Dynamic Creation of Data Tables and Fields

Question

Hello all. I am currently working with a system that contains a bunch of windows. These windows are divided into two groups that represent their presentation style: Columns (such as a table) and Free (such as in a form). I created two tables in database to describe each and every window. These tables describe the type of presentation style, the fields of each window (title of the field, size of the field, position in window, and many more...)
I did this to make the creation of the windows more effective. In this way that I have, I only have to make one window to display all the thousands of windows that I have in my database because the values of presentation are taken from the description in the tables.
I was able to do this through TextFields and JTables in Swing. But now I run into JSC. Is this possible with JSC? Say in case the presentation style of the window is Column, can I tell the data table to go read the description of the window that needs to be opened to obtain the amount of columns, the column names, the size of each column... then create the tables and present the values?
Or say the presentation style is Free... I need to go find how many fields need to be created and their positions in the form, and then the titles of each field. Any ideas how this can be performed?
Thank you.
Franklin Angulo

Answer 1

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I was able to do this through TextFields and JTables
in Swing. But now I run into JSC. Is this possible
with JSC? Say in case the presentation style of the
window is Column, can I tell the data table to go
read the description of the window that needs to be
opened to obtain the amount of columns, the column
names, the size of each column... then create the
tables and present the values?
Or say the presentation style is Free... I need to go
find how many fields need to be created and their
positions in the form, and then the titles of each
field. Any ideas how this can be performed?
Creator won't help you with the graphical design, but it's definitely possible to dynamically compose the set of components that are children of a particular component. Doing so leverages the basic component APIs of JSF (javax.faces.component.UIComponent), so you'll want to grab yourself a copy of the JSF Javadocs (or use Creator's lookup facilities as you type your code) to understand what's possible.
The most important detail is that all components have a getChildren() method that returns a java.util.List of the child components for that component (as well as a getParent() to get the parent component). Any manipulation you do on this returned list is reflected in the structure of the overal component tree.
As a simple example, assume you want to add an input text component as a child of the form. You'd do something like this:
HtmlInputText input = new HtmlInputText();
input.setXxx(..); // Set properties as needed
form1.getChildren().add(input); // add new childCraig McClanahan