Overview
Template by Sruthy Lal | December 15, 2015

Cascading DropDown enables a common scenario in which the contents of one combobox depends on the selection of another combobox. The Cascading Dropdown Menu allows you to drill down through hierarchical data by using one dropdown menu as a filter into the next. The purpose of this template is to be a reference for any person wishing to implement or any person interested in the architecture of the cascading dropdown for the ClaySys AppForms or how to configure the combo boxes in AppForms with cascading dropdown effect.

Prerequisite(s)
  • SharePoint 2013
Cascading Form
Data Structure
SharePoint list is used as a DataSource for Cascading. SharePoint lists consist of rows and columns that store data in a similar fashion to a traditional relational database management system such as SQL Server. However, a benefit of lists is that SharePoint includes Web Parts that provide simple methods for managing the data. If the data was stored in a database, it would require custom user interface components to access it and manipulate it. Also, specialized skills are required to design, implement, and maintain a custom database. Another advantage of using lists is that custom workflow and event handlers can easily be registered to them. By default ID, Title, Modified, Created, Modified By, Created By, Attachments columns are available in SharePoint list. Apart from these default list columns, user can add more columns depends on requirement.

SharePoint List
List Name Column Name Data Type
Color

‘Color’ list is used to populate the color combo box.

 Color Single line of text
MakeID Number
ModelName Single line of text
SharePoint List
List Name Column Name Data Type
Cascading DropDown

‘Cascading DropDown’ list is used to fill saved data in cascading home page.

 Make Single line of text
Color Single line of text
Model Single line of text
SharePoint List
List Name Column Name Data Type
Model

‘Model’ list displays model of automobile with respect to make.

 Maker Single line of text
Name Single line of text
SharePoint List
List Name Column Name Data Type
Make

‘Make’ list displays the name of automobile manufactures.

 Name Single line of text
Design And Configuration
The Dashboard form contains an “Add New” button, it will navigate to a popup form. In that form, we can create a new cascading combination. When the user selects maker from “Make” combo box, model of the car should populated in “Model” combo box and when the user selects model, color of the car should be populated in “Color” combo box. Click “Save” to save the values into a SharePoint list called ‘Cascading DropDown’ and it will refresh the dashboard form with new item. If the given combination is already existing, then it shows a message so that we can change the combination. We can update the values by clicking on the ‘Edit’ link button provided in the dashboard form and delete the item by clicking the ‘Delete’ link button. The values in the combo boxes are populated from SharePoint lists. The ‘Make’ list contains the car maker names. The ‘Model’ list contains the model of the car and the ‘Color’ list contains the color of the cars.

List Of Forms Used
Name Functionality
Cascading Form Design Rule Design Cascading form is used to understand the cascading combination of dropdowns.
CascadingHome Form Design Rule Design CascadingHome contains all the datas saved in the list via cascading form. User can modify these details from CascadingHome.
Cascading
Cascading Form Design
01
Create Form

Folders are used to store and organize forms that have a logical association or relationship. To create a new form, click ‘New Folder’ button on the toolbar of the designer. On clicking the New Folder option, it will create a new folder and the name will be in the edit mode. You can type a new name for the folder.

02
Rename Form

Then click on the ‘New Form’ link on the toolbar. Give an appropriate name for the form. Click ‘Save’ to save the form.

03
Publish Form

You can drag and drop controls format the styles easily. ‘Check-In Form’ to save the changes and publish to get the completed form for the end user to use. A form must be checked-out to make modifications while all aspects of the form can be examined while checked-in.

04
DataSource Tab In Quick View

Following steps will explain about the DataSource configuration of ComboBox control. Click on the ‘Make’ ComboBox and select the DataSources tab to edit the DataSource.

05
DataSource Type

A pop-up window appears to select the item source. Select the appropriate Item source and click ‘OK’ to continue. Here, we select the Item Source as ‘SharePoint’.

06
Select List Name

Select the SharePoint List in the next window. Click ‘Next’ to continue.

07
Add Criteria

Click “Add” button in the criteria window to Write the appropriate criteria for filling the ‘Make’ ComboBox in the Criteria Builder. Click ‘Next’ to continue.

08
Select the value member and display member

Select the value member and display member from DataSource wizard. Click ‘Next’ to continue.

09
Click “Add Trigger” in the miscellaneous window. We can select and add the trigger by clicking the check box corresponding to the control.

Control List
Choose Trigger(s)
10
Click ‘Create Rule’ in the Manage Rule window to create FilldataSync( ) rule associated with the corresponding control/Event as trigger. Choose whether to Sync the command. By default, the ‘IsSync’ check box is selected.

