multi select and editing

Suite and Optimus Suite 5
#1

I am having an issue using multiselect and editing. We have a grid with multiline enabled. We want the ability to have multiple lines selected, edit a single cell, and have the records update. Updating records in not an issue, the problem is that when double-clicking a cell to edit, we lose the multiple selected lines (selection reduces to double-clicked line. Is there some setting where the selection is retained when double clicking to edit? I am using the various selection events (onSelectStateChanged, onRowSelect) to try to track and retain the selection, the problem is that it appears that the edit event fires near simultaneously with the selection events, so while trying to reset the selected rows, the edit event fires then is closed immediately by the row select event reselecting the deselected rows. Sorry if this sounds rambling, let me try to step it out:

  1. Grid enabled with multiselect.
  2. Highlight multiple rows.
  3. Double-click (same happens if set to single click to edit) a cell to edit, other selected rows deselect, leaving only the current line selected while editing.

If I try to reset the selection/highlighting, during the selection events (onrowselect, onSelectStateChanged), the events cause the edit object to close prematurely, blocking editing.

#2

Unfortunately this is the limitation of the grid.
When the editor is opened only the current editing row can be selected.

#3

I did find a kind of work around. If you hold the control or shift key when double-clicking the cell to edit, the selection doesn’t change yet the editor pops up for the edited line. Everything seems to work fine using this method, although holding ctrl will select then deselect the line if not previously selected (and the reverse as well - deselect then reselect the selected line when ctrl-double-clicked). We will use this work around for now. I would like to suggest 2 things:

  1. An optional selection method where clicking a line item is additive to the multiple selections. Basically, a single click acts like a ctrl click - selects a deselected line or deselects a selected line. My boss has asked for this before and I fudged a method for handling that, but it would be nicer (and cleaner) if this was an option with dhtmlx. I know that we could use checkboxes to simulate this, but the visuals of highlighting makes the selection stand out more.

  2. Somehow making a distinction between single-click selection and double-clicking, without having to resort to using modifier keys. We have run into this with our own apps where both single and double clicking were available, but did unrelated things. In some cases we were able to delay processing the single click for a short time period (half-second, for example), and if a second click was detected during that period, then process the double-click and the single-click execution was canceled.

By the way, thanks for a very useful product suite. If has been very helpful to us having these tools available.