Raible's Wiki: JSFBeans

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This tutorial will show you how to create JSF Beans and JSPs. It'll also demonstrate writing a JUnit Test to test PersonForm. The Managed Bean we create will talk to the PersonManager we created in the [Creating Managers|CreateManager] tutorial. In most web frameworks, the controller logic is contain in an "Action" of some sort. However, with JSF, they're commonly referred to as "Managed Beans". The methods within these beans are called actions. This tutorial is not going to teach you a whole lot about how JSF works, but it will get you up and running quickly with it. If you want a more in-depth learning experience, I suggest you read [David Geary's|http://jroller.com/page/dgeary] [Core JSF|http://www.horstmann.com/corejsf/].

This tutorial will show you how to create JSF Beans and JSPs. It'll also demonstrate writing a JUnit Test to test PersonForm. The Managed Bean we create will talk to the PersonManager we created in the [Creating Managers|CreateManager] tutorial. In most web frameworks, the controller logic is contain in an "Action" of some sort. However, with JSF, they're commonly referred to as "Managed Beans". The methods within these beans are called actions. This tutorial is not going to teach you a whole lot about how JSF works, but it will get you up and running quickly with it. If you want a more in-depth learning experience, I suggest you read [David Geary's|http://jroller.com/page/dgeary] [Core JSF|http://www.horstmann.com/corejsf/]. I had it close by my side and used it frequently while integrating JSF into AppFuse. Thanks for the help David and Cay (co-author)!

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* [1] Create skeleton JSPs using XDoclet

* [1] Create personForm.jsp with XDoclet

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!!Create a skeleton JSP using XDoclet [#1]

In this step, you'll generate a ''skeleton'' JSP to display information from the Person object. I say ''skeleton'' because it'll just be the <form> itself. It will contain JSF's JSP tags that render table rows for each property in Person.java. The AppGen tool that's used to do this is based off a StrutsGen tool - which was originally written by [Erik Hatcher|http://www.blogscene.org/erik/]. It's basically just a couple of classes and a bunch of XDoclet templates. All these files are located in extras/appgen.

!!Create personForm.jsp with XDoclet [#1]

In this step, you'll generate a JSP page to display information from the Person object. It will contain JSF's JSP tags that render table rows for each property in Person.java. The [AppGen] tool that's used to do this is based off a StrutsGen tool - which was originally written by [Erik Hatcher|http://www.blogscene.org/erik/]. It's basically just a couple of classes and a bunch of XDoclet templates. All these files are located in extras/appgen.

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* Execute __ant -Dobject.name=Person -Dappgen.type=pojo__ to generate a bunch of files in extras/appgen/build/gen. In fact, it'll generate all the files you need to complete this tutorial. However, let's just grab the ones you need.

* Execute __ant -Dobject.name=Person -Dappgen.type=pojo -Dapp.module=__ to generate a bunch of files in extras/appgen/build/gen. In fact, it'll generate all the files you need to complete this tutorial. However, let's just grab the ones you need.

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** web/personForm.jsp (skeleton JSP file for viewing a single Person)

** web/personList.jsp (skeleton JSP file for viewing a list of People)

* Copy the contents of Person.properties into web/WEB-INF/classes/ApplicationResources_en.properties. These are all the keys you will need for titles/headings and form properties. Here is an example of what you should add to ApplicationResources_en.properties:

** web/personForm.xhtml (Facelets template for viewing a single Person)

** web/personList.xhtml (Facelets template for viewing a list of People)

* Copy the contents of Person.properties into web/WEB-INF/classes/ApplicationResources.properties. These are all the keys you will need for titles/headings and form properties. Here is an example of what you should add to ApplicationResources.properties:

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personForm.id=Id

personForm.firstName=First Name

personForm.lastName=Last Name

person.id=Id

person.firstName=First Name

person.lastName=Last Name

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* Copy personForm.jsp to web/personForm.jsp. Copy personList.jsp to web/personList.jsp. ''Notice that each of the new filename's first character is lowercase.''

* Copy personForm.xhtml to web/personForm.xhtml. Copy personList.xhtml to web/personList.xhtml.

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assertEquals(bean.save(), "list");

assertEquals("list", bean.save());

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assertEquals(bean.edit(), "edit");

assertEquals("edit", bean.edit());

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assertEquals(bean.edit(), "edit");

assertEquals("edit", bean.edit());

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assertEquals(bean.save(), "edit");

assertEquals("edit", bean.save());

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assertEquals(bean.delete(), "list");

assertEquals("list", bean.delete());

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You'll notice a number of keys in this file - "person.deleted", "person.added" and "person.updated". These are all keys that need to be in your i18n bundle (ApplicationResources_en.properties). You should've added these at the beginning of this tutorial. If you want to customize these messages, to add the a person's name or something, simply add a {0} placeholder in the key's message and then use the addMessage(key, stringtoreplace) method. You can also use an Object[] for the stringtoreplace variable if you want to make multiple substitutions.

You'll notice a number of keys in this file - "person.deleted", "person.added" and "person.updated". These are all keys that need to be in your i18n bundle (ApplicationResources.properties). You should've added these at the beginning of this tutorial. If you want to customize these messages, to add the a person's name or something, simply add a {0} placeholder in the key's message and then use the addMessage(key, stringtoreplace) method. You can also use an Object[] for the stringtoreplace variable if you want to make multiple substitutions.

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%%note Spring's [DelegatingVariableResolver|http://www.springframework.org/docs/api_1.2/org/springframework/web/jsf/DelegatingVariableResolver.html] helps JSF to resolve "#{personManager}" to the "personManager" Spring bean. This "variableResolver" has already been declared at the top of the ''faces-config.xml'' file.%%

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<from-view-id>/personForm.jsp</from-view-id>

<from-view-id>/personForm.xhtml</from-view-id>

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<to-view-id>/mainMenu.jsp</to-view-id>

<to-view-id>/mainMenu.xhtml</to-view-id>

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<to-view-id>/mainMenu.jsp</to-view-id>

<to-view-id>/mainMenu.xhtml</to-view-id>

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;:''The PersonForm returns "list" from the {{delete()}} and {{save()}} methods. In the next tutorial, you will eventually change the "list" in the navigation-rule to point to the list screen.''

;:''The PersonForm returns "list" from the {{cancel()}}, {{delete()}} and {{save()}} methods. In the next tutorial, you will change the "list" in the navigation-rule to point to the list screen.''

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If you want to add a usability enhancement to your form, you can set the cursor to focus on the first field when the page loads. Simply add the following JavaScript at the bottom of your form (web/personForm.jsp):

If you want to add a usability enhancement to your form, you can set the cursor to focus on the first field when the page loads. Simply add the following JavaScript at the bottom of your form (web/personForm.xhtml):

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<from-view-id>/mainMenu.jsp</from-view-id>

<from-view-id>/mainMenu.xhtml</from-view-id>

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<to-view-id>/personForm.jsp</to-view-id>

<to-view-id>/personForm.xhtml</to-view-id>

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Finally, to make this page more user friendly, you may want to add a message for your users at the top of the form, but this can easily be done by adding text (using <fmt:message>) at the top of the personForm.jsp page.

Finally, to make this page more user friendly, you may want to add a message for your users at the top of the form, but this can easily be done by adding text (using <fmt:message>) at the top of the personForm.xhtml page.

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