Adaptable Column

When AdapTable is being initialised it dynamically creates a collection of AdaptableColumn objects.

There is one Adaptable Column for every column in the Grid, and they can be of 3 types:

• Based on the ColDef provided in the columnDefs property of GridOptions

• Created for each Special Column provided to AdapTable (of which there are 3 types):

  • Action Columns
  • Calculated Column
  • FreeText Columns

• Matching columns that are dynamically created by AG Grid - these include:

  • Row Grouped Columns
  • Pivot Result Columns
  • Tree Grid Key Columns

AdapTable Column Base

The AdaptableColumn object is derived from AdaptableColumnBase which contains these properties:

These contain the most important properties of the Column object and are worth looking at in more detail:

columnId

This is the primary way of referring to the Column, and what is generally used in Initial Adaptable State.

friendlyName

This property sets how the Column is referred to throughout the AdapTable UI.

This includes the Expression Editor and all panels in the Settings Panel.

It is usually derived automatically from the headerName property in the AG Grid Column definition, but it can be provided explicitly in the columnFriendlyName function property in Column Options.

dataType

This important property determines whether the Column is a number, string, date, boolean etc.

This influences many things in AdapTable e.g. what Column Filters are available.

AdapTable derives the value of the DataType, in the first instance by using the Cell Data Type of the AG Grid Column Definition if provided.

columnTypes

This is based off the types property of the AG Grid Column Definition.

AdapTable will add additional values to this prop in some use cases (as detailed in this tutorial).

AdapTable Column Object

The Adaptable Column object extends AdaptableColumnBase and includes a large number of properties.

These properties are evaluated by AdapTable when the Application starts.

The evaluation varies based on the source of the Column.

Regular Columns

Regular columns are those which are defined initially in AG Grid GridOptions object.

AdapTable will work out the values for that Column's properties in AdapTable Column in 2 ways:

• using the values provided in the AG Grid Column Definition

  Note

  Examples are field, groupable, movable, sortable - all based off similar properties in Grid Options

• reading some properties provided in Adaptable Options, for example:

  • exportable - derived from the isColumnExportable property in Export Options
  • queryable - derived from isColumnQueryable property Expression Options

Special Columns

AdapTable can create 'Special Columns' which are not defined in Grid Options but through AdapTable itself.

Examples include Calculated Columns, FreeText Columns and Action Columns.

In these cases AdapTable uses a combination of:

• properties provided in the object definitions in Initial Adaptable State
• sensible defaults for the Column (e.g. Action Columns have readOnly set to true)

Column Properties

The full list of properties in the AdaptableColumn object is:

Using AdapTable Columns

Run-time users leverage AdapTable Columns continuously but indirectly through AG Grid. The overwhelming majority of users of AdapTable will not need to be aware of the existence of AdapTable Columns.

Developers will frequently access AdapTable Columns since they are often contained in Context objects supplied to functions, and used elsewhere in AdapTable (e.g. in the Column Menu).

Column Options

The ColumnOptions section of Adaptable Options contains properties for managing Adaptable Columns.

// Do not show Error Messages in Console for missing Columns
const adaptableOptions: AdaptableOptions = {
  columnOptions: {
    showMissingColumnsWarning: false,
  },
};

Column Options Properties

Column API

AdapTable provides the Column API class in Adaptable API to enable programmatic access to all the AdapTable Columns which have been created.

This includes a plethora of methods giving full access to the full range of properties in each Column: