1) in the init block I have to create an item

reading the guide you would assume that entry.commit() seems to take care of that but it does n ot

2) after adding the entry you need to create a new item

@edvin dont you think this is something for the guide?

@edvin there is no easy way to see from an itemviewmodel if it is set by for example the bindSelected from a tableview?

@ron If the guide implies that it autocreates items inside an ItemViewModel that needs to be fixed for sure. You could create your ItemViewModel so it contains an item by default. For reuse of the form to add multiple items, you'd have to do something like what you're doing here, and I think this should be documented in the guide. I'll also do a video about this!

yeah but if you 1) add an entry, 2) select an entry, then you cannot distinguish if you are adding or updating

@ron So you want to use the same view for both? Well, actually, you can then check if

model.isEmpty

and know that you need to create a new item, or assume you're editing an existing item if it isn't empty. Your example above seems to only be used for adding items though.

isEmpty is true if the item was not selected?

@ron Yes, because the itemviewmodel wouldn't contain an item in that case

no wait we are not talking about the same

I start my view, list is empty, so I have to do the model.item = Measurement()

then I add a new item, it shows in the table

I select it in the table

the entryform will reflect that

if I want to add a new one I need to find out if the save button should do an add or an update

@ron I don't think you should use the same ItemViewModel for these two cases. You should have one model to track the selection and one for the edit form - at least in case you are going to use the same form to edit existing and to create new items.

@ron Your UI sounds weird. You have a list of items and a form that always let's you edit the selected item - then this form can also be used to create new items, I'm I right? And you can only create a new item if there is no selection in the list?

why does that sound strange?

@ron How does the user create a new item? By unselecting in the tableview?

now you are hitting my point

This is what I mean is weird 🙂 To reuse a form that always shows and let's you edit the selection for adding new entries.

@ron uploaded a file: 2018-01-06 19-31-37.mp4

Your video illustrates my point. This works until you've added your initial items and made a selection. How is the UI going to let the user add a new item now?

it did not feel weird until you said its weird

Haha 🙂 OK, let's call it not weird for now. But how are you going to let the user add new items after you've selected something?

that is why I asked if it was possible to determine if a model was set from the tableview(using bindSelected) or not

@ron Sure, but how are you going to do it UI wise? What is the user supposed to do to add a new item?

my idea is to make a second button (clear) and have the label of the save button to be set to either save or update

OK. Then have one model, but don't bind the tableview to it. Instead, add a change listener to the selectedItem of the tableview and set that item into the viewmodel instead. That should let you clear it when needed.