XPages templating dialog boxes - xpages

I am currently on a project redesigning an existing traditional domino web application to XPages. This application contains a web form with quite a lot of helper dialog boxes. Also notifications and validation and confirmation is done through dialogboxes.
I know I can create a custom control for each dialog box and add it to the Xpage and call the show. I even managed to load it dynamically using a dynamic content control with a facet for each dialog. Since the dialog cc contains a show() in the onClientLoad. It is easy to open a dialog by switching the content of the dynamic content control.
Still, adding all these custom controls to my XPages feels inefficient and really clutters the design tab. What's your take?
I would prefer setting the content of the dialog dynamically (Like in traditional domino you would define a form for each dialog). Is that possible?
If not is it possible to load a custom control dynamically (Like using a computed subform)?
Also for confirmation boxes I need the OK button to execute different code for each confirm. What would be the best way to implement that? Add custom parameter "functionOnOk" to the "dlgConfirm" custom control and evaluate that in the submit button?
PS: I am still using panels with dojoType=dijit.DialogBox, but will change those to extlib dialog boxes. For the confirm and messageboxes I am now using client side dijit.Dialogs with mark-up in code, but I would like the markup in XPages as well.

I know there are issues with panels with dijit.Dialog, because Dojo moves the dialog in the DOM, which prevents any SSJS in the dialog running. I don't know if that's also an issue with dijit.DialogBox, but I suspect it could be. Jeremy Hodge did some code to workaround that.
However, I would strongly recommend using the Extension Library control. Client-side dijit.Dialogs are likely to be much more difficult to code and will not allow any SSJS interaction. I'm not aware of any Dojo properties not available in the Extension Library control, and the Extension Library control also allows you to open or close the dialog both in CSJS or SSJS. It also allows you to specify an area to refresh on close.
In terms of the properties, preload is there purely to speed up showing. Are you using the refreshOnShow property? This ensures the URL or content is refreshed each time the dialog is shown. The Extension Library chapter on dialogs has a table covering all the properties. You can set the URL to point to another XPage or another web page. This may allow you to use the Dynamic Content control to pass parameters to switch the content that should appear.
In terms of the code behind the OK button, if you use the Extension Library dialog, you have all the functionality you would have outside the dialog.

Related

Command Not Handled Exception

I'm new to Domino Designer. I'm trying to modify an existing application which is running on a remote server. I create a blank xPage and view in browser and it works. I add a label and view in browser and it works. I add a combo box and setup a data source for my xPage. The data source is in the current application and I'm using a view. I setup my combo to point to that data source and specify BindTo value. I view it in browser and I get Error 500 "HTTP Web Server: Command Not Handled Exception" I can open the view that I've used and see all the data in the view. I can even add, edit, and delete from the view.
Ideas... Thnxs in advance.
Additional Info. I've added a "View" from "Container Controls" and used the same data source and the same view and it also works in the browser.
The error being printed is:
javax.faces.el.PropertyNotFoundException: Error getting property 'CompanyName' from bean of type lotus.domino.local.View
com.sun.faces.el.PropertyResolverImpl.getValue(PropertyResolverImpl.java:119)
com.ibm.xsp.el.PropertyResolverImpl.getValue(PropertyResolverImpl.java:144)
com.sun.faces.el.impl.ArraySuffix.evaluate(ArraySuffix.java:182)
com.sun.faces.el.impl.ComplexValue.evaluate(ComplexValue.java:163)
com.sun.faces.el.impl.ExpressionEvaluatorImpl.evaluate(ExpressionEvaluatorImpl.j‌​ava:257)
com.sun.faces.el.ValueBindingImpl.getValue(ValueBindingImpl.java:150) ....
This was already answered in the comments, but I want to write a better answer.
The problem in this case is that a view data source is being used for editing a document. Directly, this is not a possibility, though there are a few great ways to get around this. The first way, and my favorite, is to use an inline form. I think the Extension Library Demo database offers a few great examples of how to go about doing this. One way is to use a tooltip dialog. Another way is an inline form. A repeater is used and for every row in the view, a hidden panel can be made which contains the document data source and all field which are required to be changeable. By clicking on a button or link, the panel is made visible. This is my favorite variant because it is simple, quick, and generally looks great.
Another way to go about this is to have a view data source only, but use scripts to retrieve the document and set the values in the background and then save and release. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve.
My main recommendation is to look at the ExtLib demo and take a look at what they are doing there.

Xpages add a custom control that doesn't take up space (rendered versus loaded versus visible)

I have some custom controls that I want to include in Xpages, but I don't want them to be visible to the user or to take up space on the screen, as it is throwing my alignment off. I have looked at the properties rendered, loaded, and visible, but I don't really understand them and they don't seem to do what I want, which is to include some functionality but not change the layout.
I am sure there is a way to do this, but I can't figure it out.
Loaded means it won't be added to the component tree and only affects server-side functionality. Because it's not in the component tree (the server-side map of the page) it can't be passed to the browser or processed during partial refreshes. Rendered and visible are the same and mean they're in the component tree, so server-side processing can interact with them, but no HTML is passed to the browser for them. So you can't interact with them via CSJS. If you want it passed to the browser, available for CSJS but not visible to the user, you'll need to set the style as display:none. Another option is to put that style in a theme and allocate the themeId you choose to your custom control.

Form into a form with Tizen

I started using Tizen SDK to develop a native app. And I have to make a form into a form. Actually, it works, but I've some bugs with it. I mean, the footer bar is bugged, when I click on an item from the footer. The app crash immediatly...
Do you know how to resolve it ?
Thanks
I don't think it a good choice to make a Form into a Form. If you want reuse UI form, it's better to use Panel instead.
Here is description of Panel from dev guide.
Tizen::Ui::Controls::Panel class is a general rectangular container that you can use to group UI controls, or even other panels. Panels can be used to create a custom background for a defined area, or for organizing and aligning UI controls. However, by default, the look-and-feel of a panel does not differ from its surrounding Tizen::Ui::Controls::Form control.

using tabbedPanels in a formTable

has anyone got an example of using tabbedPanel in a formTable ?
my form has alot of fields, I'm new to Xpages so just looking for a best practice.
thanks
I have a working example of the opposite - a tabbedPanel, each with a formTable inside with validation, and it works well when there are a lot of fields. Keep in mind that if you use the SSJS validation, whenever you click any tab, the current tab's validation will be triggered.
You can try a dojo tabContainer, with formTables inside, too, where if you switch tabs, no validation will be triggered. You may get js errors, if you set the focus to a field which is in a different tab. I'm not using a dojo tabContainer, because this project is for IE7 and I find it's very slow for this browser.

Methodologies used for designing user controls

I want to able to create reusable user controls within my web app and i'm wondering on how to go about doing so.
Should a user controls properties be
visible to a form that's using it?
What's the best way to go about
loading the controls on the user
control from the form thats using
it? Should there be a public method
within the control that allows you
to load it from an external form or should the user
control be loaded in the page load
event
Is it okay to nest user controls within user controls?
etc...
Thanks for any advice
1) You only need to make properties visible if any page needs to read or modify information on your control. I personally like to keep my user controls as self contained as possible, and keep this to a minimum.
2) I would just rely on the built in page life cycle to render your control, but it is important to note when each of your control's events fire in relation to your pages. You may find that there are times that you need something on your control to render before something on your page does. In this case you will need to rely on the page_init in your control more than the page_load of your control.
3) You technically can nest user controls, but things will get tricky if you need to start reading and writing information (as in your first question) from any of the nested controls. Also, the page life cycle of the nested controls gets even more important. I would avoid this if you can.

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