Unica Plan - Effective way to represent editable grid data

Grids are the spreadsheet-like tools available in HCL Unica Plan for data collection and display. Plan provided a user interface to display Grids data as a table or a list. HCL Unica Plan supports the below-given Grids.

1. Line Truncate View

2. Line Wrap View

3. Two Line Staggered View

4. Editable Grid View

Out of these, Line Truncate View, Line Wrap View, and Two-Line Staggered View are called Read-only Grids where Editable Grid View can be used to Edit and save the business data/details. An editable grid is for users to enter information, while a read-only grid displays information entered previously. This article will help you configure and display an Editable grid’s contents as a report in a Read-only grid.

You can configure the Read-only grid in the same OR different HCL Unica Plan Form Definition Page as per your business requirement. In the below-given scenario, we will use the single Form Definition Page with Editable and Read-Only grid. Below given steps will help you to walk through the scenario.

1. Create a new form with an editable grid view in HCL Unica Plan. Refer given Fig.1

Fig.1

2. Post form creation, add an editable grid view component in this form, and save the changes. Refer given Fig.2.

Fig.2

You need to note down the value for the “Database Table” column. This is the table from where the Read-only grid will pick up the data for display.

3. Create editable grid type attributes per your business requirement; in this scenario, we used the Integer and Text Multi-Line attribute. See below given Fig. 3 a, b and c

Fig.3a

Fig.3b

Fig.3c

4. Add editable grid view component to form canvas. Similarly, drag and drop editable grid attribute(s) to editable grid component. See below given Fig 4.

Fig.4

5. Save changes and Publish your form from the “Administrative settings > Template configuration > Form definitions” page.

6. Column need to note down from form is <Form Table Name>.uap_grid_row_id. In this example, its Purchase.uap_grid_row_id. To avoid duplicate rows display in the Read-only grid, you need to explicitly use the “uap_grid_row_id” field.

7. In the same form or in a new form, add a read-only grid component. As said above HCL Unica Plan provides three different read-only grid components, which are
– Line Wrap View
– Two Line Staggered View
– Line Truncate View
For more details, refer HCL Unica Plan Administration guide. In this example, we are using “Line Wrap View.”

8. Add “Line Wrap View” read-only grid to form. Refer Fig. 5

Fig.5

Note: ‘Database table’ columns value needs to populate as noted in point #2 “Database Table” column, and ‘Table key column’ value needs to be “uap_grid_row_id.” Refer to point #6 for more details.

9. Add appropriate column(s) and map to fields from the editable grid. In this example, we have used Integer and Text Multi-Line for the editable grid; hence similar type attributes are used for Read-only grids. Refer Fig 6 (a,b &c)

Fig.6a

Fig.6b

Fig.6c

Note: “Attribute Database Column Name” needs to be exactly the same as what is used in the editable grid attribute.

10. Add Read-only grids attribute(s) to Read-only grids frame. See Fig 7.

Fig.7

11. Once again, save changes in form and publish it.

12. Use the same form in the appropriate template and create an object instance out of it. Refer Fig. 8 and 9

Fig.8

Fig.9

13. Editable grid and Read-only Grid appear as shown in Fig. 10.

Fig.10

14. Once you save data in an editable grid, it reflects in Read-only Grids as shown in Fig. 11-a and b.

Fig.11a

Fig.11b

To learn more about Unica Plan, you can refer to HCL Unica Plan User and Administrators guides, gather more details on Form definitions and create forms with different attributes, etc. You can reach out to us anytime, and we will be happy to help.