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Posted to users@myfaces.apache.org by Scrut Inizer <sc...@hotmail.com> on 2006/05/11 13:48:12 UTC

[newbie] Beginners questions regarding dynamic links

After working through some tutorials and documentations I ran into some 
beginners questions while writing my own, little JSF application.
I would really appreciate it if you could take some time to give me some 
hints because I am really lost. Reading the following text will probably 
take the longest as I am sure you all know the answers to my newbie 
questions off by heart. Here we go:

1. How do I create a tabbed pane and fill the tabs and the active pane with 
dynamic links?
3. How do I associate a different parameter to each of those links?
3. How do I pass that parameter on to the Backing Bean method that is called 
after clicking on a link?
4. How do I pass such a parameter to a method in a different Backing Bean?
5. Which component is most suitable for such a tabbed pane?

Thank you so much!

Scrut

--
Here is what I want to do:

I have a collection of music pieces and the associated metadata for each 
piece is stored in one database table. In a second table I have multiple 
classifications such as

Genre
  Classical
  Jazz
    Acid Jazz
    Latin Jazz
  Rock

Region
  Africa
  America
    South America
    North America
  Europe
  Asia
  Australia

Something like that. Each music piece is associated with each classification 
tree. (Each music piece belongs to a Genre and comes from a different 
region…)
Now I want a user to be able to find a list of music pieces by navigating 
through any of those classification systems.
I want something like a tabbed pane where the tabs are filled with the roots 
of those classification trees (in this example there are two tabs: Genre and 
Region)
Let’s assume the active tab is Genre. Then the content of the associated 
pane is to be the list of the first level descendants of the root. (In this 
example: Classical, Jazz, Rock)
Each item is to be a link so that when the user clicks on “Jazz”, the pane 
will be populated with “Acid Jazz” and “Latin Jazz”.

But how do I do that?
1. What components (JSF Core, MyFaces, Tomahawk, Tobago, Sun UI…) should I 
use?
2. How do I create the tabs dynamically? I mean: all examples I have seen so 
far assume that one knows the number and names of the tabs – and hard-codes 
each of them. But how do I do that dynamically? (If there is only 2 trees in 
the database there will be only 2 tabs but if there are suddenly 3 trees 
there will be 3 tabs and so on)
3. How do I create a dynamic list of links where each link carries a 
different parameter (e.g. a unique ID)?
4. How do I pass that parameter on to the Backing Bean method that is 
invoked by clicking on the link?

Is that even the way to do this?
My idea was: Let’s assume, “Jazz” has primary key “2” in the database and 
“Acid Jazz” has “3” and “Latin Jazz” has “4” and the database knows that 3 
and 4 are children of 2 because each child holds its parent ID:

ITEM_ID	NAME 	PARENT_ID	SONG_ID
2	Jazz	--	                --
3	Acid Jazz	2		--
4	Latin Jazz	2		--
5	Song1	4		1
6	Song2	4		2

Now the user clicks on “Jazz” which calls the method “userClick()” within 
the associated Backing Bean. Somehow that link carried the parameter “2” 
which is now used by userClick() to ask the database “give me all children 
of ‘2’”. The database will return a list with the two items “Acid Jazz” and 
“Latin Jazz”. So the method fills those two items into the managed 
properties of the Backing Bean and returns the outcome “menupage” which is 
defined in faces-config.xml to call the menupage.jsp (menupage calls 
menupage), thereby filling the active pane with those two items “Acid Jazz” 
and “Latin Jazz”.

Now let’s assume that the user clicks on “Latin Jazz” so userClick() asks 
the database “give me all children of 4”. The resultset returns items 5 and 
6 which are links to two songs. This is evident because the attribute 
SONG_ID contains an entry.
Again, the returned outcome is “menupage” so the pane is populated with 
“Song1” and “Song2”.
If the user clicks on “Song1”, userClick() receives the parameter “5” and 
notices that this item links to a Song with the ID 1.
So instead of returning the outcome “menupage” again, it returns “songpage” 
and passes the parameter “1” to that page which then looks up the metadata 
of the song with the ID “1” in the database and displays the content.
But how do I propagate that parameter “1” to the songpage or its backing 
bean?
Can I even make the backing bean do a database call BEFORE the songpage is 
rendered? Because when the user clicks on “Song1” I want to invoke a method 
which requests the associated data from the database and displays it on the 
“songpage”.

