Af:clientListener and javascript confirm() dialog

Question

Hi,
a common requirement in most of our web apps is to include a warning dialog when a user tries to delete a record, ie. if someone presses on a link to delete a record they get a javascript dialog asking them "Are you sure you want to delete this record?'. Clicking ok will delete the record, while clicking cancel will cancel the action. Our jsp code from jdev 10.1.3 is shown below:
<af:commandLink actionListener="#{bindings.removeRowWithKey.execute}"
          action="#{viewCalStatus.deleteCalStatus}" text="Delete"
                onclick="return confirm('Are you sure you want to delete this record?');">
    <af:setActionListener from="#{row.rowKeyStr}" to="#{requestScope.calStatusRow}"/>
</af:commandLink>We have noticed that in 11G <af:commandLink> no longer supports any javascript events such as onClick. The suggested replacement is to use <af:clientListener>, however, it doesn't look like the same functionality can be achieved. We tried the code below, however, when the delete link is pressed, the record is submitted for deletion before the javascript dialog shows up (which we kind of expected anyway). Is there any way of achieving the same javascript functionality using <af:clientListener>? If not, what is the suggested 'best practice' for achieving similar functionality?
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
    function confirmDelete() {
        if (confirm('Are you sure you want to delete this record?'))
            return true;
     else
            return false;
</script>
<af:commandLink actionListener="#{bindings.removeRowWithKey.execute}"
          action="#{viewCalStatus.deleteCalStatus}" text="Delete">
    <af:clientListener method="confirmDelete" type="click"/>
    <af:setActionListener from="#{row.rowKeyStr}" to="#{requestScope.calStatusRow}"/>
</af:commandLink>Thanks,
Michael.

Answer 1

Hi Michael
Hello from sunny Perth.
I suspect (but don't quote me) what you're looking for is described in the entire section "3.9 Sending Custom Events From the Client to the Server" in the new Web User Interface Developer's Guide for ADF, available online with JDev 11g TP2.
I've had some limited success testing this approach, to get a commandLink to call a client side JavaScript, display a message, and when the user clicks Ok, a server side backing bean method is called to do the rest of your work. It seems to work sometimes and not others, so I'm playing around with the config.
As for "best practice," it's a little early to start asking this of a preview release isn't it? ;)
Happy JDevelopering in Geelong.
Regards,
CM.