Dialogs,  Grids:  What are they?

AlphaFive web interface is with grids and dialogs.  Here is a short introduction before I build the first grid.

Imagine your information is located in a central place managed by a supervisor and underneath the supervisor there are plenty of messengers.  That's what you have.  A database backend, web application server and unlimited licenses to access the application server.

Whenever you request information from the central place ( database ) to the supervisor (web application server ) thru a messenger ( via a browser using your unlimited licenses ) the supervisor process the request and sends back the information thru the messenger.

The grid is nothing but a representation of the information in a readable table format.

When the requested information is just for reading only, it is sent over as read only and the messenger from the application server returns back to the supervisor.
An example would be looking at some schedule, a list of assignments or googling for information etc., you can look but not change the information.
When a requested information is for modification, then it is sent over with a messenger from the supervisor and was told to wait for sometime for the modifications to be done and bring the modified information back to the central place to be updated.  If the information is modified within the specified time then the modified information is taken back and the central place is updated.  But if the waiting time elapses before the changes are made and be ready to send back the messenger leaves the scene, so you get an error stating that there is no connection or no active grid etc.,
A grid can run into many pages.

The dialog on the other hand, you say knock knock to the supervisor and you get back a form to fill out and the messenger leaves behind instructions to send that back.  When the form is filled out you return to the supervisor as instructed and the request is processed.  This could be insertion or update of information. The supervisor will then process the information. Time is not essential here.
A dialog is usually single page.

So as you can see the grids depend on connection to the server available all the time and the dialog does not. So there is an advantage and disadvantage to both.  Careful use of either one will improve the function of your website.

So tomorrow we will build our first simple grid.