Is this even the way to go?
Or how should I tackle this problem?
How do I do that?

Thanks so much!

Re: [newbie] Beginners questions regarding dynamic links

Posted by Scrut Inizer <sc...@hotmail.com>.
Thanks for your hints. However, as a JSF beginner I still don't know what to 
do. I spent the past 8 hours reading everything I found on the myfaces page 
including the wiki, reviewed the examples and used google extensively. All 
examples I found either used hard coded tabs and such or didn't offer any 
documentation.

But I assume there must be some documentation SOMEWHERE which is sufficient 
to use the panelTabbedPane with a binding?
I couldn't find a much and don't understand what I got.

Thank you very much



>From: "Matthias Wessendorf" <ma...@apache.org>
>Reply-To: "MyFaces Discussion" <us...@myfaces.apache.org>
>To: "MyFaces Discussion" <us...@myfaces.apache.org>
>Subject: Re: [newbie] Beginners questions regarding dynamic links
>Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 16:57:38 +0200
>
>To make a long story short :-)
>
>JSF Core can mean MyFaces IMPL or SUN RI, since JSF is a spec
>(all <h:*** and <f:*** related stuff)
>
>Tomahawk is a set of custom components, like Tobago and the ADF Faces 
>donation
>
>Reading myfaces.apache.org (and wiki.apache.org/myfaces) will help you
>on some questions.
>
>For a tabbed pane you can use MyFaces Tomahawk's component ([1]). the
>example is "hard coded" as well. But you can use the binding attribute
>to push the component itself to a backing bean. This will allow you
>access to the component by hacking java code inside the backing bean.
>Means you can add childrens with Java Code (aka tabs)
>
>HTH,
>Matthias
>
>[1] http://www.irian.at/myfaces/tabbedPane.jsf
>
>On 5/11/06, Scrut Inizer <sc...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>After working through some tutorials and documentations I ran into some
>>beginners questions while writing my own, little JSF application.
>>I would really appreciate it if you could take some time to give me some
>>hints because I am really lost. Reading the following text will probably
>>take the longest as I am sure you all know the answers to my newbie
>>questions off by heart. Here we go:
>>
>>1. How do I create a tabbed pane and fill the tabs and the active pane 
>>with
>>dynamic links?
>>3. How do I associate a different parameter to each of those links?
>>3. How do I pass that parameter on to the Backing Bean method that is 
>>called
>>after clicking on a link?
>>4. How do I pass such a parameter to a method in a different Backing Bean?
>>5. Which component is most suitable for such a tabbed pane?
>>
>>Thank you so much!
>>
>>Scrut
>>
>>--
>>Here is what I want to do:
>>
>>I have a collection of music pieces and the associated metadata for each
>>piece is stored in one database table. In a second table I have multiple
>>classifications such as
>>
>>Genre
>>   Classical
>>   Jazz
>>     Acid Jazz
>>     Latin Jazz
>>   Rock
>>
>>Region
>>   Africa
>>   America
>>     South America
>>     North America
>>   Europe
>>   Asia
>>   Australia
>>
>>Something like that. Each music piece is associated with each 
>>classification
>>tree. (Each music piece belongs to a Genre and comes from a different
>>region…)
>>Now I want a user to be able to find a list of music pieces by navigating
>>through any of those classification systems.
>>I want something like a tabbed pane where the tabs are filled with the 
>>roots
>>of those classification trees (in this example there are two tabs: Genre 
