DataTable to Entity?
Walaa wrote:
At which line of code is the Exception thrown.
Also what's more important, if you are going to edit data from the dataGridView, why don't you bind an EntityCollection rather than a TypedView?
Well, I used a TypedView because it was more easy to display the data I want in the XtraGrid and because it will be read only (for showing purposes, not allowing to edit it directly), the Edit button displays a new form filled with all the data from the entity, etc, from the XtraGrid's selected row using a workaround as I mentioned earlier.
That's the reason I tried using an EntityCollection, so the following line will work:
var staffMember = (StaffEntity)gridViewListStaff.GetRow(rowHandle);
and I'll not have to use the workaround anymore. But as I have said, I got an exception when filling the XtraGrid. 
About the line of code the exception is thrown, I'll check it and post it when I get back to the office.
As you said, the cast will not work, and all you can do is pick the selected row values, and create a new entity, set it's fields by values captured from the selected row. And set it's IsNew property to false, and pass it to the Edit form. There is no better solution, unless you want to only pass the PK value to the Edit Form, and there you let the Form fetch the entity from the database. Which is easy and very acceptable solution.
Hmmm, I thought there was a better solution.
Are you fetching the data for the Edit Form? If yes then why are you using prefetchPaths, and where do you filter by the selected row's PK value? Also you can't use the same ExcludeIncludeFieldsList to feth 2 different types of entities.
Nope, I'm replacing the TypedView with an EntityCollection to display in the XtraGrid, using ExcludeIncludeFieldsList to only get the data I want. But now that I'm looking again at the posted code, I'm seeing some mistakes... 
Anyway, I want to clarify something, please tell me if I'm wrong.
Can I use an EntityCollection with ExcludeIncludeFieldsList to only fetch specific data and show it in a DataGrid like I have done with the TypedView? I mean, showing it like this:
(trying to represent a DataGridView... excuse my poor representation, I'm not an artist. 
)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| StaffName | UserName | Phone | Mobile | Mail | HireDate | BranchName | Active |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | | | | | | | |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | | | | | | | |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where StaffName is a concat of StaffEntity.FName and StaffEntity.LName and BranchName is from BranchEntity.BName and ordering by StaffName in Ascending order.
iDave wrote:
As you said, the cast will not work, and all you can do is pick the selected row values, and create a new entity, set it's fields by values captured from the selected row. And set it's IsNew property to false, and pass it to the Edit form. There is no better solution, unless you want to only pass the PK value to the Edit Form, and there you let the Form fetch the entity from the database. Which is easy and very acceptable solution.
Hmmm, I thought there was a better solution.
As a matter of fact, that is the best way I think. I mean, using a TypedList/DynamicList then retrieving the PK from the selected row and fetch the entity for edition.
iDave wrote:
Anyway, I want to clarify something, please tell me if I'm wrong.
Can I use an EntityCollection with ExcludeIncludeFieldsList to only fetch specific data and show it in a DataGrid like I have done with the TypedView? I mean, showing it like this....
No directly. You can use ExcludeIncludeFieldsList to avoid fetching some fields from DB and fill them in the entity, but the Entity always have all fields (some fetched/filled and some not). If you want to use ExcludeIncludeFieldsList in related entities you have to specify a different ExcludeIncludeFieldsList object and pass it to the prefetchPath. You can Bind fields in related entities in you grid, but you have to create custom properties in the main entity that access the related fields.
All this may be seeing complicated, but it's not. Anyway I think what you should do is: 1. Bind the typedList just as you are doing right now. 2. When users clicks the row, retrieve the primary key. 3. Pass the PK to a Edit form 4. In Edit form, fetch the entity to edit. 5. Etc.
daelmo wrote:
iDave wrote:
As you said, the cast will not work, and all you can do is pick the selected row values, and create a new entity, set it's fields by values captured from the selected row. And set it's IsNew property to false, and pass it to the Edit form. There is no better solution, unless you want to only pass the PK value to the Edit Form, and there you let the Form fetch the entity from the database. Which is easy and very acceptable solution.
Hmmm, I thought there was a better solution.
As a matter of fact, that is the best way I think. I mean, using a TypedList/DynamicList then retrieving the PK from the selected row and fetch the entity for edition.
iDave wrote:
Anyway, I want to clarify something, please tell me if I'm wrong.
Can I use an EntityCollection with ExcludeIncludeFieldsList to only fetch specific data and show it in a DataGrid like I have done with the TypedView? I mean, showing it like this....
No directly. You can use ExcludeIncludeFieldsList to avoid fetching some fields from DB and fill them in the entity, but the Entity always have all fields (some fetched/filled and some not). If you want to use ExcludeIncludeFieldsList in related entities you have to specify a different ExcludeIncludeFieldsList object and pass it to the prefetchPath. You can Bind fields in related entities in you grid, but you have to create custom properties in the main entity that access the related fields.
All this may be seeing complicated, but it's not. Anyway I think what you should do is: 1. Bind the typedList just as you are doing right now. 2. When users clicks the row, retrieve the primary key. 3. Pass the PK to a Edit form 4. In Edit form, fetch the entity to edit. 5. Etc.
It seems that I tend to complicate things...
Well, I let it as it was and discarded the option of using an EntityCollection.
The workaround I did was:
- Bind TypedView to BindingSource; BindingSource to XtraGrid.
- Retrieve the Entity using the entity's unique constraint from the selected row.
- Pass the Entity to the Edit form.
Here's the code to retrieve the Entity (in case someone need it 
):
public static StaffEntity GetStaffEntity(string username)
{
using (var adapter = new DataAccessAdapter(_newMySqlConnString))
{
var staff = new StaffEntity { UserName = username };
adapter.FetchEntityUsingUniqueConstraint(staff, staff.ConstructFilterForUCUserName());
if (!staff.IsNew) return staff;
return null;
}
}
And the code in of the Edit button event:
var staff = CommonData.GetStaffEntity(gridViewListStaff.GetRowCellValue(rowHandle, "UserName").ToString());
using (var frmStaffDlg = new frmStaff(staff))
{
if (frmStaffDlg.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
// Refresh DataGridView
}
}
The only problem I see here is that I need to refetch the whole TypedView instead of only the modified row.