JAFFA Form Widget

TagLib
Reference

tag libraries

Jaffa Tags

Layout Controls

Guards

Page Controls

Other Tags

Struts

JSTL

Sun Site

Taglibs

reference

page controls/form

<Portlet:Form . . .

compatability

Overview

This tag extends the struts form tag with a few powerful variations (note that struts tag that it extends has been modified and simplified) . Unlike Struts JAFFA has a more powerful event handling capability. By using hidden fields and event propogation multiple post events can be associated to a form.

Sample

<Portlet:Form action="/samp_Comp"
guardedHtmlLocation="search.htm">
Contents of page.....
</Portlet:Form>

General Attributes

Attribute Name	Mandatory/Optional	Description
action	Optional	Action to be perform on form post and should refer to a definition defined in the the struts config file.
enctype	Optional	The content encoding to be used on a POST submit.(inherited from struts tag)
focus	Optional	field to focus on page load.
method	Optional	The request method used when submitting this form.
name	Optional	The attribute key under which our associated bean is stored.
onreset	Optional	The onReset event script.
onsubmit	Optional	The onSubmit event script.
scope	Optional	The scope (request or session) under which our associated bean is stored.
style	Optional	The style attribute associated with this tag.
styleClass	Optional	The style class associated with this tag.
styleId	Optional	The identifier associated with this tag.
target	Optional	The window target.
type	Optional	The Java class name of the bean to be created, if necessary.
url	Optional	Allows a new the jsp to invoke an action that lies outside the scope of the current context.
guardedHtmlLocation	Optional	This is the location of the HTML file to use as the transition screen

Form

top

Overview

This is probably the most important tag in JAFFA. It extends the Struts FORM tag and adds in multievent posting.With the capability to invoke an action that lies outside the scope of the current context.

In Browser

<form name="sampAppForm" method="POST"
action="sampApp2Form.do">
<SPAN ID="sampAppForm_EntirePage" STYLE="display:block">
Contents of page.....
<input type="hidden" name="componentId" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="eventId" value="">
<input type="hidden" id="dateTimeStamp" value="">
</SPAN>
</form>
<SPAN ID="sampAppForm_PushPage" STYLE="display:none">
HTML contents of transition page.....
</SPAN>

JSP Code

<Portlet:Form action="/samp_Comp"
guardedHtmlLocation="search.htm">
Contents of page.....
</Portlet:Form>

How they work

When this tag is encountered it writes inline HTML and javascript code. When the screen renders, the datetime stamp is written to the hidden field along with the componentID. If an event associated with a widget on the screen is fired, this event ID along with other information is written to the hidden field. The some background javascript fires off the applicable form[0].submit code. The guardedHtmlLocation code is used to make a span that is made visibile as the transition page when a post occours.