RadDataForm: Built-in Editors

The RadDataForm contains many built-in property editors that are either automatically resolved depending on the property's type or by the associated annotation @DataFormProperty editor. The RadDataForm currently ships with the following built-in editors:

• DataFormTextEditor
• DataFormEmailEditor
• DataFormPasswordEditor
• DataFormPhoneEditor
• DataFormIntegerEditor
• DataFormDecimalEditor
• DataFormSwitchEditor
• DataFormNumberPickerEditor
• DataFormSeekBarEditor
• DataFormSegmentedEditor
• DataFormDateEditor
• DataFormTimeEditor
• DataFormSpinnerEditor
• DataFormListViewEditor
• DataFormRadioGroupEditor
• DataFormCheckBoxEditor
• DataFormRadAutoCompleteEditor

Using @DataFormProperty

The RadDataForm 'annotations' can be used to easily assign an editor to a property of the set Entity. The next example demonstrates how to set the editor of a property via the described annotations:

Using the 'DataFormRadAutoCompleteEditor'

The DataFormRadAutoCompleteEditor is a bit more advanced editor which provides an out of the box quick search functionality. This editor uses the RadAutoCompleteTextView stand alone element and all its functionality like DisplayMode is available to the RadDataForm editor.

Setting the suggestions 'source'

Because of the nature of the RadAutoCompleteTextView the editor which exposes its functionality requires some additional data to be passed to it which will be used as the 'suggestions' when a user starts typing in its text box.

Passing this data can be done in multiple different approaches depending on which one is the easiest for your scenario:

• By using the additionalData property of the @DataFormProperty and setting it to an static String[]
• By creating an AutoCompleteAdapter and setting it to the DataFormRadAutoCompleteEditor via its setAdapter() method

• Or by directly by calling the updateValues() of the specific EntityPropertyCore object. The next code snippet shows how you can use the mentioned 'updateValues' method on an existing 'from' property of the RadDataForm, the list object is a simple List<String> :

  Because calling the updateValues can be done after the editor has been rendered you need to make sure you also update the DataFormRadAutoCompleteEditor itself by simply calling its updateAdapter() method:

Setting the DisplayMode

If you are familiar with the RadAutoCompleteTextView element you know that is supports out of the box two different selected items display modes:

• Token - the selected item from the 'suggestion box' is displayed as a box with a remove 'X' button
• Plain - the selected item's text is appended and autocompleted after an item from the 'suggestion box' is selected

When using the DataFormRadAutoCompleteEditor you too have the option to change the editor's displayMode by simply calling its setDisplayMode() and passing the desired mode:

When the displayMode is set to TOKEN if the bound to that editor property of your EntityProperty is of type String[] and each of its elements is present in the "suggestion source" those items from the array will be rendered as separate tokens.

The full Java source code of the above example can be found here.