How to Save State on an Entry Form prior to Submitting the Form?

Question

I want to be able to save the values the user enters to fields on the entry form if they navigate away from the page and come back (without the user clicking the submit button for the form.) For example, one of the input fields has a goLink to go to another page to lookup a field value - when the user returns from the page, all other form field values are cleared. If the user does submit the form by clicking the command button, then all form field values are saved (if the user navigates from the page and comes back, all values are retained.) What I'm trying to do then is somehow save the values (passivate the state) for the field the user has filled in when the user navigates from the page without submitting the form. Any suggestions?
I am using a read-only View Object with all transient values. The VO is configured to passivate state including all transient values. The initial row is created programmatically; there will only be one row for the VO used as an entry form. I am not using a backing bean for the values and would prefer not to use one, but would rather use the VO's capability to passivate state to save the data values. The question then seems to be how to force the VO to passivate state prior to the form being submitted.
thanks
Message was edited by:
javaX

Answer 1

"My hunch is that the real problem is that the fields are not being set into the bindings due to the use of immediate="true"."
Yes. Now I see that is the real problem. Is there anyway to force setting the bindings from the input form field values if the user navigates from the page using a goLink, or commandButton with immediate="true" other than overriding the default FacesPageLifecycle classes?
I'd prefer not to have to do that unless necessary, and, if I over-ride that method, then how could I get it to work normally when the user presses the commandButton at the end of the form and I do want all validation checks to be performed (immediate=false for the form's submit button; immediate=true only for lookup commandButtons used for certain fields)?
Here's an overview of how I set the page up:
1. create transient view object; all attributes marked as always updateable; passivate state=true for VO and all transient values; no key id field selected (will only ever be one row - just using VO to save values that will eventually be used to do an insert to the database);
2. transient VO added to Application Module
3. Add data control to .jspx page as an ADF Form (not an ADF Creation Form)
4. Add code to AM to create the initial row for the input form
protected void prepareSession(Session session) {
super.prepareSession(session);
insertTransientViewObjRows();
private void insertTransientViewObjRows() {
ViewObject transientvo = getViewObj1();
transientvo.clearCache();
transientvo.insertRow(transientvo.createRow());
--- Entry Form .jspx pagedef.xml snippet ---
<executables>
<iterator id="MyIterator" RangeSize="10" Binds="MyView"
DataControl="AMDataControl"/>
</executables>
<bindings>
<attributeValues id="sponsorid" IterBinding="MyIterator">
<AttrNames>
<Item Value="sponsorid"/>
</AttrNames>
</attributeValues>
--- Entry Form .jspx page snippet ---
<h:form>
<af:panelForm>
<af:panelLabelAndMessage label="#{bindings.sponsorid.label}">
<af:panelGroup layout="horizontal">
<af:inputText value="#{bindings.sponsorid.inputValue}"/>
// state will not be saved for other form field values if use immediate="true" when temporarily navigate away from page and return; don't want to validate other form fields here
<af:commandButton text="Lookup Details"
action="lookup-page" immediate="true"/>
</af:panelGroup>
</af:panelLabelAndMessage>....
// state will be saved with immediate="false" when user submit forms at end of entry (need to perform validation of form's required fields here)
<af:commandButton text="Continue to Next Step" immediate="false"
action="nextpage"/>
Message was edited by:
javaX