Need Confirmation of Understanding

[dantelope]

I'm either really proud of myself for figuring out what's obvious to everyone else, or I've botched this big time and don't know it. Could someone who knows better than I do confirm one way or the other? :-)

Goals:
1) Simple query->results->select->add/edit->modify->query loop;
2) Use database-querying service at all levels;
3) Leverage webflow entirely -- no coding where not needed

I've broken this into two flows: search-players-flow and edit-player-flow. I had to write a single FormAction class in order to override createFormObject and pull the data from a database -- but I felt like there was probably a way to do this from the XML using my business service; I couldn't figure out how to attach the result of that service call (a Player object) to the form itself without the override.

Here's my the search-players-flow:

<flow xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow"
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow
                          http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow/spring-webflow-1.0.xsd">

    <start-state idref="findPlayers"/>

    <view-state id="findPlayers" view="players/findPlayersForm">
        <render-actions>
            <action bean="formAction" method="setupForm"/>
        </render-actions>
        <transition on="search" to="displayPlayersList">
            <action bean="formAction" method="bindAndValidate"/>
        </transition>
    </view-state>

    <view-state id="displayPlayersList" view="players/findPlayersResults">
        <render-actions>
            <bean-action bean="playerService" method="findPlayersByExample">
                <method-arguments>
                    <argument expression="${flowScope.form.player}"/>            
                </method-arguments>
                <method-result name="players"/>
            </bean-action>
        </render-actions>
        <transition on="select" to="editPlayer"/>
    </view-state>

    <subflow-state id="editPlayer" flow="edit-player-flow">
        <attribute-mapper>
            <input-mapper>
                <mapping source="${requestParameters.id}" target="playerId" from="string" to="int"/>
            </input-mapper>
        </attribute-mapper>
        <transition on="finish" to="findPlayers"/>
    </subflow-state>

    <import resource="search-players-beans.xml"/>
</flow>

Here's the edit-player-flow (Note: the use of the decision state here justified in that detection of add/edit is not a business decision):

<flow xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow"
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow
                          http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow/spring-webflow-1.0.xsd">

    <input-mapper>
        <input-attribute name="playerId"/>
    </input-mapper>

    <start-state idref="branchToAddOrEdit"/>

    <decision-state id="branchToAddOrEdit">
        <if test="${flowScope.playerId == 0}" then="displayAddPlayerDetails" else="displayEditPlayerDetails"/>
    </decision-state>

    <view-state id="displayEditPlayerDetails" view="players/modifyPlayerForm">
        <render-actions>
            <bean-action bean="playerService" method="findPlayerById">
                <method-arguments>
                    <argument expression="${flowScope.playerId}"/>            
                </method-arguments>
                <method-result name="player"/>
            </bean-action>
            <action bean="playerFormAction" method="setupForm"/>
        </render-actions>
        <transition on="modify" to="finish">
            <action bean="playerFormAction" method="bindAndValidate"/>
            <bean-action bean="playerService" method="createOrUpdatePlayer">
                <method-arguments>
                    <argument expression="${flowScope.form.player}"/>            
                </method-arguments>
                <method-result name="player"/>
            </bean-action>
        </transition>
    </view-state>

    <view-state id="displayAddPlayerDetails" view="players/modifyPlayerForm">
        <render-actions>
            <action bean="playerFormAction" method="setupForm"/>
        </render-actions>
        <transition on="modify" to="finish">
            <action bean="playerFormAction" method="bindAndValidate"/>
            <bean-action bean="playerService" method="createOrUpdatePlayer">
                <method-arguments>
                    <argument expression="${flowScope.form.player}"/>            
                </method-arguments>
                <method-result name="player"/>
            </bean-action>
        </transition>
    </view-state>
    
    <end-state id="finish"/>
    
    <import resource="edit-player-beans.xml"/>
</flow>

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Dan

[klr8]

Looks good.

I had to write a single FormAction class in order to override createFormObject and pull the data from a database -- but I felt like there was probably a way to do this from the XML using my business service; I couldn't figure out how to attach the result of that service call (a Player object) to the form itself without the override.

A custom FormAction to load your form object is typical SWF usage.

Erwin

[dantelope]

A custom FormAction to load your form object is typical SWF usage.

Thanks, Erwin. It feels like there ought to be away to bind an object in some scope to your form object without writing code for the simplest of cases. For example, my form object has a setPlayer(Player) method, and I have a Player object in my scope. If I could call the setter with this object, my form would be pre-loaded, end of story.

Dan

[klr8]

You should be able to call the setter with OGNL. Check the OGNL docs for more info:
http://www.ognl.org

Erwin

[iga3k]

I am in a similar situation. I have an edit form with the object already in scope (form populated). But when I do the binding a new instance of this object is created, without updating the original object.

I'm new with SWF and now becomes critical in my project.

Thanks.

<input-mapper>
		<input-attribute name="id"/>
	</input-mapper>
	
	<start-state idref="editFacultate" />

	<view-state id="editFacultate" view="facultateEdit">
		<render-actions>
		
			<bean-action bean="webFlowFacade" method="getFaculty">
				<method-arguments>
					<argument expression="flowScope.id" />
				</method-arguments>
				<method-result name="facultate" />
			</bean-action>
		</render-actions>
		<transition on="backToFacultatiList" to="backToFacultatiList" />
		<transition on="commit" to="commitFacultate">
			<action bean="facultateAction" method="bind"/>
		</transition>
	</view-state>
	
	<action-state id="commitFacultate">
		<action bean="facultateAction" method="commitFacultate"/>
		<transition on="success" to="backToFacultatiList"/>
		<transition on="error" to="editFacultate"/>
	</action-state>

And this is the action class.

	private DAOFactory daoFactory;
	/**
	 * 	The object that makes scope of this action
	 */
	private Facultate facultate;
	
	
	public Event commitFacultate(RequestContext context) {
		//facultate = daoFactory.getFacultateDao ().getById ((Long)context.getFlowScope ().get ( "id" ));
		facultate = (Facultate) context.getFlowScope ().get ( "facultate" );
		FacultateDaoInterface daoImpl = 
			daoFactory.getFacultateDao ();
		daoImpl.update ( facultate );
        return success();
    }