List View
A List View is one of the foundational views of the RecroGrid Framework’s entity-centric application model: once an entity is defined, the system generates the list view at runtime within a unified client-server architecture, together with its associated data querying and API behavior.
For developers accustomed to component libraries, the List View provides the familiar grid capabilities, with the essential difference that these capabilities are available as part of the core behavior, without component-library-specific boilerplate code and without separate feature-level parameterization.
Core operation and query model
The List View operates on server-side querying, enabling predictable performance when working with large datasets:
- Server-side multi-column sorting
- Server-side complex, multi-column filtering
- Server-side paging with configurable page size
- Filtering and sorting on relation fields
The client (Blazor WebAssembly) receives only the data required for rendering, while the server-side layer ensures consistent behavior through Entity Framework-based queries.
Automatic column generation and column settings
List View columns are generated automatically from the entity model, with type-correct rendering and default formatting. The system provides integrated support for the settings required in practical, business-grade grid usage:
- Selecting visible columns
- Column order
- Column width
- Determining the number of rows displayed per page
From a user experience perspective, these settings align consistently with the filtering and sorting logic, so the List View functions as a coherent, predictable workspace.
User-specific saved views
The List View supports saving and reloading named views per user and per user group. A saved view includes:
- Visible columns
- Column order
- Column widths
- Sorting rules
- Filter conditions
- Number of rows displayed per page
Saved views make it easy for end users to restore a familiar working setup quickly, while the underlying behavior remains unified and integrated.
Handling N:1 relations as columns across multiple depths
The List View natively supports the N:1 relation pattern so that fields of related entities can be displayed as columns, including multiple-depth navigation through chained relation properties interpreted at query level.
In practice, this means:
- Fields of the related entity can be added as List View columns
- Server-side sorting can be applied to related fields
- Server-side filtering can be applied to related fields
Relation handling is aligned with the RecroGrid Framework’s integrated client-server model, ensuring consistency across the complete data-management behavior.
Defining custom relations
The List View also supports introducing custom relation concepts, for example:
- Displaying relations based on database views or custom query sources
- Using non-classical, non-foreign-key-based associations defined through explicit mapping logic
This enables domain-aligned, business-meaningful relations to become first-class elements of the List View.
Custom and calculated columns
The List View can be extended with custom, calculated columns that represent business-level values derived from domain logic rather than directly stored database fields. A calculated column:
- Complements the column set derived from the model
- Integrates with the List View’s general behavior
- Supports server-side filtering and sorting when the calculated expression is query-translatable at the database level
- Can represent custom non-database-backed data, such as images
Related capabilities
The List View connects organically to further integrated capabilities of the RecroGrid Framework:
- Online editing of column titles and tooltips with multilingual configuration
- Column-level authorization, applied at List View level as visibility control
- Menu items and commands for custom functionality on selected rows
- An online-editable main menu through which entity List View pages are directly accessible in the UI
- Tree View
- Charts and aggregations