Cell colorization in a table in Livecode...

[Paul Dupuis]

My second color question of the day.

We current have a analytical view in our app which shows a table of 
frequencies. The number of rows and columns are driven by user data and 
can becomes a large number (I've heard all the arguments that users 
should not ever view tables of hundreds of rows by hundreds of columns 
as a person can't digest that much data - and our customer are quite 
clear that they want to view such data in this fashion).

We currently use a Datagrid. Each cell has a numerical integer value, 
0-n. We want to colorize the cells on a gradient, say from white to 
green (as an example) which we'd map the gradient colors with 0 being 
white and max(N) being green and color each cell accordingly.

This can be done relatively easily in the Datagrid by a small bit of 
custom code that looks at the cell value and sets the background color 
of the field (that is the cell) to the appropriate color.

We have been migrating all uses of Datagrids to Polygrids where the 
columns are driven by user data since the number of columns could exceed 
roughly 300, which at the default column width,  bumps up against the 
32,767 pixel width limit of the Datagrid. The Polygrid does not have 
this width limit, which is why we've been replacing Datagrids with 
Polygrids.

Now, our current problem is that there does not appear to be any tricks 
to having variable cell background colors in a Polygrid. Row colors: yes 
Alternate Row colors: Yes, Highlight color: Yes, possibly even 
highlighting different cell via the pgHilitedData property: maybe 
(haven't tested yet, but they'd all be 1 color).

I am not really familiar with the PolyList widget (vs PolyGrid). Has 
anyone figured out how to do a spreadsheet-like table in either the 
PolyGrid or PolyList with individual cell background coloring?

If not, I'll stick with the Datagrid and add a check for the columns x 
widths exceeding the 32K px threshold and just warn the researcher we 
can't handler that much data (which dings our product vs competition!)