Extending or modifying the SharePoint Datasheet view - sharepoint

Question

Has anyone discovered a way to extend or modify the functionality of the SharePoint Datasheet view (the view used when you edit a list in Datasheet mode, the one that looks like a basic Excel worksheet)?
I need to do several things to it, if possible, but I have yet to find a decent non-hackish way to change any functionality in it.
EDIT: An example of what I wish to do is to enable cascading filtering on lookup fields - so a choice in one field limits the available choices in another. There is a method to do this in the standard view form, but the datasheet view is completely seperate.
Regards
Moo

Answer 1

I don't think you can modify it in any non-hackish way, but you can create a new datasheet view from scratch. You do this by creating a new ActiveX control, and exposing it as a COM object, and modifying the web.config file to make reference to the new ActiveX control.
There's an example here:
Creating a custom datasheet control.

Answer 2

Actually, you can do this. Here is a code snippet I stripped out of someplace where I am doing just what you asked. I tried to remove specifics.
var gridFieldOverrideExample = (function (){
function fieldView(ctx){
var val=ctx.CurrentItem[curFieldName];
var spanId=curFieldName+"span"+ctx.CurrentItem.ID;
if (ctx.inGridMode){
handleGridField(ctx, spanId);
}
return "<span id='"+spanId+"'>"+val+"</span>";
}
function handleGridField(ctx, spanID){
window.SP.SOD.executeOrDelayUntilScriptLoaded(function(){
window.SP.GanttControl.WaitForGanttCreation(function (ganttChart){
var gridColumn = null;
var editID = "EDIT_"+curFieldName+"_GRID_FIELD";
var columns = ganttChart.get_Columns();
for(var i=0;i<columns.length;i++){
if(columns[i].columnKey == curFieldName){
gridColumn = columns[i];
break;
}
}
if (gridColumn){
gridColumn.fnGetEditControlName = function(record, fieldKey){
return editID;
};
window.SP.JsGrid.PropertyType.Utils.RegisterEditControl(editID, function (ctx) {
editorInstance = new SP.JsGrid.EditControl.EditBoxEditControl(ctx, null);
editorInstance.NewValue = "";
editorInstance.SetValue = function (value) {
_cellContext = editorInstance.GetCellContext();
_cellContext.SetCurrentValue({ localized: value });
};
editorInstance.Unbind = function () {
//This happens when the grid cell loses focus - hide controls here, do cleanup, etc.
}
//Below I grabbed a reference to the original 'BindToCell' function so I can prepend to it by overwriting the event.
var origbtc = editorInstance.BindToCell;
editorInstance.BindToCell = function(cellContext){
if ((cellContext.record) &&
(cellContext.record.properties) &&
(cellContext.record.properties.ID) &&
(cellContext.record.properties.ID.dataValue)){
editorInstance.ItemID = cellContext.record.properties.ID.dataValue;
}
origbtc(cellContext);
};
//Below I grabbed a reference to the original 'OnBeginEdit' function so I can prepend to it by overwriting the event.
var origbte = editorInstance.OnBeginEdit;
editorInstance.TargetID;
editorInstance.OnBeginEdit = function (cellContext){
this.TargetID = cellContext.target.ID;
/*
. . .
Here is where you would include any custom rendering
. . .
*/
origbte(cellContext);
};
return editorInstance;
}, []);
}
});
},"spgantt.js");
}
return{
fieldView : fieldView
}
})();
(function () {
function OverrideFields(){
var overrideContext = {};
overrideContext.Templates = overrideContext.Templates || {};
overrideContext.Templates.Fields = {
'FieldToOverride' : {
'View': gridFieldOverrideExample.fieldView
}
};
SPClientTemplates.TemplateManager.RegisterTemplateOverrides(overrideContext);
}
ExecuteOrDelayUntilScriptLoaded(OverrideFields, 'clienttemplates.js');
})();
Also, there are a couple of other examples out there. Sorry, I don't have the links anymore: