Feedback wanted: Storing the Table and Gantt Chart selection in your model

Hi all,

Following my earlier posts asking for input on WebUI enhancements, here’s another topic where I’d really like to hear from you.

The WebUI Table and Gantt Chart already let you select multiple cells or tasks, for example with a block selection or Ctrl+click. With Store Focus, you can pass the active cell or task to your model. However, there’s no way yet to tell your model which cells or tasks are part of the selection. We’d like to add that, and before we lock in the details, I want to hear what you think.

How it works in WinUI

WinUI has a Store Selection In option on both the Pivot Table and the Gantt Chart, but the two work a bit differently:

• Pivot Table: you link an identifier with the same index domain as the displayed identifier. Every selected cell gets 1, everything else gets 0. It works in one direction only: changing the identifier from the model doesn’t change the selection in the table.
• Gantt Chart: you link an identifier with the same domain as the task data. It gets 1 for the currently selected bar, 2 for any other bar in the selection, and 0 for bars that aren’t selected. This one works in both directions: when the model sets the identifier, the chart highlights those bars with a dashed border.

What we have in mind for WebUI

We’d add a new Store Selection option to both widgets. In it, you link a binary parameter with the same index domain as the widget’s contents. That parameter gets 1 for everything in the current selection and 0 for everything else. It doesn’t matter how something was selected, whether by click, block selection, Ctrl+click or anything else.

If the indices of the linked parameter don’t match those of the contents, the widget can’t map the selection to it, so nothing gets stored.

We’d skip a separate value for the active cell or task, since Store Focus already handles that. Each option then has one clear job:

• Store Focus tells you which cell or task the user is working on right now.
• Store Selection tells you which cells or tasks are selected.

Your model logic and item actions can still pick out the active item, and running an action on the whole selection becomes straightforward.

What I’d like to hear from you

1. Would a simple 0 / 1 selection plus Store Focus work for you? Or do you depend on the 0 / 1 / 2 setup from the WinUI Gantt Chart?
2. Should it work both ways, so that setting the parameter from your model also selects or highlights those cells or tasks?
3. If it works both ways: both widgets scroll vertically, so the selection set from your model may be partly or completely out of view. Would it work for you if the widget then scrolls to the topmost selected cell or task?
4. If the parameter’s indices don’t match the contents, should the widget show an error toast when it loads? That way you’d know right away that something needs fixing, instead of wondering why nothing gets stored.
5. What would you use the selection for? Bulk edits, actions on several tasks at once, driving other widgets, or something else?
6. Which widget should get this first: the Table or the Gantt Chart? It would help to hear why, too.

A quick yes or no is helpful, and so is a use case from one of your apps or a concern I haven’t thought of. Drop your thoughts below and let’s shape this together.
 

Kind regards,
Madhu Krishnappa