Angular Grid Editing

    Ignite UI for Angular Grid component provides an easy way to perform data manipulation operations like creating, updating, and deleting records. The data manipulation phases are: Cell Editing, Row Editing, and Batch Editing. The Grid gives you a powerful public API which allows you to customize the way these operations are performed. Additionally, Cell editing exposes several default editors based on the column data type, that could be easily customized via igxCellEditor directive or igxRow directives.

    Setup

    In order to specify which edit mode should be enabled, the Grid exposes the following boolean properties - editable and rowEditable.

    Property editable enables you to specify the following options:

    • false - the editing for the corresponding column will be disabled; /default value/
    • true - the editing for the corresponding column will be enabled;

    Keep in mind that if the column is not editable, you can still modify its value through the public API exposed by the Grid.

    Property rowEditable enables you to specify the following options:

    • false - the row editing in the corresponding grid will be disabled; /default value/
    • true - the row editing in the corresponding grid will be enabled;

    In the Grid if you set rowEditable property to true, and editable property is not explicitly defined for any column, the editing will be enabled for all the columns except the primary key.

    Batch editing in the grid can be enabled for both cell editing and row editing modes. In order to set up batch editing it is necessary to provide to the grid a TransactionService.

    • Cell and Batch Editing - in this scenario every singe modification of each cell is preserved separately and undo/ redo operations are available on cell level;
    • Row and Batch Editing - in this scenario the modifications are preserved on row level so undo/ redo operations will not be working for each cell that is modified but for the bunch of cell from each row.

    Editing Templates

    If you want to use a data type specific edit templates, you should specify the column dataType property. So let's now see what are the default templates for each type:

    • For string data type, default template is using igxInput
    • For number data type, default template is using igxInput type="number", so if you try to update cell to a value which can not be parsed to a number your change is going to be discarded, and the value in the cell will be set to 0.
    • For date data type, default template is using igxDatePicker
    • For dateTime data type, default template is using IgxDateTimeEditor directive. This editor will give you a mask directions for the input elements part of the DateTime object.
    • For date data type, default template is using IgxDatePicker component.
    • For time - data type, default template is using IgxTimePicker component.
    • For boolean data type, default template is using igxCheckbox
    • For currency data type, default template is using IgxInputGroup with prefix/suffix configuration based on application or grid locale settings.
    • For percent data type, default template is using IgxInputGroup with suffix element that shows a preview of the edited value in percents.
    • For custom templates you can see Cell Editing topic

    All available column data types could be found in the official Column types topic.

    Event arguments and sequence

    The grid exposes a wide array of events that provide greater control over the editing experience. These events are fired during the Row Editing and Cell Editing lifecycle - when starting, committing or canceling the editing action.

    Event Description Arguments Cancellable
    rowEditEnter If rowEditing is enabled, fires when a row enters edit mode IGridEditEventArgs true
    cellEditEnter Fires when a cell enters edit mode (after rowEditEnter) IGridEditEventArgs true
    cellEdit If value is changed, fires just before a cell's value is committed (e.g. by pressing Enter) IGridEditEventArgs true
    cellEditDone If value is changed, fires after a cell has been edited and cell's value is committed IGridEditDoneEventArgs false
    cellEditExit Fires when a cell exits edit mode IGridEditDoneEventArgs false
    rowEdit If rowEditing is enabled, fires just before a row in edit mode's value is committed (e.g. by clicking the Done button on the Row Editing Overlay) IGridEditEventArgs true
    rowEditDone If rowEditing is enabled, fires after a row has been edited and new row's value has been committed. IGridEditDoneEventArgs false
    rowEditExit If rowEditing is enabled, fires when a row exits edit mode IGridEditDoneEventArgs false

    Event cancelation

    • RowEditEnter - Neither Row nor Cell will enter edit mode.
    • CellEditEnter - Prevents entering cell edit. If rowEditable is enabled, row edit will be triggered, although cell edit will remain forbidden.
    • CellEdit - Allowed Cell/Row edit, hitting Done button or Enter won't commit the value or row transaction. Cell editing and Row editing won't be closed until Cancel button is clicked.
    • RowEdit - Committing cell is possible, but not the whole row. The row will stay in edit mode and the row transaction will be considered open. Hitting Done does not commit or close the row. Cancel button closes the editing process and the transaction without committing the changes.

    The following sample demonstrates the editing execution sequence in action:

    Features integration

    While a cell/row is in edit mode, a user may interact with the grid in many ways. The following table specifies how a certain interaction affects the current editing:

    Grid Filtering Sorting Paging Moving Pinning Hiding GroupBy Resizing Escape Enter F2 Tab Cell Click Add new row/Delete/Edit
    Keep edit mode
    Exit edit mode
    Commit
    Discard

    As seen from the table, all interactions, except resizing a column, will end the editing and will discard the new values. Should the new value be committed, this can be done by the developer in the corresponding feature "-ing" event.

    Example how to commit new values, if user tries to sort the column while a cell/row is in edit mode:

    <igx-grid #grid [data]="localData" [primaryKey]="'ProductID'" (sorting)="onSorting($event)">
    ...
    </igx-grid>
    
    public onSorting(event: ISortingEventArgs) {
        this.grid.endEdit(true);
        // (event.owner as IgxGridComponent).endEdit(true);
    }
    

    API References

    Additional Resources