The advancedTable is OA Framework has the option of making a column or columnGruoup as the table columns.
Both, column and columnGroup are container regions and also are indexed children of advancedTable region.
So, what’s the difference between column and columnGroup?
Column: You might have guessed by the name itself that when you define a column in an advanced table then a single column will be generated. The column thus generated is a webbean and can include another webbean of item style like messageStyledText or messageTextInput etc. Also the column has the following properties that can be set at declarative time like column format, column header etc.
In order to create a column just right click on the advancedTable region, select new and then click on column from the context menu.
ColumnGroup: As the name suggests that a columnGroup is a group of columns that can be displayed under one column header. The best part of the columnGroup is that you can create children columns under a columnGroup. These children columns are called as column span. Also one columnGroup can have another columnGroup which in turn can have column as children under it, the columnGroup encapsulates only the column header and the data of the column header and doesn’t encapsulates the columns or columnGroups under it.
In order to create a columnGroup just right click on the advancedTable region and choose new and select columnGroup from the context menu. As soon as you select columnGroup one child column will also be added to the columnGroup by default. Now if you want to add more column or columnGroup to the columnGroup just select the columnGroup and the right click select New and then click on column or columnGroup.