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Information Builders XML parser will be used by Information Builders components, instead of the one provided by Adobe. This change will not affect interactions with Adobe components. If you require the Adobe XML parser, change the ibiUseXMLParser property to true.

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The property called ibiDataSendMethod is available in ibiDataGrid to support the use of HTTP POST to retrieve data from a long URL in seturl value. If nothing is specified for this property, POST is the default method used for retrieving data from WebFOCUS. There are cases where HTTP GET needs to be used instead, especially when the URL does not require a Servlet call, for example, to simply retrieve the data from a static XML file posted on the web site. Please see HTTP Method Definitions specified by the W3C Organization for more details.

To apply a send method, use the following syntax.

ibiDataSendMethod="send_method"

where:

send_method

Is the send method you are using (POST or GET). POST is the default.

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Example: Setting ibiDataSendMethod to GET

If the seturl is specified to simply retrieve the data from the XML file posted on the website you need to set ibiDataSendMethod property to GET, as shown in the following example.

<ibi:ibiDataGrid x="21" y="672" width="593" id="mainGrid" 
  seturl="http://flexdemo.ibi.com/examples/bamsample.xml?"
  ibiAddRandom="true" 
  ibiUseFiltered="true"
  ibiDataSendMethod="GET" />

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When the seturl property contains a valid URL to a WebFOCUS procedure but there is no data returned because no data exists, an empty data grid will be returned at the run-time without error. The Data Error message will be displayed in the message window if there is a problem locating the procedure or the server.

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Using the ibiDefaultSort property, you can specify multiple columns to sort and assign each column sort order using the ibiDefaultSortOrder property in ibiDataGrid.

The ibiDefaultSortOrder property takes ASCE or DESC values in both all uppercase or all lowercase. Each sort order for the corresponding column in the ibiDefaultSort property has to be specified in the ibiDefaultSortOrder property. When specifying multiple values, separate each value with comma.

The following properties in the ibiDataGrid component, allow you to change the sort order of the columns.

Property	Description
ibiDefaultSort	Specify the column names, separated by commas, to sort on.
ibiDefaultSortOrder	Specify the corresponding sort order of each column in the ibiDefaultSort property, separated by commas, to be either ascending or descending. The values accepted are: ASCE or DESC (asce or desc, are also acceptable).

Note: If you change the sort order during run time, these values will be overwritten.

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Example: Sorting Multiple Columns of Data

In the following example, the grid is sorted in descending order by State column and Category column, then in ascending order by the Sum.COGS column.

<ibi:ibiDataGrid id="maingrid1"
   seturl="http://localhost:8080/ibi_apps/WFServlet?IBIF_ex=xmltest
           &amp;IBIAPP_app=ibiflexdemo"
   ibiUseColumns="REGION,ST,CATEGORY,PRODUCT,Sum.DOLLARS,Sum.COGS"
   ibiGroupBy="REGION,ST,CATEGORY,PRODUCT"
   ibiDefaultSort="ST,CATEGORY,Sum.COGS"
   ibiDefaultSortOrder="DESC,DESC,ASCE"
   x="10" y="34" width="569" height="462" />

The following image shows the resulting output.

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In addition to loading data using a WebFOCUS URL, data can be embedded into a .SWF file that is Adobe Flash Player compatible. Using Flex Builder, you can safely store data in XML directly in your SWF file that is Adobe Flash Player compatible if you wish to avoid loading it at run time.

Flex needs physical access to the XML file, so it needs to be saved into the Flex Builder project \src folder. Typically, the project folder will be located in:

drive:\Documents and Settings\user_id\My Documents\Flex Builder 3\project_name\

You can create an XML representation of data using HOLD FORMAT instead of PCHOLD FORMAT in WebFOCUS and by specifying the XML file saved in the ActionScript section of the source mxml file in your flex application, using the following code:

[EMBED(source="filename.xml")]

where:

filename.xml

Is the source of the data you want to embed directly into the .SWF file that is Adobe Flash Player compatible.

Note: For embedded data, seturl element must be set as internal.

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Example: Embedding Data Into a SWF

By using HOLD FORMAT XML instead of PCHOLD FORMAT XML, ggsales.xml is the output of the xmltest procedure.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application creationComplete="init()"
     xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute" xmlns:ibi="*">
  <ibi:ibiCanvas x="10" y="10" width="800" height="600">
    <ibi:ibiDataGrid x="20" y="20" height="400" width="600" id="MAIN01">
       <ibi:seturl>internal</ibi:seturl>
    </ibi:ibiDataGrid>
  </ibi:ibiCanvas>
  <mx:Script>
   <![CDATA[
     [Embed(source="ggsales.xml",mimeType="application/octet-stream")]
     public static const XMLFILE:Class;
     public static const embededXML:XML = setConst();
     private static function setConst():XML
     {
       var ba:ByteArray = new XMLFILE() as ByteArray;
       return new XML(ba.readUTFBytes(ba.length));
     }
     private function init():void
     {
       MAIN01.iArray.myXML = embededXML;
     }
   ]]>
  </mx:Script>
</mx:Application>

Note: To embed data in XML files that contain encoding other than UTF-8, you may need to replace the following code from the above sample:

return new XML(ba.readUTFBytes(ba.length));

with:

return new XML(ba.readMultiByte(ba.length,"charSet_Name"));

where

charSet_Name

Is a character set string, with possibilities including "shift-jis" and "big5". For a complete list of supported character sets, please refer to your Adobe documentation.