Understanding the XRL Interface in Orenda Grids

Orenda Grids Extended Related Lists (or XRL) allows Salesforce Users to define and optimize the data views in Salesforce such as Related Lists as required by the user.

Although the Orenda Grids XRL  interface is straightforward to use, you should be aware of a few less obvious navigational options. The layout is divided into the following parts:

Name of the XRL: The name of the XRL which is currently displayed in the Related List view. Such as Cases XRL  for a Test_account.
Summary of Records: Total no. of records in the active Related List view.
Grid: Consists of records in XRL and column-level actions such as Column-filter, Sort, and Editing
Global Actions: Default and Custom actions in the Related List view.

Therefore, the quicker you can find the information you're looking for or want to update, the more efficiently you can navigate the system.

The ability to format columns for improved data visualization and analysis is one of the main advantages of the Orenda Grids XRL. In order to customize the view to meet your unique needs, we will look at how to leverage the XRL capability to give you a tailored appearance and behavior of Related Lists.

Once you have configured the Orenda Grids XRL, let us understand how to navigate the Orenda Grids XRL interface.

Related Tab

This is the main navigation bar where the XRL component is usually added in the lightning page layout. You can customize the Orenda Grids XRL views and modify the data views to see the information you need dynamically. Please keep in mind that XRL is already configured on the lightning page- Account here. Salesforce.com is an example account for which we have configured Cases XRL to display all the cases associated with that account.

The table below gives you a brief overview of the Action buttons.

TEXT/ ICON/LINK	TASK/ACTION
	This part displays the Parent Record type and name that user is currently viewing
	Name of the Related object/Related List for any parent record. For eg- Cases is a Related object for Account.
	Search for a particular keyword or text and it will result in the records having the columns with that keyword/text.
	This dropdown shows the name of the Related List view of an XRL currently visible on the page. It also allows you to switch among multiple XRL views by selecting a specific Related List view name from the dropdown list.
	This icon - 9 dots - dropdown is Action Menu in Orenda Grids XRL which consists of multiple default and user-defined actions that you can use to view, manipulate or download the data. These are typically the actions that you can view in the default configuration of XRL.  You will see an expanded or collapsed view of menu depending upon the page layout and addition of XRL component on lightning page.
	The reset filter button is used to reset client-side applied filters on the columns
	This button is used to delete the selected records from the database and XRL View. This button is visible only to the users with “XRL_admin” permission sets or Power Users by default. Also, make sure to select at least one record in the Grid for this action to work.
	The download button is used to export ad-hoc Related List views into native Excel. It exports the filtered records in excel format. If there are certain records selected in the Grid view, only those records will get downloaded to Excel.
	This button is used to add a new record of the Related object in the database. It works in same way as default Salesforce Related List behavior.
	This button is used to do server-side refresh of the XRL view, if any changes have been made to it, such as adding/editing/deleting records. Since only the current list view is updated rather than the entire page, this updates the data faster.
	Click on this button to request a new feature/functionality or enhance existing ones in XRL. The request will be added to our feedback portal.
	Click on this button to view the XRL view in full-screen mode without switching to a new tab or screen.
	Click on the gear icon to Configure or customize Orenda Grids XRL or access the help documentation from your SF org directly.
The Grid Interface	This Grid is the list of records with configured columns in the XRL view. At the top left of the Grid, you can see the total no. of records available in configured XRL. Click on a particular record to view more details about it. Select the checkboxes for one or more records to perform bulk actions such as edit/delete records
Pagination for fast browsing	Pagination is a very important feature in Orenda Grids XRL. You can view up to 200 records at a time by clicking on the numbered drop-down. Click on the right arrow to go to the next page. Click on the previous arrow to go to the previous page. Access thousands of records in fast and efficient manner without infinite scrolling
Filter Columns	Click on the filter icon next to a column name to filter the records. Select the required filter criteria such as Contains, Is Equal, or Not Is Equal, etc. Select the appropriate value: Choose from the picklist, enter the keyword, or select the date depending on the column data type.
Sorting Columns	To sort records in a specific order depending upon column values, click the header for that column. An arrow appears to indicate how the list is sorted: from the column's first record (Up Sort icon) (alphanumerically) or its last record (Down Sort icon) (Down Sort icon)

Configuration Wizard Overview

The Configuration Wizard within Orenda Grids is your key to tailor the Extended Related List (XRL) view to suit your unique needs. It allows you - the Orenda Grids users and admins- to gain maximum insights from data views such as Related List through user-defined, scalable and flexible user-defined Related List views (XRL views) by customizing it in a variety of ways.

