I' working on a library control for Xpages and need some help in creating.
I would create a control which reads a configuration file and creates controls in a table, controls like Editboxes, checkboxgroups and so on.
so and now to my questions:
could I initiate controls from the Exlib or must I implement them all by my self?
if I could use them from the Exlib could anyone explain me how?
I hope its clear what i mean if not please ask me for further informations.
When creating your own components, if you're closely replicating some behavior that is already in an extension library component, I highly recommend you extend that component and just add what's needed to accommodate your different functionality. This makes things much easier and you don't have to code around every little scenario that the component might be placed in.
But, if you are developing a component that is nothing like any of the extension library or core components then just ensure your component extends UIComponent or UIComponentBase. If going this route, you'll also need to create your own renderer which extends Renderer. This is what will build the on-screen representation of your component. Again, if there's already something in the core components or extension library components that closely mimics what you need then make your renderer extend that renderer. Also, don't forget to include the renderer definition in the faces-config file and the component definition in the xsp-config file or your component won't work.
As for initiating controls from the extlib.... I assume you mean can you inject them onto the page at runtime. If so the answer is absolutely yes. To add an input text field to the page where there is a container (i.e. panel, div, span, whatever) with an ID of "someContainer"
XspInputText input = new XspInputText();
input.setValue("someValue");
input.setId("someID");
UIComponent container = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getViewRoot().findComponent("someContainer");
container.getChildren().add(input);
To see the api for all of the core and extension library components take a look at the XPages Controls Documentation. For a more complete tutorial on creating your own components take a look at my blog for creating a custom component inside an nsf, the steps are pretty much the same for putting them into a library:
Part 1,
Part 2 and there is an example database in the Part 2 post.
Related
I'm currently building a custom control to be used as an application's view navigator (classic OneUI style). First of all: this is a 8.5.3 based project, and unfortunately there's no way to use Extlib stuff or other extensions / plug-ins. So we have to build all the tricky stuff ourselves using only what came "out-of-the-box" with 8.5.3.
I'd llike to build my navigator using a repeat control containing <xp:link> controls. Datasource could be an array of javascript objects where each single object would look like this:
var navEntry = {"entryLabel" : "label-of-link",
"entryTarget" : "target-url-of-link",
"entryStyle" : "style-to-emphasize-selected-link"}
Each array element then would describe a single navigator entry.
Since the navigator will be used in all possible "DominoView" Xpages it yould make sense to build the array of JS objects at the Xpage level and then pass that info into the custom control.
I'm aware that there are multiple ways to do this, and one could be "Custom Control Properties". If there was a way to pass my JS object array.
(Hope I could make clear what I'm trying to do here...)
That object looks like a HashMap to me really. You should be able to pass that in to a custom control via custom property if you use the type java.util.HashMap I'd think. You'll need to type it in I'm sure. I've passed custom objects in by using java.lang.Object.
The custom control will get loaded during the Page Load event, and usually properties have to be available at that point. If they're loaded during the Render Response phase, that's too late. So your SSJS object will need to be Compute on Page Load.
To use contents of a repeat control, you would need to set repeatControls=true, otherwise the repeat is only built during render response. Until then it's just a single set of controls with no data in them. However, Im pretty sure repeatControls="true" means you only get the number of rows you define. You can't change it via a pager.
You can manually define the type of the custom property. For a standard SSJS Object you use "com.ibm.jscript.std.ObjectObject", for a SSJS Array you use "com.ibm.jscript.std.ArrayObject" etc. As editor for the custom property, I set the string editor ("String value").
I have a simple ContactEditPanel which contains a form and a number of textfields. Up until now I included an AjaxSubmitLink in this panel which, if the form content is valid, saves/updates the Contact instance contained in the Panel model. So far so simple. However now I'd like to remove the link in order that I may, depending on the context in which I use the ContactEditPanel, place the submit link at different levels of my overall component hierarchy. For instance in one context I'd like to use to flip between ContactEditPanel and ContactViewPanel with a bar of actions above the current view (edit | save , cancel). Another context would be to use ContactEditPanel in a standalone way (maybe part of a multi-step process) with just a save link below.
I was contemplating refactoring my ContactEditPanel to extends FormComponentPanel rather than Panel as described here but I'm not sure whether this is the right approach and I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this.
Any help would be most appreciated!
Many Thanks,
A
Your using the panel like a FormComponent so extend FormComponentPanel, it will allow you to keep all the validation you write contained to the component and also allow you to reuse it as you wish.
Just think of it as you've created a new FormComponent, like a TextField or DropDownChoice.
I' working on a libary control for Xpages and need some help in creating.
I would create an control wich reads a configuration file and creates controls in a table, controls like Editboxes, checkboxgroups and so on.
Ive Build my control like Keith Strickland
in his Bolg entry
http://xprentice.gbs.com/A55BAC/keithstric.nsf/default.xsp?documentId=82770C11FA7B9B21852579C100581766
so and now to my queststion:
I would store in my configuration ssjs code for computing a defaultvalue or an validation
but how could I compute the ssjs?
the automatic generated code from the Designer uses a PageExpressionEvaluator Object but I couldent create one by my self.
someone an Idea?
