[jsr-314-open-mirror] [jsr-314-open] status of <composite:clientBehavior> (was Re: "for" attribute for <f:ajax>)

David Geary clarity.training at gmail.com
Mon May 3 16:12:42 EDT 2010 

2010/5/3 Leonardo Uribe <lu4242 at gmail.com>

> Hi
>
> In myfaces we don't have <composite:clientBehavior> tag. The reason is that
> we don't know which attributes this tag has, how it looks like or where
> there is some example.


I am working on an article for ibm devworks where I give an example of
<composite:clientBehavior> -- I can send you the article if you want, let me
know. Anyway, here’s the core of my example. First, an icon composite
component:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"

        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">


<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"

    xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"

    xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"

    xmlns:composite="http://java.sun.com/jsf/composite">



    <composite:interface>

      <composite:attribute name="image" required="true"/>


      <composite:actionSource name="link" targets=
"#{clientId}:iconForm:link"/>



      <composite:clientBehavior name="click" targets=
"#{clientId}:iconForm:link"

                               event="action"/>

    </composite:interface>


    <composite:implementation>

      <div id="#{cc.clientId}">



       <h:form id="iconForm">

      <h:commandLink id="link" immediate="true">

        <h:graphicImage value="#{cc.attrs.image}"/>

      </h:commandLink>

      </h:form>



    </div>

    </composite:implementation>

</html>


The <composite:clientBehavior> tag specifies the name of the event (click),
the target(s) for the event (#{clientId}:iconForm:link), and the component
event (action).

The preceding markup is in resources/util/icon.xhtml, so you use an icon
like this:

        <util:icon id="minus" image="#{resource['images:minus.gif']}">

          <f:ajax event="click" render=":readout :fontPreview"/>

          <f:actionListener for="link" type="com.clarity.DiskIconListener"/>

        </util:icon>

For the click event in the icon, JSF makes an Ajax call to the server, and
when the call returns, it renders readout and fontPreview components. The
click event is associated with the action event of the target (the link).
So, when an action event occurs in the link, JSF send an Ajax call to the
server.


> In theory it works like <composite:actionSource>, <composite:valueHolder>,
> <composite:editableValueHolder>.

I pointed this issue multiple times (really a lot of times but it seems
> nobody took that seriously). Just take a look at:


> http://markmail.org/message/dxlpoa3qgul7uuns?q=composite:clientBehavior
>
> As soon as any documentation is available on mojarra javadoc I'll do the
> necessary stuff on myfaces.
>

This really needs to be addressed asap, so the feature does not become
Mojarra-dependent, which greatly limits its usefulness. Besides the javadoc,
it needs to be mentioned in the spec.

I think whoever documented the composite library should come forward and
update the PDL docs and spec. And if Ed won’t do it, I might help out. :)


david



> regards,
>
> Leonardo Uribe
>
> 2010/5/3 David Geary <clarity.training at gmail.com>
>
> Thanks, Roger!
>>
>>
>> david
>>
>> 2010/5/3 Roger Kitain <roger.kitain at oracle.com>
>>
>>  I think this was an oversight since this was one of the last remaining
>>> spec areas that went in.
>>> I will file a spec issue on this.
>>> Thanks for catching it.
>>>
>>> -roger
>>>
>>>
>>> On 5/3/10 2:31 PM, David Geary wrote:
>>>
>>> There is a <composite:clientBehavior> tag in the 2.0 version of JSF that
>>> comes with GlassFish, and it appears to work as advertised by Alexandr and
>>> Andy below.
>>>
>>>  But, as Alexandr points out, it’s not documented in the PDL docs, nor
>>> could I find any mention of it in the spec (or Ed’s book, either).
>>>
>>>  This is a vital tag that lets page authors attach ajax functionality to
>>> components within composite components. I see no reason why it should not be
>>> documented.
>>>
>>>  Does anyone know why this tag was not documented in the first place, or
>>> what the plans are for its future? Anyone know if it works with MyFaces 2.0?
>>>
>>>  If there’s not a compelling reason for blacklisting it from the docs,
>>> can we document it?
>>>
>>>  Thanks,
>>>
>>>
>>>  david
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2009/5/26 Alexandr Smirnov <asmirnov at exadel.com>
>>>
>>> Sure, the composite client event tags are not included in the PDL doc.
>>> There is one            <composite:clientBehavior> tag with attributes:
>>> 'name' -
>>> the virtual event name that composite component has.
>>> 'default' "true/false" defines the default event that is enclosed
>>> <f:ajax> tag serves if 'event' attribute was omited.
>>> 'event' - the real event name for target component.
>>> 'targets' - space-delimited list of component id's for which composite
>>> component behavior or <f:ajax> tag will be redirected.
>>>
>>> The model with 'for' attribute was the first implementation but it was
>>> replaced wit 'virtual' event model.
>>>
>>> Andy Schwartz wrote:
>>> > David -
>>> >
>>> > David Geary wrote On 5/24/2009 5:55 PM ET:
>>> >> For JSF 2, we added a "for" attribute to f:actionListener,
>>> >> f:converter, etc., but we don't have a "for" attribute for <f:ajax>.
>>> >> AFAICT, that means that although you can attach listeners, validators,
>>> >> converters, etc. to a component contained in a composite component,
>>> >> you cannot attach Ajax functionality.
>>> >>
>>> >> Why is that? Is it an oversight, or is there some compelling technical
>>> >> reason to disallow adding Ajax behavior to components contained in
>>> >> composites?
>>> >
>>> > We definitely intended to support this, though instead of exposing a
>>> > "for" attribute on <f:ajax>, we wanted to leverage the fact that
>>> > behaviors already have a targeting mechanism in the "event" name.  The
>>> > idea was that a composite component would, like any other
>>> > ClientBehaviorHolder, expose a set of logical event names that
>>> behaviors
>>> > can be attached to.  So, for example, assuming a composite component
>>> > included "OK" and "Cancel" buttons and wanted to allow the user to
>>> > attach action behaviors to these, the composite component might surface
>>> > "okAction" and "cancelAction" event names, allowing the page author to
>>> do:
>>> >
>>> >  <foo:someComposite>
>>> >    <f:ajax event="okAction"/>
>>> >    <f:ajax event="cancelAction"/>
>>> >  </foo:someComposite>
>>> >
>>> > I know that Alexander did the implementation work to get this up and
>>> > running.  However, I do not see any pdldoc for the composite tag that
>>> > the composite component author uses to specify the supported client
>>> > behavior event names (composite:clientBehavior I believe).
>>> >
>>> > Alex, Roger -
>>> >
>>> > Did this make it into 2.0?
>>> >
>>> > Andy
>>> >
>>> >>
>>> >> Thanks,
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> david
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- roger.kitain at oracle.comhttps://twitter.com/rogerk09http://www.java.net/blogs/rogerk
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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