>>and
>>Region)
>>Let's assume the active tab is Genre. Then the content of the associated
>>pane is to be the list of the first level descendants of the root. (In 
>>this
>>example: Classical, Jazz, Rock)
>>Each item is to be a link so that when the user clicks on "Jazz", the pane
>>will be populated with "Acid Jazz" and "Latin Jazz".
>>
>>But how do I do that?
>>1. What components (JSF Core, MyFaces, Tomahawk, Tobago, Sun UI…) should I
>>use?
>>2. How do I create the tabs dynamically? I mean: all examples I have seen 
>>so
>>far assume that one knows the number and names of the tabs – and 
>>hard-codes
>>each of them. But how do I do that dynamically? (If there is only 2 trees 
>>in
>>the database there will be only 2 tabs but if there are suddenly 3 trees
>>there will be 3 tabs and so on)
>>3. How do I create a dynamic list of links where each link carries a
>>different parameter (e.g. a unique ID)?
>>4. How do I pass that parameter on to the Backing Bean method that is
>>invoked by clicking on the link?
>>
>>Is that even the way to do this?
>>My idea was: Let's assume, "Jazz" has primary key "2" in the database and
>>"Acid Jazz" has "3" and "Latin Jazz" has "4" and the database knows that 3
>>and 4 are children of 2 because each child holds its parent ID:
>>
>>ITEM_ID NAME    PARENT_ID       SONG_ID
>>2       Jazz    --                      --
>>3       Acid Jazz       2               --
>>4       Latin Jazz      2               --
>>5       Song1   4               1
>>6       Song2   4               2
>>
>>Now the user clicks on "Jazz" which calls the method "userClick()" within
>>the associated Backing Bean. Somehow that link carried the parameter "2"
>>which is now used by userClick() to ask the database "give me all children
>>of '2'". The database will return a list with the two items "Acid Jazz" 
>>and
>>"Latin Jazz". So the method fills those two items into the managed
>>properties of the Backing Bean and returns the outcome "menupage" which is
>>defined in faces-config.xml to call the menupage.jsp (menupage calls
>>menupage), thereby filling the active pane with those two items "Acid 
>>Jazz"
>>and "Latin Jazz".
>>
>>Now let's assume that the user clicks on "Latin Jazz" so userClick() asks
>>the database "give me all children of 4". The resultset returns items 5 
>>and
>>6 which are links to two songs. This is evident because the attribute
>>SONG_ID contains an entry.
>>Again, the returned outcome is "menupage" so the pane is populated with
>>"Song1" and "Song2".
>>If the user clicks on "Song1", userClick() receives the parameter "5" and
>>notices that this item links to a Song with the ID 1.
>>So instead of returning the outcome "menupage" again, it returns 
>>"songpage"
>>and passes the parameter "1" to that page which then looks up the metadata
>>of the song with the ID "1" in the database and displays the content.
>>But how do I propagate that parameter "1" to the songpage or its backing
>>bean?
>>Can I even make the backing bean do a database call BEFORE the songpage is
>>rendered? Because when the user clicks on "Song1" I want to invoke a 
>>method
>>which requests the associated data from the database and displays it on 
>>the
>>"songpage".
>>
>>Is this even the way to go?
>>Or how should I tackle this problem?
>>How do I do that?
>>
>>Thanks so much!
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>--
>Matthias Wessendorf
>Aechterhoek 18
>48282 Emsdetten
>http://jroller.com/page/mwessendorf
>mwessendorf-at-gmail-dot-com

