The following topic explains how to collect data from a nested page flow and 'return' the data to the nesting/main page flow. The nested page flow can appear as a popup window if so desired.

Before we get to nested page flows and popup windows, lets first take a look at the basic page flow submission cycle. Below is a diagram of the basic cycle.

Below is the code for the basic cycle: (1) index.jsp contains the form for collecting data, (2) the submission is handled by the method submit(), and (3) the submitted data is displayed by results.jsp.

index.jsp

    <netui:form action="submit">
      Name:            <netui:textBox dataSource="actionForm.name"/>
      Favorite Color:  <netui:textBox dataSource="actionForm.color"/>
      <br/>
      <netui:button type="submit" value="submit"/>
    </netui:form>

Controller.java

...
				
@Jpf.Controller(
    simpleActions={
        @Jpf.SimpleAction(name="begin", path="index.jsp")
    }
)
public class Controller 
    extends PageFlowController
{

    @Jpf.Action(
        forwards={
            @Jpf.Forward(
                name = "success",
                path = "results.jsp"
            )
        }
    )
    protected Forward submit(SubmitForm form)
    {
        return new Forward("success", "form", form );
    }

    public static class SubmitForm extends FormData
    {
        private String _name;
        private String _color;

        public String getName()
        {
            return _name;
        }

        public void setName(String value)
        {
            _name = value;
        }

        public String getColor()
        {
            return _color;
        }

        public void setColor(String value)
        {
            _color = value;
        }
    }
}

results.jsp

    Submitted Name: ${pageInput.form.name}
    <br/>
    Submitted Color: ${pageInput.form.color}
    <br/>
    <br/>
    <netui:anchor action="begin">[start over]</netui:anchor>

In this section we introduce a nested page flow to help collect data from the user.

When the user clicks the "get color" button (see the index.jsp page below), an instance of a nested page flow is created (GetColor.java). When the user submits the form within the nested page flow, the data is 'returned' to populate the form within the main/nesting page flow.

The diagram below shows how the user moves into the nested page flow, and then back into the main/nesting page flow.

The code for the main and nested page flow follows.

index.jsp

    <netui:form action="submit">
      Name:            <netui:textBox dataSource="actionForm.name"/>
      Favorite Color:  <netui:textBox dataSource="actionForm.color"/>
      <br/>
      <netui:button type="submit" value="get color" action="getColor"/>
      <netui:button type="submit" value="submit"/>
    </netui:form>

Controller.java

...

public class Controller 
    extends PageFlowController
{

    ...

    /**
     * This action forwards to the nested page flow to gather the favorite color.
     */
    protected Forward getColor(SubmitForm form)
    {
        return new Forward("getColorFlow");
    }

    @Jpf.Action(
        forwards={
            @Jpf.Forward(
                name="success",
                navigateTo=Jpf.NavigateTo.currentPage
            )
        }
    )
    protected Forward colorSuccess( String color )
    {
        SubmitForm previousForm = ( SubmitForm ) getPreviousFormBean();
        previousForm.setColor( color );
        return new Forward( "success", previousForm );
    }

    ...

}

results.jsp

[unchanged from above]

getColor/index.jsp

      <netui:form action="submitColor">
        Color:<br/>
          <netui:select dataSource="actionForm.color" size="5">
            <netui:selectOption value="red" />
            <netui:selectOption value="blue" />
            <netui:selectOption value="green" />
            <netui:selectOption value="yellow" />
            <netui:selectOption value="orange" />
          </netui:select>
        <br/> 
        <netui:button type="submit" value="submit"/>
      </netui:form>

getColor/GetColor.java

package getColor;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpSession;
import org.apache.beehive.netui.pageflow.PageFlowController;
import org.apache.beehive.netui.pageflow.Forward;
import org.apache.beehive.netui.pageflow.annotations.Jpf;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import org.apache.struts.action.ActionMapping;
import org.apache.beehive.netui.pageflow.FormData;


@Jpf.Controller(
    nested=true,
    simpleActions={
        @Jpf.SimpleAction(name="begin", path="index.jsp")
    }
)
public class GetColor extends PageFlowController
{
    @Jpf.Action(
        forwards={
            @Jpf.Forward(
                name="done", 
                returnAction="colorSuccess",
                outputFormBeanType=String.class)
        }
    )
    protected Forward submitColor( ColorForm form )
    {
        return new Forward( "done", form.getColor() );
    }

    public static class ColorForm
    {
        private String _color;

        public String getColor()
        {
            return _color;
        }

        public void setColor(String value)
        {
            _color = value;
        }
    }
}

This section explains how to make the nested page flow appear as a popup window.

The Popup Attribute

If you want your nested page flow to run inside a popup window set the popup attribute to "true"

      <netui:button type="submit" value="Pick Color" action="getColor" popup="true">
          <netui:configurePopup location="false" width="550" height="150">
          </netui:configurePopup>
      </netui:button>

This attribute is legal on all tags that can raise an action, except for <netui:imageButton>.

1. <netui:anchor>
2. <netui:imageAnchor>
3. <netui:button>
4. <netui:area>

Note - Popup window support uses JavaScript behind the scenes. <netui:imageButton> is used for submitting a form without JavaScript, and thus cannot accept the popup attribute.

The <netui:configurePopupTag>

Use the <netui:configurePopup> tag to determine the shape of the popup window.

      <netui:button type="submit" value="Pick Color" action="getColor" popup="true">
          <netui:configurePopup location="false" width="550" height="150">
          </netui:configurePopup>
      </netui:button>

The <netui:retrievePopupOutput>

To access values returned by the nested page flow use the <netui:retrievePopupOutput> tag, for example,

<netui:retrievePopupOutput dataSource="outputFormBean.color" tagIdRef="colorField"/>

Include multiple instances of the tag to set multiple fields.

Note - the <netui:retrievePopupOutput> tag must be nested inside the <netui:configurePopup> tag even if the <netui:configurePopup> tag has no attributes

The <netui:retrievePopupOutput> tag has two attributes, dataSource and tagIdRef, both of which are required. Both accept expressions that can be evaluated at runtime.

Note - 'outputFormBean' is a special databinding context that applies in this situation. It is the "return value" of the nested page flow: It receives the value generated by the 'outputFormBean' (or 'outputFormBeanType') in the returnAction forward from the nested page flow. This databinding context is only legal when used in the <netui:retrievePopupOutput> tag.

The _auto Global Forward

If you are returning data from the nested flow it is passed as a bean to the action in the nesting page flow, for example

        @Jpf.Action()
        public Forward nestedPageFlowGotColor(GetColor.ColorForm colorForm)
        {
            return new Forward("_auto");
        }

Here is what the code looks like in the nested page flow

        @Jpf.Action(
            forwards={
                @Jpf.Forward(name="success",
                             returnAction="nestedPageFlowGotColor", 
                             outputFormBeanType=ColorForm.class
                )
            }
        )
        public Forward done( ColorForm returnForm )
        {
            return new Forward("success", returnForm);
        }

The bean returned to the nesting flow is accessed in the page using the special data binding context, outputFormBean