A broad overview of functionalities enabled through configuration wizard are as follows:

Field Selection

The Field selection tab allows you to configure, re-configure fields, server-side filters, column sequence and sort order of columns. It also allows you to configure the reference or the lookup fields in XRL view. Click here for detailed article on configuration.

1. Configure:

Configure tab in Field selection lets you choose what to display in your XRL view. You have the option to configure fields (including lookup fields) under Available Fields on the left hand side. All the chosen fields are displayed on the right side under Selected fields.

To configure lookup fields, click on > sign adjacent to field name. You can select upto 5 level of lookups.
You can configure upto 20 fields in a single view, change sequence of columns through drag and drop and delete any previously configured or wrong selection by using delete icon next to selected field name. 
You can create new views or apply these changes to existing view through Save As/ Save button.

2. Apply Conditions:

You can utilize Apply Conditions tab to configure server-side filters or remove or edit existing filters to scale up or scale down the data in the grid. You can also control the logical relationship among multiple filters using AND/OR Logic. You can apply filters to look up fields, upto 5 level of lookups.

3. Apply Ordering:

You can  select a default sorting order for records based on any field in Apply Ordering Tab in the XRL view.

4. Add Virtual Field:

This functionality allows you to create and display a custom virtual field in the view dynamically for specific use cases. Virtual fields enable you to do calculations and represent data even when these fields are not in object. These fields can be created from the Configure dialog of XRL and will be available only for the list view it is created on. You can use all the features of a normal field on these types of fields like sorting, filtering etc. For the calculations user can use the ‘formatter’ callback from the advanced section of field settings.  

Field Settings

Field Settings is a collection of various functionalities through which you get to control the columns appearance and actions in XRL. These include standard, custom or virtual fields in XRL view. Power users in XRL control this setting. For standard users in XRL to be able modify view as per the settings, they need to share the view with Power users. The various important functionalities in Field Settings are as:

1. Field Label:  

This input is used to label the name of the field as it will appear in the Grid. For example, You can label the Case Origin as Case Origin or Origin itself.

2. Hiding this Column:  

Hiding column allows you to hide any configured column from the active Related List view.

3. Is column Filterable:  

This checkbox allows you to enable or disable column filter functionality in the Grid. By default, the column-filters are available on the Grid for every field. Using column filters allows you to filter the important data based on certain criteria in real-time and helps in finding right data quickly, especially in conjunction with server-side filters and global search.

4. Is column Sortable:  

This allows you to enable/disable the real-time sort in individual columns to arrange and view records in a particular order. Sorting for columns is enabled in the Grid by default.

5. Is column Editable:  

With this functionality, you can enable inline editing for that particular column. This option appears only when a field is editable. For instance a system generated field such as Case Id is not an editable field so for Case Id, this check box will not appear under “Field Settings”. By default, this functionality is not enabled in the Grid.

6. Wrap Column Content:

This setting allows you to decide whether you want to see the full text of individual column or clipped text. Accordingly text will be displayed in cells of corresponding column.

7. Width:

This setting allows you to fix a specific width for desired column.

8. Advanced Section:

This functionality allows you to customize field settings including selecting specific fields and records based on a condition, customizing the display of data through a formatter and custom styles, and providing dynamic options for a UI element through the options Callback function. These command are in JSON format and specified in below format.
 

Table Settings

Table Settings are a group of functionalities that allow you to customize the Grid with high degree of control over how Related list views display the data and how you can browse through the Related List efficiently to draw quicker and reliable insights.

1.  Enable Numeration:

You can enable numeration on the Grid view, which can be useful for tracking and managing records.

2.  Enable Checkboxes:

This function allows checkboxes to enable manipulation/editing of data through inline/bulk/standard edit or delete etc.

3.  Enable Global Search:  

You can enable global search on the Related list view, which allows you to search for data across all the records with an input string.

4.  Enable Pagination:  

With top and bottom pagination, you get to browse thousands of records in a quick and efficient way, controlling number of clicks and endless scrolling to navigate through data.

5. Enabling Column Header Text Wrap:

You can enable column header text wrap on the Related List view, which prevents long column headers from being truncated.

