How to use in-line editing

The HCL Compass inline editing feature enables you to edit records directly in a query result set.

About this task

You can select the Assign action to start editing records in the result set view, and individually assign them to different owners and iterations.

Using this feature, you can:

Perform any Modify, Change State and Record Script Alias action.
Save or cancel the records individually, or save or cancel them all at once.
Edit child records in the result set.
Finish editing a record in a form after editing it in the result set.

When you perform inline editing, the result set display changes as follows:

The buttons Save All, Save All and Exit and Exit replace the toolbar items Previous, Next, Refresh, Edit Query, Export, Printable Version and CustomizeColumns.
A save column is displayed before the Information column.
The Information column displays the status of the editing session using different icons.
The multi-record update feature is disabled; however, the create query from selection feature remains enabled.

To perform inline editing:

Procedure

Select an action. In the result set, right-click the record that you want to edit. In the context menu, select the Inline Editing item to display a submenu that shows all permitted Modify, Change State and Record Script Alias actions for the selected record. Note that for each record, the actions can be different.

After you select an action, the result set enters inline editing mode. This action becomes the action used to edit any row in the result set. The action cannot be changed until exiting inline editing mode. The result set toolbar is replaced by an inline editing status bar. This status bar contains three buttons and a status that shows the default action for editing, for example, “Inline Editing Action: Modify”. The result set tab becomes red and an asterisk appears before the text to indicate that the result set is in inline editing mode and that there are unsaved records.

The selected record is now editable. A save column is displayed before the Information column. A Save button is displayed in the save column of any unsaved row. The row index is underlined to show that it is now a clickable hot-spot that opens the record in a form, allowing you to make more changes to the record.

The result set remains in inline editing mode until you click Save All and Exit or Exit. While the result set is in inline editing mode, you cannot choose another default action. When you right-click any record in the result set, the Inline Editing item on the context menu is disabled.
Edit records in the result set. The form controls that are supported are:
- Form Control
- Text Box
- Combo Box
- Drop-down Combo Box
- Drop-down List Box
- Check Box
- List Box
You can directly edit the display fields in the row that are associated with the supported form controls. To edit another record, click any real field in the row to make the record editable. If a row is editable and there are read-only fields or unsupported controls, when you hover over them, a tooltip displays messages such as “Read-only field” or “Inline editing is not supported for this field type.” If a field has no control on the form, it cannot be modified in inline editing mode.

You can also edit any child record that is visible in the result set as long as the action is applicable to it. Records of different types can also be edited as long as they have an action that has the same name as the default action. When there are unsaved child records and you want to collapse the parent record or sort any column, a dialog displays a warning that there are unsaved child records below the row. You must save or cancel unsaved records before collapsing rows or sorting the result set.

You can switch to the record form for further editing to edit the fields that are not displayed in the result set. To switch to the form, click the index column of the row. The changes made in the row are synchronized to the form, which is opened for further editing. Once the record is open in a form, it can no longer be edited in the result set. Other records in the result set are not affected. When you right-click a record that you are editing, the context menu enables Save Selected Record and Cancel Selected Record. If a row contains any invalid date, time or integer values after the last communication with the server, you cannot switch to the form to continue editing. The invalid date, time or integer values must be corrected before opening the form. You may need to save the record to fully resolve this situation.
Save the records.

When you right-click a record that you are editing, the context menu enables Save Selected Record and Cancel Selected Record.

Click Exit to revert changes to any unsaved records and exit inline editing mode. If there are unsaved changes, a dialog displays a warning that all changes will be lost. To cancel a single record, right-click the record, click Cancel Selected Record. The Save button in the save column disappears. The result set remains in inline editing mode.

If you open a record form first, then start editing the record in a result set, all the toolbar items in the form are replaced by a link “Go to inline edit row”. Clicking on it takes you to the row that is being edited in the result set. After saving or canceling the record on the result set, the form returns to its normal state with the toolbar visible again.

When you finish editing records, click Save All to save all the changes to the unsaved records. Click any real field in any row to continue editing records. Click Save All and Exit to save all unsaved records and exit inline editing mode.

