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Posted to dev@click.apache.org by Stéphane NICOLAS <st...@gmail.com> on 2010/11/12 16:24:34 UTC
Page flows within a click application
Hi all,
I got a question that remains unanswered after many attempts to solve it :
page flows.
I made a pretty app with click. It handles the editing and listing of 6
different types of data, all interlinked.
But I don't have a very good model to deal with the page flow inside my
application.
--- All I want is a button, on each page to come back to where you come
from.---
(and of course I got many links inside my app to go to different pages)
*It seems to me that if I use the "referrer" technique, with hidden fileds
on post and url params on get, I can achieve only one level of depth to
remember the page where I come from. But I can't remember the pages before
that.
*If I use the history.back (javascript) technique, it 's not possible to
deal with the post mechanism inside the application, it always
gonna resubmit. It prevent that with a onSecurityCheck but then a user would
get errors just by coming back to a page S/he posted.
So, I don't see clearly a clean model to ease page navigation and that
remains a real mystery to me.
One solution though would be to put a kind of history in the session, but
having done all those efforts not to rely on sessions, putting hidden fields
every where, it seems a pity.
Thanks in advance,
Stéphane
Re: Page flows within a click application
Posted by Bob Schellink <sa...@gmail.com>.
Glad you got it working. The improvements to Breadcrumb looks very good.
Thanks
Bob
On 14/11/2010 01:03, Stéphane NICOLAS wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> thank you bob for your answer. I understand my problem was more of a general design concern than a
> real click centric problem.
>
> As I needed to go be able to track the whole history of navigation of my users, I used the bread
> crumb implementation from click click.
>
> Nevertheless, the breadcrumb was not enough for me as I wanted to be able to record parameters, not
> only paths of pages, into the bread crumb. Thus I modified the breadcrumb to provide 2 additional
> propreties : currentpageurl and currentpagename.
>
> Both can be set at init time and are optional. The first one allows to customize the url that is
> added to the breadcrumb when recording the current page (and thus adding parameters) and the second
> one allows to custmize the label of the current page in the breadcrumb.
>
> People can also get access to the last visited page url through the
> getCurrentReferrer. This is handy if you want a button/link "return to previous page" inside your page.
>
> Here attached, you will find a patch for those classes.
> (sorry package names are not valid)
>
> Thanks for your help, my click app rocks. :)
>
> Stéphane
>
> 2010/11/12 Bob Schellink <sabob1@gmail.com <ma...@gmail.com>>
>
> Hi Stéphane,
>
> This is more of a general web flow question than Click specific. From what you describe it sounds as
> if you don't have a page flow in your app. You simply want to unwind their browser history? In other
> word there is no knowledge of where users should go next?
>
> In that case you'll need to use either the session or cookies to track history and unwind the stack
> when needed. If your requirements are to always navigate users back, I don't see another way really.
>
> In our app we generally have our main navigation through a drop-down menu to navigate to the various
> parts of the system. That often leads to a master page where users can drill into a detail page and
> back to the master.So back for us means back to the master. This is quite similar to how the Click
> examples work as well.
>
> Another pattern is to use a breadcrumb. However I've often seen breadcrumbs implemented as history
> bars[1][2] which doesn't add much since browsers have back buttons.
>
> On 13/11/2010 02:24, Stéphane NICOLAS wrote:
> >
> > I got a question that remains unanswered after many attempts to solve it : page flows.
> >
> > I made a pretty app with click. It handles the editing and listing of 6 different types of
> data, all
> > interlinked.
> > But I don't have a very good model to deal with the page flow inside my application.
> >
> > --- All I want is a button, on each page to come back to where you come from.---
> > (and of course I got many links inside my app to go to different pages)
> >
> > *It seems to me that if I use the "referrer" technique, with hidden fileds on post and url
> params on
> > get, I can achieve only one level of depth to remember the page where I come from. But I can't
> > remember the pages before that.
> >
> > *If I use the history.back (javascript) technique, it 's not possible to deal with the post
> > mechanism inside the application, it always
>
> I've found history.back quite problematic and never use it. To get around POST issues, use the
> Redirect after Post pattern[3]. Example here[4].
>
> > gonna resubmit. It prevent that with a onSecurityCheck but then a user would get errors just by
> > coming back to a page S/he posted.
> >
> > So, I don't see clearly a clean model to ease page navigation and that remains a real mystery
> to me.
> >
> > One solution though would be to put a kind of history in the session, but having done all those
> > efforts not to rely on sessions, putting hidden fields every where, it seems a pity.
