Configure Table widgets

The minimum configuration requires a table asset, a root query and a child query. It is also possible to define, whether users can add and remove relations in each level of the table. This article describes the Table widget configuration.

Target groups

• Users (Personal workspace configuration)

• Administrators (Workspace XML configuration)

Context

The Table widget can be used with any asset type. censhare provides preconfigured table and query assets to be used with Product assets, Product category assets, and User lists.

Prerequisites

You must be familiar with the key concepts of asset relations and references. You must also be familiar with the asset structures used in your system.

Introduction

When opening an asset page in censhare Web, users want to see immediately which asset structures this asset is part of. In other cases, user wish to browse hierarchical lists of assets in a wider context. In these structures, they want to have the possibility to add or remove asset relations.

The table widget offers this functionality. Its configuration is very flexible, since the displayed asset structures, the asset details and the relations to be added or removed are configured separately. This article describes the configuration of the table widget in censhare Web and how to add an XML configuration.

Before starting a configuration, read also the following section to learn more about the basic concepts of the table widget.

Basic concepts

The table widget displays hierarchical asset structures as a table. An asset structure consists of various assets that are related to each other. censhare represents these relationships as asset relations or asset references.

The structure shown in the widget represents only a small part of the overall asset structure of censhare. Therefore, you need to define the top-level assets shown in the table. This is done by a root query. This query outputs the top-level elements shown in the table. Basically, there are two options: The asset itself can be defined as root. this is the asset page, where the widget is placed - The asset is called the context asset. In this case, there is only one root element, since each asset is unique. The second option is to have root query, for example for a certain asset type. For example, all Product category assets. In this case, there is no single root element but multiple. In this use case, any asset that matches the search criteria is a root element.

The queries that you use in the table widget are configured outside the widget in a Module / Search/ Transformation asset. This asset type uses XSLT to search and create an output of the search results. Search criteria are defined in the XSLT master file of this asset.

In order to create a table output in the widget, you can define, which asset details are displayed in each column. The table is configured outside the widget in a Table asset. In the Table asset itself, you assign table columns. Each table column displays one asset property.

The widget displays the configured assets structures and also provides functionality to manage assets relations. To create new asset relations, users can add assets to the list. Existing relations can be removed. The configuration of the Add relation dialog is done separately in the widget configuration. You can configure the dialog for each asset type and relation type individually. Each relation dialog can be configured in both directions: from child assets to parent assets or from parent assets to child assets. Likewise, asset references can be configured in feature direction or feature-reverse. We recommend proper planning before you configure the relation management.

Example: A Table widget displays all product categories as root elements, followed by child product categories, products, and product items (standard structure of censhare PIM). The table relation management can be configured as follows:

(1) Add product items to a product: This creates a user.product-item.relation. The product asset is the parent, the product item asset the child.

(2) Add a product category to a product: This creates a product category reference in feature direction in the product asset.

However, from the user perspective, it can be more convenient and logical to add products to a product category. The table widget can be configured accordingly:

(3) Add products to a product category: This creates the same product category reference in a product asset as in (2). But now the reference is created feature-reverse starting from the product category.

Widget configuration

To configure a Table widget, place the widget on the desired tab on an asset page. This configuration applies to your personal workspace. You can either create your workspace as needed and then create a workspace template from it. For more information, see Workspace templates with resource events.

Proceed as follows:

1. Start the developer mode in censhare Web.

2. Open the asset where you want to place the table widget. Note: The widget is displayed on all asset pages of this asset type.

3. Open the desired tab or add a new tab.

4. Open page-actions menu and select Add widget type. In the dialog, select Table widget.

5. Place the widget and adjust the size.

6. In the widget header, click  and select Configure widget. The configuration dialog opens:

General configuration

In the General Configuration pane, you can define how the widget and list items in the widget are displayed on the asset page. Please read the article "General Widget Configuration" for more information.

Table configuration

In this section, you configure the asset structure displayed in the widget.

Notes:

(1) Root and child query must match. The search performed in the child query only throws a result if the queried asset type is related to the assets from the root query. For example, select Root product categories, in the root query and Media related child assets in the child query. In this combination, the table shows only top-level items. This is because there are no child assets assigned as "Media" in product categories. If you select All child assets instead, the table also shows second-level product categories assigned to the top-level categories. However, the list does not show any products within the categories. Products are not assigned in a child relation to product categories. Product categories are referenced as children of products. Therefore, select Child product categories in the child query field. The table now shows the complete asset structure with product categories, products and product items.

(2) You can add a grouping parameter to the queries in order to group the assets by this parameter. This creates a flat list of assets with intersecting header rows for each value of the grouping parameter. For example, the root query lists Products and the child query all Product items of a product. Product items are available in different colors and sizes. You can group them by either size or color using the respective grouping parameter. 

(3) This option is only available if the table widget is placed on an asset page. It is not available in table widgets on static pages.

Table relation configuration

In this section, select which relation types users can add or remove in the widget.

The configuration is stored in a Configuration asset. In this asset, relation type, direction, source, and target asset type are defined for each relation configuration. 

In the widget configuration, select one or more relation configurations to be applied in the widget. Be aware that this configuration has to be coherent with the table configuration.

For example, if the table outputs a list of product categories, products and product items, you can configure the following relations here:

• Add or remove a product category to another product category
  (for example, building a product category hierarchy).

• Add a product to a product category

• Add a product category to a product

• Add a product item to a product

• Add a product to a product item

Each relation type and direction requires a separate table relation configuration. For more details, see Table relation configuration asset.

Workspace XML configuration

As a system administrator, you can create widget configurations and add them to the XML file of a workspace template. For more information, see Workspace templates with XML files.

The following code snippet shows the configuration schema:

<widget kind="csTableWidget">
 <configuration xmlns:censhare="http://www.censhare.com/xml/3.0.0/censhare"> 
  <tableId censhare:_annotation.datatype="string">[TABLE.ASSET.RESOURCE.KEY]</tableId>
  <toolbarTransformationKey>[TOOLBAR.TRANSFORMATION.RESOURCE.KEY]</toolbarTransformationKey>
  <rootQueryId censhare:_annotation.datatype="string">[ROOT.QUERY.RESOURCE.KEY]</rootQueryId>
  <childQueryId censhare:_annotation.datatype="string">[CHILD.QUERY.RESOURCE.KEY]</childQueryId>
  <relationConfigurations
   <_object_ 
       display_value="[NAME]"  
       value="[RELATION.CONFIGURATION.RESOURCE.KEY]" />
  <isPossibleToAddRootElements censhare:_annotation.datatype="boolean">[TRUE|FALSE]</isPossibleToAddRootElements>
 </configuration>
</widget>

Remarks