What's New in ASP.NET Maker 7

ASP.NET Maker 7 is a major upgrade from 3.x, it is completely rewritten from the ground up and is loaded with the same features as ASPMaker 7. ASP.NET Maker 7 is powerful and flexible, and yet still easy-to-use as always.

Enhanced List Page - Grid-Add, Grid-Edit, Inline-Add, Inline-Copy and Search Result Highlight

ASP.NET Maker 7 offers Grid-Add and Grid-Edit feature, now you can add multiple records to a regular table or a detail table for a master record simultaneously in the List page and/or edit multiple records simultaneously in the List page. Moreover, complementing the existing Inline-Edit and Inline-Delete features, ASP.NET Maker 7 offers Inline-Add and Inline-Copy as well, now you can modify (Add/Copy/Edit/Delete) records right in the List page. Search result can also be optionally highlighted.

Grid-Edit

Grid-Add

Inline-Add/Copy

Search Result Highlight

Multi-Update Page

With the existing Multi-Delete feature you can select multiple records in the List page and delete them all. With new Multi-Update feature you can select multiple records in the List page and update selected fields to the same data in one go.

Enhanced Add/Edit/Registration Page - Data Confirmation

In some cases you may want to let users to check their input before actually inserting or updating a record. ASP.NET Maker 7 lets you optionally add a confirmation step for Add, Edit or Registration pages. If the form involves image upload, the user will also be able to view the uploaded image during confirmation.

CAPTCHA

ASP.NET Maker 7 supports CAPTCHA (template extension) for Add pages and Registration page. CAPTCHA requires that the user type the letters or digits of a distorted image before submitting a form to prevent automated software from posting spam to your ASP.NET application.

Multiple Master/Detail

In previous version mulitple detail tables were allowed for a table but multiple master tables were not directly supported. ASP.NET Maker 7 offers built-in support for Multiple Master/Detail. Each table can have multiple detail tables and multiple master tables. A visual master/detail setup interface is also provided for easy setup and modification.

Ajax Features

ASP.NET Maker 7 implements Ajax using YUI. In additional to the Auto-Suggest feature, ASP.NET Maker 7 offers:

Enhanced Auto-Suggest
Previously Auto-Suggest did not support foreign key fields. Now you can also use Auto-Suggest with these fields and type the beginning characters of the lookup values to get suggested values. The selected record's key field value will be properly saved.

Auto-Fill
Similar to updating a child combobox in Dynamic Selection List, this Auto-Fill feature automatically fill a child textbox by Ajax when an option of the parent combobox is selected. You can update multiple child textboxes just like updating multiple child selection lists in Dynamic Selection List feature. Easy to set up fields for Auto-Fill with the new setup form. Textbox fields and now other fields such as textarea are also supported.

Enhanced Dynamic Selection List
Previously Dynamic Selection List supports SELECT tags (one selection) only, now it supports listboxes (multiple selection), RADIO and CHECKBOX also.

A new setup form also allow you to setup child fields in the Dynamic Selection List much more easily.

The dialog for adding new option on-the-fly is now a popup dialog and additional fields (non file upload) are allowed.

Detail Records Preveiw
Ever wanted to view the detail records without going to the detail table? This new feature (a template extension for registered users only) gets the detail records of a master record by Ajax and display them in a overlay panel when the user move the mouse cursor over the detail table links in the master table.

Add Extra Option to Dynamic Selection List
Previously you can add an extra option to a selection list with lookup table on the fly, but it did not fully support Dynamic Selection List with parent field, ASP.NET Maker 7 has extended the feature and enabled you to add extra parent/child options to Dynamic Selection Lists as well.

Improved Advanced Security

Anonymous User
In previous versions, anonymous access is provided by User Level Security's built-in Anonymous User Level. In ASP.NET Maker 7, the new Anonymous User can work independently or together with User ID Security and/or User Level Security. When enabled for a table, users will be able to see all records of the table in the List page before and after login, but only able to modify their own records (and optionally their child users' records) after login.

Auto-Redirect
In previous verions, users will be redirected to the default page after login. In ASP.NET Maker 7, users will be redirected to the page they originally access.

Registration Confirmation Email to New User and Activation Option
In previous verions, email notification about new user registration will only be send to the preset recipient, now you can optionally send to the new user and request the new user to click a link to activate the new account.

Hierarchical Parent User ID Security
Previously Parent User ID security was two level only. Now it is hierarchical, parent users can access the records owned by the child users of their child users, and there is no limit of levels. In the meantime, the power and flexibility of User ID and User Level security has been greatly enhanced by server events (see below), you can manipulate the current user's User ID and User Level according to your requirements.

Themes

More than a dozen of themes for your selection. You can choose the styles of the grid with matching colors in no time. You can easily tune the theme after choosing one or even create your own themes.

Menu Editor

With the new Menu Editor you have full control on the menu items. You can re-order the menu items, add your own menu items for external pages or custom URL and use submenus.

Note: The submenus will be generated by the graphical extension (previously graphical template) available for registered users only.

Enhanced Multi-Page as Tabs

Now Multi-Page is presented as tabs, you can even change the captions of the pages. In addition to Add/Edit page, Multi-Page can also be optionally applied to the View page as well.

Server Events and Client Scripts

If you customize templates, this new feature enables you to save your own code, both server-sider and client-side, in your project. This feature reduces template customization so you can migrate your project to other templates more easily. The View Tag (for display) and Edit Tag (for input) of the fields now supports Custom Attributes so you can add your own attributes to work with your own code. The server events and client scripts provide advanced users a lot of possibilities for project customization, for example, you can use the Row_Rendered() event to do conditional formatting of a field. Furthermore, ASP.NET Maker 7 provides a Code Repository for easy reuse of your code across projects and sharing with other users.

Enhanced Form Validation

Now both server side validation and client side validation are supported. You can use either or both in a project. Custom validation with your own server side and/or client code is also supported by Server Events and Client Scripts (see below).

Enhanced Export

Previously Export-to-HTML is used as printer-friendly version, now you can have separate versions. While printer-friendly will use the same fields as the List/View page, fields for export to other formats can be different now. You can also change the behavior of exporting the records (all records or only records in the current pages) and the field values (looked-up values or original field values) by configuring the config file or using server events.

Auto-Update Fields

This feature makes it easy to auto-update a field, you just need to choose an auto-update value, such as current date, current user IP, current user name. You can even add you own. It is no longer necessary to set up default value in the Add page and custom hidden value in Edit page for these fields.

More Extensions

In addition to the DHTML editor and calendar template extensions, ASP.NET Maker 7 provides a few other extensions for registered users, such as Captcha and Image Resize.

Note: All extensions and third-party tools are not part of ASP.NET Maker, see Third-party Tools. The extensions are only provided as examples for demonstrating the use of template extension, some extensions are provided for registered users only.

More

• Login/Logout audit trail
• Export in View page
• Duplicate value checking in Edit page also
• Date/Time formats with time part
• Custom validation functions allowed
• Option to display no records in List page before searching
• Paging section at top and/or bottom
• Project auto-backup
• Return page - allows specifying custom return URL after adding/editing/registering
• MD5 and case-sensitive password
• Searching multiple selection values (stored as comma separated values) using partial match (previously it must be exact match)
• Collapsible Quick/Extended Search panel
• Advanced extension settings - allow table/field level settings for extensions
• Many other minor enhancements