6. Enabling Standard Edit:

This functionality allows you to edit any record in similar fashion as standard salesforce edit functionality. Thus, allows you to modify all the fields of a single record in a go. Please note that Standard Edit only works when initially the inline edit is enabled for at least one column in the Related List view.

7. Enable Table Toggling: 

Using Table toggling feature gives you the option to collapse XRL from current data view. When toggling is enabled, you get to see a Chevron in XRL view like below. You can click on the arrow adjacent to XRL name to collapse or expand XRL in data view.

8. Rollback Setting:

In case of failed delete/save operation, the XRL view rolls back to previous data before edit/delete operation.

9. Grid Header:

The text box allows you to give a personalized name to the Grid as per your choice. For example for an the Cases XRL, we can rename is Cases: Salesforce.com and save the view or create a new view using Save/Save As. It will reflect in XRL main view as shown in the screenshots below.

10. Grouping of Records:

By enabling this functionality, you are able to view the records grouped together on the basis of specified column.

11. Group Order of Records:

With this setting, you can arrange the above defined groups (based on configured fields in the Grid) in ascending or descending order as needed.

12. Setting the Chunk Size for Save and Delete Actions:

Users can set the chunk size for save and delete actions, which controls the number of records that are processed at a time.

13. Load Chunk Size:

This option enables making Related List view scalable to handle more than 50K records.

14. Bulk Threshold:

You can set a threshold value in the configuration to dynamically enable server filters on XRL UI. When the total number of records exceeds the threshold value the UI will display the server filters configured from the ‘Server Filters’ tab.  For example, the value is set to -1 which results in displaying the XRL grid with zero records as well.

15. Class and Method Name to be Executed:

Using this functionality, you can give a class name in this and that class name will be executed before updating any records into the database. So it can work like validation/ modify the data sent for the database.

16.  List Size to Display Options:

You can set the list size to display options, which controls the number of options that are displayed in the picklist field. For example, when applying filter, you can view the no. of options in the picklist as defined in this option.

17. Select External File (JS/CSS):

You can upload your own JS or CSS file as static resource and use it for configuration of different functions in advanced section of XRL.

18. Advanced Table Settings:

This functionality allows you to customize the record or Grid settings by the means of various UI elements. It includes features related to row interactions, styling, validation, grouping, drag-and-drop, and callbacks for multiple UI elements.

Locked Fields

This setting allows you to lock certain fields in the Related List view such that those fields always appear in the configured view and not modified by anyone else who gets access to this view.

Actions

The Action tab in configuration wizard allows you to configure new actions, customize the new and default actions in the Related List view allowing greater control and actionable insights from the Related List data.
With Action settings, you can achieve the following customization in the Grid:
 

1.  Define New Action:

With this functionality, you can create new custom action in the Salesforce Grid view.

2.  Select Action:

You can choose the pre-defined or new action from the dropdown for customization such as icon, action visibility, flow invoke etc.

3.  Action Settings:  

You can customize the pre-defined or custom action using the settings as shown in the snippet below. This includes tip information, hiding or conditional visibility of action button, icon, order in which the action appears in XRL view and selection of flow to run in case of automated or screen flows.

4.  Advanced Action Settings:  

For advanced settings such as action call back or dynamic show/hide function, you need to use “advanced” settings in XRL using JSON coding such as shown below.

Server Filter

Server filter functionality as discussed previously allows XRL to fetch and display only those records from backend as you define, depending upon the use case. In Server filter tab, you can choose the fields on which you need to apply server side filtering and you will be able to view and apply the filters in XRL main view itself without need of going to configuration wizard. 

You will also need to set a value in Bulk Threshold input field in Table Settings as discussed in Table Settings Bulk Threshold field.

Action Buttons in Configuration Wizard
 

The action buttons in configuration wizard as shown in snippet allow you to do following actions:

Save

This action enables you to save any changes made to configuration and reflect in the XRL view including field selection, applying filters, field and table settings, customizing actions etc. 

Save As

This button allows you to create a new XRL view reflecting the changes made to existing configuration in this new view. You can use the view dropdown in main navigation to switch among multiple views such created.

Cancel

Using this button, you can undo any changes made to the list view configuration and revert to the original settings of the current view.

Share

This button enables the functionality of sharing a local XRL view you created among the peers/teams in your org.

Delete

Using this action, you can delete the existing view from the org if it is redundant or no longer needed.

Export

This functionality allows you to download the current list view configuration.