the Eremex editor defined in a template. This ensures automatic binding of the editor's value (BaseEditor.EditorValue) to the column's field. Additionally, the editor's appearance settings (border visibility and foreground colors in the active and inactive states) will be managed by the DataGrid control.

xmlns:mxdg="https://schemas.eremexcontrols.net/avalonia/datagrid"
xmlns:mxe="https://schemas.eremexcontrols.net/avalonia/editors"
...
<mxdg:GridColumn Header="Phone" FieldName="Phone">
    <mxdg:GridColumn.CellTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
            <mxe:ButtonEditor x:Name="PART_Editor">
                <mxe:ButtonEditor.Buttons>
                    <mxe:ButtonSettings Content="..."/>
                </mxe:ButtonEditor.Buttons>
            </mxe:ButtonEditor>
        </DataTemplate>
    </mxdg:GridColumn.CellTemplate>
</mxdg:GridColumn>

Custom Editors

You can specify custom editors for DataGrid columns using the following approaches:

Assign an editor directly to a specific column.
Dynamically assign editors to columns based on the data type of the column's underlying object.

See the Custom Editors topic for more information.

Get and Set Cell Values

Use the following API to obtain and set cell values:

DataGridControl.GetCellValue
DataGridControl.SetCellValue

Access the Active In-place Eremex Editor

When in-place Eremex editors are assigned to DataGrid columns (implicitly, or explicitly using the EditorSettings property and templates), the control emulates the specified in-place editors in column cells in display mode (when cell editing is not active). No real in-place editor currently exists. The emulation of in-place editors in cells in display mode improves application performance.

When a user starts editing a cell, the control creates a real in-place editor. Use the DataGrid control's ActiveEditor property to access the real Eremex editor instance that currently exists. When a cell loses focus, the real editor is destroyed, and the ActiveEditor property returns null.

Handle the ShowingEditor event to receive notifications when edit operations start in cells. You can safely access the ActiveEditor property in your ShowingEditor event handler.

Disable Editor Activation

To prevent a cell editor from being activated in specific cases, you can handle the ShowingEditor event and set the event handler's Cancel parameter to true.

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