Xpages repeat control & dynamic field creation/display - xpages

Question

I need to create 3 fields in one row every time a new objective is needed. objective1, midYear1, endYear1. Then if I add an objective, objective2, midYear2, endYear2 and so on. Everything seems to work, first time, but second time it creates loads of fields. I assume its the way I'm nesting / not nesting/using my repeats correctly as my viewScope variables are all correct, so it's just displaying of the fields that I'm confusing myself with. I just need each of the 3 fields in one column each, then new row and repeat.....Code below, however am also open to suggestions if anyone has a better approach..... Thanks
<xp:this.data>
<xp:dominoDocument
var="document1"
formName="objective">
</xp:dominoDocument>
</xp:this.data>
<xp:repeat id="repeat1" rows="100" value="#{viewScope.fields}"
var="fieldName">
<xp:repeat id="repeat2" rows="100" value="#{viewScope.fields2}"
var="fieldName2">
<xp:repeat id="repeat3" rows="100" value="#{viewScope.fields3}"
var="fieldName3">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-xs-4">
<xp:label value="#{fieldName}" for="inputText1">
</xp:label>
<xp:inputText id="inputText1">
<xp:this.value><![CDATA[#{document1[fieldName]}]]></xp:this.value>
</xp:inputText>
</div>
<div class="col-xs-4">
<xp:label value="#{fieldName2}" for="inputText2">
</xp:label>
<xp:inputText id="inputText2">
<xp:this.value><![CDATA[#{document1[fieldName2]}]]></xp:this.value>
</xp:inputText>
</div>
<div class="col-xs-4">
<xp:label value="#{fieldName3}" for="inputText3">
</xp:label>
<xp:inputText id="inputText3">
<xp:this.value><![CDATA[#{document1[fieldName3]}]]></xp:this.value>
</xp:inputText>
</div>
</div>
</xp:repeat>
</xp:repeat>
</xp:repeat>
<xp:button
value="Add Objective"
id="button1">
<xp:eventHandler event="onclick" submit="true" refreshMode="partial"
refreshId="repeat1">
<xp:this.action><![CDATA[#{javascript:
if (!viewScope.fields) {
viewScope.fields = [];
viewScope.fields2 = [];
viewScope.fields3 = [];
var count:integer = 1;
}
viewScope.fields.push("Objective" + (viewScope.fields.length + 1));
viewScope.fields2.push("MidYear" + (viewScope.fields2.length + 1));
viewScope.fields3.push("EndYear" + (viewScope.fields3.length + 1));
count = count+1;
}]]></xp:this.action>
</xp:eventHandler>

Answer 1

The problem is that by nesting, for each entry in coumn 1, you're creating n instances of column 2. Then for each entry in column, you're creating n instances of column 3. If you want this approach, you're best off creating a single viewScope variable, where each element has the fieldnames for each objective (as an object or array), then just using a single repeat using that single viewScope variable.
Building this for Notes Client / traditional Domino web was historically a huge pain because the restriction was you could not edit multiple documents (easily) in the same UI, because the Form was both the schema for storage and the design for the UI.
XPages means that's no longer a restriction. The XPage is the UI, (dominoDocument / bean) data sources are the schema for storage.
As a result, my preferred approach is to break the structure for storage up into more granular elements. So each Objective would be its own document, with fixed bindings to "objective", "midYear", "endYear".
There are then a variety of approaches for creating a new entry. One is a single fixed row at the top with a dominoDocument datasource with scope="request" ignoreRequestParams="true". Save can then add the NoteID / UNID to a repeat that then retrieves the values from the relevant document(s) to display / edit.
A more advanced approach would be to have a viewScope variable with an additional option (at beginning or end), then compute the dominoDocument datasource that's within the repeat to either retrieve the relevant document (i.e. action="openDocument") or create a new one (i.e. action="newDocument").