Dojo datagrid and treegrid help - datagrid has a reformating flash?

Question

Hi stackers, I'm having a bit of a time trying to get Dojo grids (1.5) to play nice. Specifically I've spent about two weeks of work trying to implement a grid that allows for our result set data to collapse into rows, where rows can be expanded. Data comes in as a full set in JSON format, using ItemFileReadStore as the store. Any subsequent sorts or pagings are handled by GETing a new json from the application, and passing in new query parameters in the url.

The nested data was only two layers deep - a top layer to always be displayed and an array of child data with identical structure as the top layer. Each node has a unique ID and a cluster ID - on a parent node the unique ID and cluster ID will match.

I was initially very excited with TreeGrid - but I couldn't see how I could format it to do what I needed - namely eliminate the 'summary row' and one extra row full of null cells (???) that I just couldnt figure out how to remove unless I focused the query to only one cluster. I studied the test examples, built many test pages myself, tried to understand the forestModel, which for what I could tell was unnecessary... I found so little documentation, and sources I found online hinted that TreeGrid might not be reliable...

So I decided I would try to implement the expandable/collapsible rows in dataGrid.

I flattened the JSON data and added another attribute to indicate being a top level node ('alwaysShow' = true). I built my grid programaticaly and applied grid.filter() to pull only those top level nodes. I modified that filter by extending the ItemFileReadStore _FetchItems "filter" method to allow for OR querying instead of AND, and also modified it to allow for keys to point to arrays - when a top level node (small +/- icon in the cell) is clicked, the cluster ID of the parent node is added to the grid.filter.allowed[] and the filter is updated, allowing nodes with that cluster_id value to be displayed.

This worked fine on my small test set of five records (although id say a little slugish...) - but now I am pulling ~900 rows back from the application, and on expanding large clusters (~80 rows) I am seeing a very long flash of blue and white on the filter updates. I've spent most of my day trying to step through in firebug to find where its happening, but the dojo logic is so spread out. Seems to be happening before the call to _Grid.js defaultUpdate.

Its so bad that I am considering trying again with TreeGrid. Im also considering just doing this by hand... Im kicking myself for spending so much time trying to get Dojo to work to begin with. I would also consider a commercial "JSON->table with collapsible row" library if anyone has any recommendations...

Any suggestions or insights? Familiarity with the flashing problem or how I could adapt TreeGrid to my needs? I'm aware this is a bit of a rant... Many thanks for any help.
-robbie

EDIT: I eventually gave up trying to get Dojo to do what I needed and coded it myself in less than a day. Not the best use of three weeks...

Answer 1

EDIT: I just found a solution that works for me, I have added the following CSS: .dojoxGridSummaryRow { visibility: collapse } Basically the summaries are probably still created but they are not visible nor taken into account in the table layout. That's good for me. Hope this will solve your issue.

This won't help but just to let you know that:

"- but I couldn't see how I could format it to do what I needed - namely eliminate the 'summary row' "

is the very EXACT same thing I'm trying to achieve and did not find the solution even though this looks like a very simple feature... Will let you know if I found a solution...