AX1325

Formatting options for Formatted Grids

There are two different options to define the formatting for the rows and columns displayed in the grid:

• Thematic formatting: When using this option, you use special data source tags to specify styles to apply to each row and column of the grid. When the form is rendered, the grid cells display according to the applied styles. Formatting such as fonts, colors, borders, etc. are all determined by the applied styles instead of by the formatting in the spreadsheet. This option separates the formatting from the spreadsheet data, so that the entire look and feel of the grid can be changed simply by changing the styles.

  • If your form uses the default Axiom2018 skin, there is one set of row and column styles to cover the full range of grid formatting options. These styles combine together to directly specify the formatting to apply to the row or column. For example, the style may directly specify the font color and size, the borders and margins, and other formatting properties. Themes are not used with this new skin.

  • If your form uses a legacy skin, the styles available and their formatting depend on the theme applied to the grid (either inherited from the form-level theme or set at the component level). These styles were designed to be semantic, such as a "total" row style to apply a predefined set of formatting to a total row. This approach has been deprecated, due to user feedback that requested the ability to apply more granular formatting. The legacy skins, themes, and styles can continue to be used, but they will not be the focus of enhancements going forward.

• Spreadsheet formatting: When using this option, you use spreadsheet features to format the cells in the data source as you want them to display in the form, including fonts, colors, borders, etc. When the form is rendered, the grid cells will display in basically the same way they do in the spreadsheet, with some limitations. The Formatted Grid component serves as a means to display a portion of the spreadsheet within the form.

IMPORTANT: The spreadsheet formatting option primarily exists to support backward-compatibility for forms that were created prior to the introduction of the thematic grid (in version 2016.1). For any new grids, we strongly recommend using the thematic grid, as it will be the focus for all new enhancements moving forward.