>
> In the end it boils down to your requirements and what will provide the best experience.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Bob
>
> [1]: http://clickclick-examples.appspot.com/home.htm
> [2]:
> http://code.google.com/p/clickclick/source/browse/trunk/clickclick/core/src/net/sf/clickclick/control/breadcrumb
> [3]:http://click.apache.org/docs/faq.html#multiple-posts
> [4]: http://click.avoka.com/click-examples/introduction/advanced-table.htm -> Edit customer
>
>
Re: Page flows within a click application
Posted by Stéphane NICOLAS <st...@gmail.com>.
Hi all,
thank you bob for your answer. I understand my problem was more of a general
design concern than a real click centric problem.
As I needed to go be able to track the whole history of navigation of my
users, I used the bread crumb implementation from click click.
Nevertheless, the breadcrumb was not enough for me as I wanted to be able to
record parameters, not only paths of pages, into the bread crumb. Thus I
modified the breadcrumb to provide 2 additional propreties : currentpageurl
and currentpagename.
Both can be set at init time and are optional. The first one allows to
customize the url that is added to the breadcrumb when recording the current
page (and thus adding parameters) and the second one allows to custmize the
label of the current page in the breadcrumb.
People can also get access to the last visited page url through the
getCurrentReferrer. This is handy if you want a button/link "return to
previous page" inside your page.
Here attached, you will find a patch for those classes.
(sorry package names are not valid)
Thanks for your help, my click app rocks. :)
St�phane
2010/11/12 Bob Schellink <sa...@gmail.com>
> Hi St�phane,
>
> This is more of a general web flow question than Click specific. From what
> you describe it sounds as
> if you don't have a page flow in your app. You simply want to unwind their
> browser history? In other
> word there is no knowledge of where users should go next?
>
> In that case you'll need to use either the session or cookies to track
> history and unwind the stack
> when needed. If your requirements are to always navigate users back, I
> don't see another way really.
>
> In our app we generally have our main navigation through a drop-down menu
> to navigate to the various
> parts of the system. That often leads to a master page where users can
> drill into a detail page and
> back to the master.So back for us means back to the master. This is quite
> similar to how the Click
> examples work as well.
>
> Another pattern is to use a breadcrumb. However I've often seen breadcrumbs
> implemented as history
> bars[1][2] which doesn't add much since browsers have back buttons.
>
> On 13/11/2010 02:24, St�phane NICOLAS wrote:
> >
> > I got a question that remains unanswered after many attempts to solve it
> : page flows.
> >
> > I made a pretty app with click. It handles the editing and listing of 6
> different types of data, all
> > interlinked.
> > But I don't have a very good model to deal with the page flow inside my
> application.
> >
> > --- All I want is a button, on each page to come back to where you come
> from.---
> > (and of course I got many links inside my app to go to different pages)
> >
> > *It seems to me that if I use the "referrer" technique, with hidden
> fileds on post and url params on
> > get, I can achieve only one level of depth to remember the page where I
> come from. But I can't
> > remember the pages before that.
> >
> > *If I use the history.back (javascript) technique, it 's not possible to
> deal with the post
> > mechanism inside the application, it always
>
> I've found history.back quite problematic and never use it. To get around
> POST issues, use the
> Redirect after Post pattern[3]. Example here[4].
>
> > gonna resubmit. It prevent that with a onSecurityCheck but then a user
> would get errors just by
> > coming back to a page S/he posted.
> >
> > So, I don't see clearly a clean model to ease page navigation and that
> remains a real mystery to me.
> >
> > One solution though would be to put a kind of history in the session, but
> having done all those
> > efforts not to rely on sessions, putting hidden fields every where, it
> seems a pity.
>
> In the end it boils down to your requirements and what will provide the
> best experience.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Bob
>
> [1]: http://clickclick-examples.appspot.com/home.htm
> [2]:
>
> http://code.google.com/p/clickclick/source/browse/trunk/clickclick/core/src/net/sf/clickclick/control/breadcrumb
> [3]:http://click.apache.org/docs/faq.html#multiple-posts
> [4]: http://click.avoka.com/click-examples/introduction/advanced-table.htm-> Edit customer
>
Re: Page flows within a click application
Posted by Malcolm Edgar <ma...@gmail.com>.
I think the new PageInterceptor would be a good way of implementing a
navigation stack, as you can store the navigation stack in the session and a
PageInterceptor can be responsible for building it up.
http://click.apache.org/docs/click-api/org/apache/click/PageInterceptor.html
regards Malcolm Edgar
<http://click.apache.org/docs/click-api/org/apache/click/PageInterceptor.html>
On Sat, Nov 13, 2010 at 1:26 PM, Bob Schellink <sa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Stéphane,
>
> This is more of a general web flow question than Click specific. From what
> you describe it sounds as
> if you don't have a page flow in your app. You simply want to unwind their
> browser history? In other
> word there is no knowledge of where users should go next?
>
> In that case you'll need to use either the session or cookies to track
> history and unwind the stack
> when needed. If your requirements are to always navigate users back, I
> don't see another way really.