To save a single record, click the Save button in the save column of the row. The record can also be saved by right-clicking the record and choosing Save Selected Record. The result set remains in inline editing mode.

If there are any problems saving a record, the record stays editable and an X inside a red circle displays in the Information column. If a field has invalid values, the background color of the cell changes to yellow and a yellow warning triangle will display in the right side. Correct the errors and save the record again.

Results

Monitoring the status of inline editing sessions

After saving records, a green square indicates that the record was saved successfully. An X inside a red circle indicates the save failed on that record. Hover your pointer over the failure icon to read the error messages. You can also select the error message text and then use copy and paste to save the message.

A slash inside a red circle indicates the row could not be edited. This can happen for several reasons, such as and inline editing action was not applicable to the record, the record was already being edited, or the record was part of a multirecord update. Hovering over the icon displays the associated error message.

Disabling inline editing

The inline editing feature is compatible with all feature levels. It is enabled by default and it can be disabled for an entire dbset or for any user database.

The ALLOW_INLINE_EDIT master property can be used to control whether inline editing is disabled. The master property can contain a default value that applies to all user databases, and it can contain a value specific to a user database that overrides the default value. When this master property is not set, the inline editing is enabled for all user databases by default.

Use installutil setmasterproperty to set the master property for the database set.

Synopsis

installutil setmasterproperty dbset_name [-user_db_name user_db_name] cq_login cq_password master_property new_value

Options and arguments

dbset_name

Name of the database set or connection that contains the database to be configured for inline editing.

-user_db_name user_db_name

Specifies the user database to which the property applies. Default: the property applies to all user databases.

cq_login

Rational ClearQuest login name of the administrative user. This user must have Super User privileges and be marked for Rational ClearQuest authentication.

cq_password

Rational ClearQuest password for the administrative user. To specify a null password enter an empty set of double quotes.

master_property

Specifies the name of the master property to set.

new_value

Specifies the value for the master property.


Examples of disabling inline editing

    Disable the feature for the SAMPL database only:

    installutil setmasterproperty dbset_name -user_db_name SAMPL cq_login cq_password ALLOW_INLINE_EDIT 0
    Remove the setting for the SAMPL database:

    installutil setmasterproperty dbset_name -user_db_name SAMPL cq_login cq_password ALLOW_INLINE_EDIT “”
    Disable the feature for all databases, then enable it for two specific databases:

    installutil setmasterproperty dbset_name cq_login cq_password ALLOW_INLINE_EDIT 0

    installutil setmasterproperty dbset_name -user_db_name SAMPL cq_login cq_password ALLOW_INLINE_EDIT 1

    installutil setmasterproperty dbset_name -user_db_name BTEST cq_login cq_password ALLOW_INLINE_EDIT 1
    Remove the setting for all databases, including two specific databases:

    installutil setmasterproperty dbset_name cq_login cq_password ALLOW_INLINE_EDIT “”

    installutil setmasterproperty dbset_name -user_db_name SAMPL cq_login cq_password ALLOW_INLINE_EDIT “”

    installutil setmasterproperty dbset_name -user_db_name BTEST cq_login cq_password ALLOW_INLINE_EDIT “”

Inline editing limitations

The inline editing does not work on SQL-based query or full-text search result sets.
Delete, Duplicate and Unduplicate actions are not supported.
Push Button, Option Button, List View, Attachment, History, Parent/Child controls are not supported.
If there are multiple controls for one field, the first control on the form is used for inline editing.

Troubleshooting

Table 1.
Issues	Solution
If you resize the column width then start inline editing, the column width reverts.	Resize the column width again during inline editing.
The unique key is shown in the first real field column if the child record type does not have the same field as the first real field column of the query. The unique key is read-only during inline editing, although it is editable in the form.	Use the record form to edit unique key fields.
If a query displays the same field more than once, when editing a record in the result set during inline editing, all the same display fields are blank except for the last one.	Remove the duplicate display fields in the query.
If you select an action to start inline editing but do not have permission to perform that action, there will be no icon in the Information column.	You can add a custom message to the access control script to display a message such as, “You don't have permissions.”