Dynamic Data Filtering 1.10 on CodePlex
After almost a month of sporadic work on Dynamic Data Filtering I am happy to announce that I am releasing the next version. This version includes several new features and a bug fix. It is downloadable from CodePlex.
New Features
Dynamic Filter Repeater
Based on suggestions I have added a Dynamic Filter Repeater. This control uses the FilterAttributes annontated in your MetaModel to automatically populate the list of filters for a given page. This is most useful if you modify your PageTemplates/List.aspx & PageTemplates/ListDetails.aspx pages. Filtering is OPT-IN!
Visual Studio Integration
Dynamic Data Filtering now has a design time experience. I have added design time rendering to the DynamicFilterForm and new DynamicFilterRepeater. The first time you drag either control on to the form the designer will automatically create the DynamicData/Filters folder and populate the folder with the default templates provided. You will also see a designer action, "Upgrade DataSource", which will convert a LinqDataSource to a DynamicLinqDataSource.
I have also added item templates to the Add New Item... window which will add a filter to the DynamicData/Filters folder for you. Currently I have templates for the standard equals operator and range. I believe these are the two most common filters used, let me know if you'd like the others and I will add them in the next release.
Thank you David and Joe from the ASP.NET team for their help with the designer support.
Thank you Steve for the icon work.
Installer
Dynamic Data is now distributable via an MSI installer. This installer will install to %Program Files%\Dynamic Data Filtering\ by default. Included in this folder are the binaries, samples and the default templates. The installer also automatically adds the VS integrations mentioned above. This was my first experience with WIX and I must say I am impressed and have found my new installer development technology.
Thank you James who helped convert the C# examples and templates to VB.
Bug Fixes
It was identified that multiple queries were being performed against the database on pages that had a DynamicFilterForm on them. It was found that this was caused by the BaseDataSource.PerformSelect() method. This method has been overridden to prevent this behavior in both the DynamicFilterForm and DynamicFilterRepeater.