Re: [newbie] Beginners questions regarding dynamic links

Posted by Matthias Wessendorf <ma...@apache.org>.
To make a long story short :-)

JSF Core can mean MyFaces IMPL or SUN RI, since JSF is a spec
(all <h:*** and <f:*** related stuff)

Tomahawk is a set of custom components, like Tobago and the ADF Faces donation

Reading myfaces.apache.org (and wiki.apache.org/myfaces) will help you
on some questions.

For a tabbed pane you can use MyFaces Tomahawk's component ([1]). the
example is "hard coded" as well. But you can use the binding attribute
to push the component itself to a backing bean. This will allow you
access to the component by hacking java code inside the backing bean.
Means you can add childrens with Java Code (aka tabs)

HTH,
Matthias

[1] http://www.irian.at/myfaces/tabbedPane.jsf

On 5/11/06, Scrut Inizer <sc...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> After working through some tutorials and documentations I ran into some
> beginners questions while writing my own, little JSF application.
> I would really appreciate it if you could take some time to give me some
> hints because I am really lost. Reading the following text will probably
> take the longest as I am sure you all know the answers to my newbie
> questions off by heart. Here we go:
>
> 1. How do I create a tabbed pane and fill the tabs and the active pane with
> dynamic links?
> 3. How do I associate a different parameter to each of those links?
> 3. How do I pass that parameter on to the Backing Bean method that is called
> after clicking on a link?
> 4. How do I pass such a parameter to a method in a different Backing Bean?
> 5. Which component is most suitable for such a tabbed pane?
>
> Thank you so much!
>
> Scrut
>
> --
> Here is what I want to do:
>
> I have a collection of music pieces and the associated metadata for each
> piece is stored in one database table. In a second table I have multiple
> classifications such as
>
> Genre
>   Classical
>   Jazz
>     Acid Jazz
>     Latin Jazz
>   Rock
>
> Region
>   Africa
>   America
>     South America
>     North America
>   Europe
>   Asia
>   Australia
>
> Something like that. Each music piece is associated with each classification
> tree. (Each music piece belongs to a Genre and comes from a different
> region…)
> Now I want a user to be able to find a list of music pieces by navigating
> through any of those classification systems.
> I want something like a tabbed pane where the tabs are filled with the roots
> of those classification trees (in this example there are two tabs: Genre and
> Region)
> Let's assume the active tab is Genre. Then the content of the associated
> pane is to be the list of the first level descendants of the root. (In this
> example: Classical, Jazz, Rock)
> Each item is to be a link so that when the user clicks on "Jazz", the pane
> will be populated with "Acid Jazz" and "Latin Jazz".
>
> But how do I do that?
> 1. What components (JSF Core, MyFaces, Tomahawk, Tobago, Sun UI…) should I
> use?
> 2. How do I create the tabs dynamically? I mean: all examples I have seen so
> far assume that one knows the number and names of the tabs – and hard-codes
> each of them. But how do I do that dynamically? (If there is only 2 trees in
> the database there will be only 2 tabs but if there are suddenly 3 trees
> there will be 3 tabs and so on)
> 3. How do I create a dynamic list of links where each link carries a
> different parameter (e.g. a unique ID)?
> 4. How do I pass that parameter on to the Backing Bean method that is
> invoked by clicking on the link?
>
> Is that even the way to do this?
> My idea was: Let's assume, "Jazz" has primary key "2" in the database and
> "Acid Jazz" has "3" and "Latin Jazz" has "4" and the database knows that 3
> and 4 are children of 2 because each child holds its parent ID:
>
> ITEM_ID NAME    PARENT_ID       SONG_ID
> 2       Jazz    --                      --
> 3       Acid Jazz       2               --
> 4       Latin Jazz      2               --
> 5       Song1   4               1
> 6       Song2   4               2
>
> Now the user clicks on "Jazz" which calls the method "userClick()" within
> the associated Backing Bean. Somehow that link carried the parameter "2"
> which is now used by userClick() to ask the database "give me all children
> of '2'". The database will return a list with the two items "Acid Jazz" and
> "Latin Jazz". So the method fills those two items into the managed
> properties of the Backing Bean and returns the outcome "menupage" which is
> defined in faces-config.xml to call the menupage.jsp (menupage calls
> menupage), thereby filling the active pane with those two items "Acid Jazz"
> and "Latin Jazz".
>
> Now let's assume that the user clicks on "Latin Jazz" so userClick() asks
> the database "give me all children of 4". The resultset returns items 5 and
> 6 which are links to two songs. This is evident because the attribute
> SONG_ID contains an entry.
> Again, the returned outcome is "menupage" so the pane is populated with
> "Song1" and "Song2".
> If the user clicks on "Song1", userClick() receives the parameter "5" and
> notices that this item links to a Song with the ID 1.
> So instead of returning the outcome "menupage" again, it returns "songpage"
> and passes the parameter "1" to that page which then looks up the metadata
> of the song with the ID "1" in the database and displays the content.
> But how do I propagate that parameter "1" to the songpage or its backing
> bean?
> Can I even make the backing bean do a database call BEFORE the songpage is
> rendered? Because when the user clicks on "Song1" I want to invoke a method
> which requests the associated data from the database and displays it on the
> "songpage".
>
> Is this even the way to go?
> Or how should I tackle this problem?
> How do I do that?
>
> Thanks so much!
>
>
>


-- 
Matthias Wessendorf
Aechterhoek 18
48282 Emsdetten
http://jroller.com/page/mwessendorf
mwessendorf-at-gmail-dot-com