>
> In our app we generally have our main navigation through a drop-down menu
> to navigate to the various
> parts of the system. That often leads to a master page where users can
> drill into a detail page and
> back to the master.So back for us means back to the master. This is quite
> similar to how the Click
> examples work as well.
>
> Another pattern is to use a breadcrumb. However I've often seen breadcrumbs
> implemented as history
> bars[1][2] which doesn't add much since browsers have back buttons.
>
> On 13/11/2010 02:24, Stéphane NICOLAS wrote:
> >
> > I got a question that remains unanswered after many attempts to solve it
> : page flows.
> >
> > I made a pretty app with click. It handles the editing and listing of 6
> different types of data, all
> > interlinked.
> > But I don't have a very good model to deal with the page flow inside my
> application.
> >
> > --- All I want is a button, on each page to come back to where you come
> from.---
> > (and of course I got many links inside my app to go to different pages)
> >
> > *It seems to me that if I use the "referrer" technique, with hidden
> fileds on post and url params on
> > get, I can achieve only one level of depth to remember the page where I
> come from. But I can't
> > remember the pages before that.
> >
> > *If I use the history.back (javascript) technique, it 's not possible to
> deal with the post
> > mechanism inside the application, it always
>
> I've found history.back quite problematic and never use it. To get around
> POST issues, use the
> Redirect after Post pattern[3]. Example here[4].
>
> > gonna resubmit. It prevent that with a onSecurityCheck but then a user
> would get errors just by
> > coming back to a page S/he posted.
> >
> > So, I don't see clearly a clean model to ease page navigation and that
> remains a real mystery to me.
> >
> > One solution though would be to put a kind of history in the session, but
> having done all those
> > efforts not to rely on sessions, putting hidden fields every where, it
> seems a pity.
>
> In the end it boils down to your requirements and what will provide the
> best experience.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Bob
>
> [1]: http://clickclick-examples.appspot.com/home.htm
> [2]:
>
> http://code.google.com/p/clickclick/source/browse/trunk/clickclick/core/src/net/sf/clickclick/control/breadcrumb
> [3]:http://click.apache.org/docs/faq.html#multiple-posts
> [4]: http://click.avoka.com/click-examples/introduction/advanced-table.htm-> Edit customer
>
Re: Page flows within a click application
Posted by Bob Schellink <sa...@gmail.com>.
Hi Stéphane,
This is more of a general web flow question than Click specific. From what you describe it sounds as
if you don't have a page flow in your app. You simply want to unwind their browser history? In other
word there is no knowledge of where users should go next?
In that case you'll need to use either the session or cookies to track history and unwind the stack
when needed. If your requirements are to always navigate users back, I don't see another way really.
In our app we generally have our main navigation through a drop-down menu to navigate to the various
parts of the system. That often leads to a master page where users can drill into a detail page and
back to the master.So back for us means back to the master. This is quite similar to how the Click
examples work as well.
Another pattern is to use a breadcrumb. However I've often seen breadcrumbs implemented as history
bars[1][2] which doesn't add much since browsers have back buttons.
On 13/11/2010 02:24, Stéphane NICOLAS wrote:
>
> I got a question that remains unanswered after many attempts to solve it : page flows.
>
> I made a pretty app with click. It handles the editing and listing of 6 different types of data, all
> interlinked.
> But I don't have a very good model to deal with the page flow inside my application.
>
> --- All I want is a button, on each page to come back to where you come from.---
> (and of course I got many links inside my app to go to different pages)
>
> *It seems to me that if I use the "referrer" technique, with hidden fileds on post and url params on
> get, I can achieve only one level of depth to remember the page where I come from. But I can't
> remember the pages before that.
>
> *If I use the history.back (javascript) technique, it 's not possible to deal with the post
> mechanism inside the application, it always
I've found history.back quite problematic and never use it. To get around POST issues, use the
Redirect after Post pattern[3]. Example here[4].
> gonna resubmit. It prevent that with a onSecurityCheck but then a user would get errors just by
> coming back to a page S/he posted.
>
> So, I don't see clearly a clean model to ease page navigation and that remains a real mystery to me.
>
> One solution though would be to put a kind of history in the session, but having done all those
> efforts not to rely on sessions, putting hidden fields every where, it seems a pity.
In the end it boils down to your requirements and what will provide the best experience.
Kind regards
Bob
[1]: http://clickclick-examples.appspot.com/home.htm
[2]:
http://code.google.com/p/clickclick/source/browse/trunk/clickclick/core/src/net/sf/clickclick/control/breadcrumb
[3]:http://click.apache.org/docs/faq.html#multiple-posts
[4]: http://click.avoka.com/click-examples/introduction/advanced-table.htm -> Edit customer