You can use the ExpressionEvaluatorImpl class instead:
com.ibm.xsp.page.compiled.ExpressionEvaluatorImpl( facesContext )
my question is about view controllers, delegates and all that in general. I feel perfectly comfortable with UIView, UIViewController, Delegates and Sources, like UITableView does for instance. It all makes sense.
Now I have implemented my first real custom view. No XIBs involved. It is an autocomplete address picker very much like in the Mail application. It creates those blue buttons whenever a recipient is added and has all the keyboard support like the original.
It subclasses UIView. There is no controller, no delegate, no source. I wonder if I should have either one of those? Or all, to make it a clean implementation.
I just cannot put my finger on the sense a view controller would make in my case. My custom view acts much like a control and a UIButton doesn't have a controller either.
What would it control in my view's case?
Some of my thoughts:
For the source: currently the view has a property "PossibleAutocompleteRecipients" which contains the addresses it autocompletes. I guess this would be a candidate for a "source" implementation. But is that really worth it? I would rather pass the controller to the view and put the property into the controller.
The selected recipients can be retrieved using a "SelectedRecipients" property. But views should not store values, I learned. Where would that go? Into the controller?
What about all the properties like "AllowSelectionFromAddressBook"? Again, if I compare with UIButton, these properties are similar to the button's "Secure" property. So they are allowed to be in the view.
The delegate could have methods like "WillAddRecipient", "WillRemoveRecipient" and so on and the user could return TRUE/FALSE to prevent the action from happening. Correct?
Should I maybe inherit from UIControl in the first place and not from UIView?
And last but not least: my custom view rotates perfectly if the device is rotated. Why don't all views? Why do some need a controller which implements ShouldAutoRotateToDeviceOrientation()?
Does it make sense what I wrote above? In the end I will provide the source on my website because it took me some time to implement it and I would like to share it as I have not found a similar implementaion of the Mail-App-like autocomplete control in MonoTouch.
I just want to learn and understand as much as possible and include it in the source.
René
I can answer part of your question.
I just cannot put my finger on the
sense a view controller would make in
my case
The ViewController is responsible for handling the View's state transitions (load, appear, rotate, etc) These transitions are used mainly when you use a navigation component (UINavigationViewController, UITabBarController). These components needs to received a ViewController that will handles the view's transitions.
For exemple, when you push a ViewController on a UINavigationViewController, it will cause the ViewDidLoad, ViewWillAppear, ViewDidAppear. It will also cause the ViewWillDisappear, ViewDidDisappear of the current ViewController.
So, if your application has only one portrait view, you don't need a ViewController. You can add your custom view as a subview of the main window.
I am currently evaluating Wicket and I am trying to figure out how things work.
I have a question regarding form submit and panels (or other components).
Imagine a custom wicket panel which contains a text field, doing as-you-type validation using ajax. This panel is added to a form.
How can the Panel react a form submit (let's say because javascript/ajax is unavailable)?
I am currently only aware of one solution: calling a panel's method inside the Form onSubmit() method. But this seems not like a "reusable" approach here, because I have to add boilerplate code to every form's onSubmit() which contains the panel (and every developer which use the panel must know this).
So here comes my question: Is there any way that a Panel/Component can "detect" a form submit in some way? Or is there any other solution beside this?
Thank you.
Make your panels implement org.apache.wicket.markup.html.form.IFormModelUpdateListener, and the updateModel() method should be called when the containing form is submitted and passes validation.
There's a good example of code using this by one of the wicket authors at the Wicket In Action blog.
Well, you could simply do the following:
Panel{
Form{
onSubmit(){
Panel.this.onSubmit();
}
}
protected void onSubmit(){}
}
...
This means that any panel that extends your panel need only override the onSubmit and the form no matter what it is in html will call that method. That way you can extend the panel and only override one method for each form.
With regard to form components, the framework handles it for you transparently. Forms are aware of any child form components, even if they haven't been added directly to the parent form.
I would have a Form inside that Panel. This way, you can reuse that Panel without requiring an external Form. As Forms can not be nested inside each other in HTML, Wicket will swap the inner Form(s) into 's transparently, but will make sure that each of the inner Forms takes part of the form processing (validation,..).
You can override the OnSubmit() function of the Form in your Panel. Wicket will call it for you.
what do you mean by "react"? I have only started recently with Wicket, but FWIK, form submit updates the model of a component, and then it calls onSubmit(), which you can override to take special actions beyond that. See Wicket in Action, chapter 6.
After that, the page (and it's components) get re-rendered, using the updated model, so basically, they really "react" on a submit, with quite few lines of code.
For your mentioned case with Component in a Form, have a look at the CompoundPropertyModel.
Implementing IFormSubmitListner and IFormModelUpdateListener shall call the respective methods during a form submit.
However, if you want to do some processing after form submit, I'm afraid you have no choice but to write some boilerplate code yourself.