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    Display format

    Each entity object must have a representation as text, so it can be visualized in a user interface - in ERP.net Windows Desktop Client or ERP.net Web Client. This is quite a simple task for entity types that have few attributes - not so much for the ones that don't.

    Let's see the following entity types as examples:

    • Client
    • Product

    They're one of the most commonly used in a typical workflow, and can expand to real (sample) data like entities.

    Client

    Number Name Sales person
    nmb001 Nia Cartwright Kristy Griffin
    123456 Kamile Farrington Natalie Dunn
    ab1234 Kurtis Dickinson Anderson Fraser

    Product

    Code Name Measurement unit Group
    1103 DEO GALERIA PINK F 150 ML pcs Goods
    1102-01-011 1U Server pcs Computers
    12345678 Remote support h Services

    These entities make sense in the context of others (documents, reports, analysis, etc).

    The easiest way to visualize them is to display their names (the "Name" attribute):

    Client

    Nia Cartwright

    Kamile Farrington

    Kurtis Dickinson

    Product

    DEO GALERIA PINK F 150 ML

    1U Server

    Remote support

    Everything seems fine, but what if you need something more?

    This entity visualization should also apply when you choose a customer or a product.

    How will you act when you have several products named "1U Server"?

    Wouldn't it be better to see more information about each entity?

    What about if you see the product availability at the time that you choose it?

    This is where display format helps. ERP.net allows you to specify it for each entity type.

    If you need more attributes to be displayed, or a specific format of your choice, you're free to customize it.

    Here's an example of how you could customize a product's entity type:

    Display format Visualization
    {Name:T} DEO GALERIA PINK F 150 ML
    {Name:T} ({Code}) DEO GALERIA PINK F 150 ML (1103)
    {Name:T} #{Code} DEO GALERIA PINK F 150 ML #1103
    {Code} 1103
    {Code}: ({Name:T}) 1103: (DEO GALERIA PINK F 150 ML)

    Display formats use string interpolation, allowing you to customize your entity types.

    Configuring display format

    Changing the display format of an entity type is an easy task.

    Just open its definition and edit the 'Display Text Format' attribute to the desired one.

    picture1

    As a result, each entity of this type will be displayed according to the selected display format.

    In the picture below, you can see how a customer dropdown is shown in the Web Client:

    picture2

    Furthermore, it's possible to specify the display format yourself, if the pre-defined formats don't suit you.

    Just follow the rules when specifying the string interpolation.

    Note

    How do you know the specific attributes of the entity type that you need?
    Refer to the ERP.net Domain Model documentation.
    Following the example above, all the necessary information is available in Crm.Customers Entity.
    The display format attribute for an entity is located in the Systems.Core.EntitySettings Entity table.

    Display format inside look

    Each entity type has its corresponding record in another entity- EntitySettings. There's an attribute DisplayTextFormat- here is stored the interpolated string, which defines the display format for the entity type. If there's no settings record for an entity, then the default display format takes place.

    Defaults

    The default display format for an entity is defined at the system level. For entities that have Code and Name attributes, the default display format is specified by the database configuration option CodeNameFormat - the system default is {Name}.

    Note

    Often the Code and Name attributes for an entity are not literally named so. They are expressed by the types CodeDataMember and NameDataMember.

    In the table below you can see some entities and their Code and Name attributes (i.e., the CodeDataMember and NameDataMember):

    Entity Code attribute Name attribute
    Products PartNumber Name
    Customers Number Party.PartyName

    DefaultDisplayTextFormat, CodeDataMember and NameDataMember can be found in the documentation of each entity.

    Searchable

    Display text attribute is searchable. This means that when an entity is searched, the attributes, defined in the display format are also searched for a match.

    picture3

    picture4

    You can find more information here,
    https://docs.erp.net/dev/domain-api/query-options/search.html

    Examples

    In this section, you can see several examples of different entity types:

    • sample data
    • available predefined display formats

    and their corresponding visualization.

    Customers

    Customers entity documentation

    Sample data


    Number Name
    nmb001 Nia Cartwright
    123456 Kamile Farrington
    ab1234 Kurtis Dickinson

    Display formats


    Display format Visualization
    {Party.PartyName:T} Nia Cartwright
    {Party.PartyName:T} ({Number}) Nia Cartwright (nmb001)
    {Party.PartyName:T} #{Number} Nia Cartwright #nmb001
    {Number} nmb001
    {Number}: ({Party.PartyName:T}) nmb001: (Nia Cartwright)
    {Party.PartyName:T} Kamile Farrington
    {Party.PartyName:T} ({Number}) Kamile Farrington (123456)
    {Party.PartyName:T} #{Number} Kamile Farrington #123456
    {Number} 123456
    {Number}: ({Party.PartyName:T}) 123456: (Kamile Farrington)
    {Party.PartyName:T} Kurtis Dickinson
    {Party.PartyName:T} ({Number}) Kurtis Dickinson (ab1234)
    {Party.PartyName:T} #{Number} Kurtis Dickinson #ab1234
    {Number} ab1234
    {Number}: ({Party.PartyName:T}) ab1234: (Kurtis Dickinson)

    Products

    Products entity documentation

    Sample data


    Name Part number
    DEO GALERIA PINK F 150 ML 1103
    1U Server 1102-01-011
    Remote support 12345678

    Display formats


    Display format Visualization
    {Name:T} DEO GALERIA PINK F 150 ML
    {Name:T} ({PartNumber}) DEO GALERIA PINK F 150 ML (1103)
    {Name:T} #{PartNumber} DEO GALERIA PINK F 150 ML #1103
    {PartNumber} 1103
    {PartNumber}: ({Name:T}) 1103: (DEO GALERIA PINK F 150 ML)
    {Name:T} 1U Server
    {Name:T} ({PartNumber}) 1U Server (1102-01-011)
    {Name:T} #{PartNumber} 1U Server #1102-01-011
    {PartNumber} 1102-01-011
    {PartNumber}: ({Name:T}) 1102-01-011: (1U Server)
    {Name:T} Remote support
    {Name:T} ({PartNumber}) Remote support (12345678)
    {Name:T} #{PartNumber} Remote support #12345678
    {PartNumber} 12345678
    {PartNumber}: ({Name:T}) 12345678: (Remote support)
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