Rule Created
Sync or Async
11
If you need to display items in any sorting order, select the column name from “Column” and select the “Order”. Click “Add” button without fail. Click ‘Finish’ to end the process. Click “Preview”. You can see that Maker names are populating in combo box.

Sort Items
Form Preview
12
Model Criteria

When the user selects ‘Acura’ from Make, Model names should be populated in the ‘Model’ combo box. To configure the ‘Model’ ComboBox follow the steps for configuring the ‘Make’ ComboBox upto the list selection. Give the criteria for filling the ‘Model’ combo box as given below.

13
Model – Form Preview

Click “Next” to continue. Follow the configuration steps of ‘Make’ combo box to add the trigger for ‘Model’ combobox. Add trigger as ‘Make’ and complete the configuration. When you select the value from the combobox ‘Make’, the ‘Model’ will populate the Names of corresponding Maker. Click “Preview”. You can see that Model names are populating in combo box.

14
Color Criteria

Click ‘Color’ and follow above steps that you followed for ‘Make’ and ‘Model’ upto selecting the List. Give the criteria for filling the combo box ‘Color’.

15
Give ‘Make’ and ‘Model’ as a trigger and complete the configuration. Click “Preview”. You can see the Color names are populating in the combobox, corresponding to the values in the other comboboxes.

Adding Trigger(s)
Form Preview
Cascading Rule Design
01
Rule Name : FormLoad | Trigger(s) : FormLoad.
Rule – FormLoad

In FormLoad, temporary variable ‘tmpVar’ set to zero and fills the combobox control ‘cmbMake’.

02
Rule Name : Make | Trigger(s) : cmbMake
Rule – Make

Fill the combobox control named ‘cmbModel’ and ‘cmbColor’ if the value of temporary variable ‘tmpVar’ is zero.

03
Rule Name : Model | Trigger(s) : cmbModel
Rule – Model

If the value of ‘tmpVar’ is zero, then selected value of ‘cmbModel’ control is passed to the hidden control ‘hdnModel’ and fills the combobox ‘cmbColor’. If the value of ‘tmpVar’ is one and the ‘hdnColor’ contains value, then fills the ‘cmbColor’ and pass the value of ‘hdnColor’ to ‘cmbColor’.

04
Rule Name : Save | Trigger(s) : btnSave
Rule – Save

Check the validation. The rule for executing the Insert and Update command on the basis of the value in the hidden control ‘hdnID’ and pass the value of ‘hdnID’ to ‘hdnRefresh’ in the form ‘CascadingHome’ to refresh the dashboard.

05
Rule Name : Select | Trigger(s) : hdnSelectID
Rule – Select

The rule is for setting the value of temporary variable ‘tmpVar’ to one and executing select command. After executing the ‘Select’ command, the value of ‘tmpVar’ set to zero.

06
Rule Name : Cancel | Trigger(s) : btnCancel
Rule – Cancel

On clicking the Cancel button the popup form is closed.

07
Rule Name : FillDataModel | Trigger(s) : hdnModel
Rule – FillDataModel

If the value of the temporary variable ‘tmpVar’ is one and hidden control ‘hdnModel’ contains any value then the combobox control named ‘cmbModel’ will be filled and set the value of ‘hdnModel’ to ‘cmbModel’.

CascadingHome
CascadingHome Form Design
01
Create Form

Folders are used to store and organize forms that have a logical association or relationship. To create a new form click ‘New Folder’ button on the toolbar of the designer. On clicking the New Folder option, it will create a new folder and the name will be in the edit mode. You can type a new name for the folder.

02
Rename Form

Then click on the ‘New Form’ link on the toolbar. Give an appropriate name for the form. Click ‘Save’ to save the form.

03
Publish Form

You can drag and drop controls format the styles easily. ‘Check-In Form’ to save the changes and publish to get the completed form for the end user to use. A form must be checked-out to make modifications while all aspects of the form can be examined while checked-in.

CascadingHome Rule Design
01
Rule Name : FormLoad | Trigger(s) : FormLoad
Rule – FormLoad

To fill the search control named ‘srcTemplate’.

02
Rule Name : Refresh | Trigger(s) : hdnRefresh
Rule – Refresh

‘hdnRefresh’ gets the value from the ‘Cascading’ form and fills the search control ‘srcTemplate’ on its trigger.

03
Rule Name : Delete | Trigger(s) : hdnDelID
Rule – Delete

Executing delete command for delete the item form list and refresh the dashboard search control ‘srcTemplate’.

Template Summary
One dropdown content display depend on its parent one, that is called cascading dropdown. In this template, we will get the architecture of the cascading dropdown for the ClaySys AppForms or how to configure the combo boxes in AppForms with cascading dropdown effect.