Forum Discussion

AngelaIp's avatar
AngelaIp
Ideator I
3 years ago

How to use explicit xProperties in ItemType?

Hi community,

is any familiar with using explicit xProperties in ItemTypes?

Inside of a ItemType there is a relationships "xProperties". When can add custom xProperties there. These new properties will be automatically linked in the grid so user can enable/disable them by themselves. This is works very well and would be exactly the behavior I am looking for my current use case.

But I struggle to "use" these direct xProperties. I cannot add the fields to a Form. I right now have no idea how users can add values to these new properties.

Does any knows how to use these properties?

Best regards and thanks for any hint!

Angela

xProperties

2 Replies

  • AngelaIp's avatar
    AngelaIp
    Ideator I
    3 years ago

    I discovered following hint in the manuals:

    Seems like explicit xProperties are a dead-end feature. There is not UI yet.

    In my case I would be happy to display the xProperties in a custom tab (preferred) or inside the main form if there is not other variant. 
    I don´t need to edit the data in the Form or Relationships, because the would xProperties be filled by REST API automatically.

    As far as I see even the newer releases don´t support explicit xProperties yet. (and I am 99% sure Aras will forget them in the new UI editor they are working on).

    Has anyone seen a sample implementation for the missing UI? 

    • AngelaIp's avatar
      AngelaIp
      Ideator I
      3 years ago

      Does no one know more?

      Maybe anyone has an idea for an alternative concept. I have an ItemType that shall store testresults. Each test item shall store additional values of various sensors.

      So basically my ItemType looks like this:

      Test-No.: T-1234
      Device: My product XY
      Test result: PASSED

      Sensor and other test data:

      Back1235:   3.2V
      Back1243:   3.3V
      Top1234:     1.1V
      xyCounter:   234234
      Speed:        2599
      ...many many additional properties here...

      I want to display the test data in a way that:

      1. It´s easy to read inside the individual test item
      2. Use can search and compare the values on a general level

      So basically I am thinking of two ways to display the data. In side the items it would be useful to have something like the parameters tab. The individual properties are displayed below each other:

      Property Value Sort_order
      BackTempx99y2329123 3.3V 1
      BackTemp22cx-y89234 3.3V 2

      In addition, users shall be able to search through all the data in a grid. In this case, the properties could be displayed side-by-side:

      BackTempx99y2329123 BackTemp22cx-y89234 BackTempxy333-333342 FrontTemp-322xy TopTemp-3xy CounterXy
      3.3V 5V 12V 3.3V 2.5V 3234

      But so far I haven´t found a building technique in Innovator that provides both view options

      Idea 1: Parameters tab
      - Pro: Easy solution regarding displaying the properties in the testresult item itself
      - Con: I cannot search and compare test data for multiple items. By default my test data properties are hidden in the grid, cause they are so many. There is no way to manually unhide them for the user.
      - Possible solution: Federate Parameters data in a fake grid?

      Idea 2: Explicit xProperties
      - Pro: This one would solve the Con of Idea 1. Explicit xProperties can manually unhidden in the grid by the user.
      - Con: There is right now no option available to display the properties in the Form or in a relationship grid

      Idea 3: Properties in relationship
      - This helps to display the data in the grid, but looks terrible for the individual items. I would have one relationship with all properties side by side.

      Idea 4: NULL relationship that looks like Parameters tab, but user can assign "Property Type" and "Value" manually.
      - Good for displaying the data in the individual items, but terrible regarding building a search grid. 
      - We cannot specify data types for the individual properties

      Idea 5: Properties in relationship, but custom relationship Form view 
      -...

      If anyone has an idea to display the data the best way, I would be happy for any input :).