Open a tabStrip with a treeNode

Question

Struggling here, I know I must just be overlooking it but I've got a treeNode and I want to open a tab from my tabStrip by clicking on the treeNode.
I was doing this by just calling the page and passing a parameter however by doing this I was overiding the tabStrip and then by clicking on the tabs itself they would no longer open.
First question: is it possible?
Second question: If it is how can I go from the treeNode to the tab without reloading the page?

Answer 1

Craig,
When you write "to the tab without reloading the page", you are effectively asking to switch between the tabs in the tabStrip without a request/response cycle. This is of course only possible if all of the required tabs are available in the browser.
We ship two tabstrips. The old <htmlb:tabStrip> actually supports switch a browser based switching. Depending on whether a server event is defined per tab, the tab will be switched in the browser, or at the server. The newer <xhtmlb:tabStrip> only supports server switching of tabs. In the newer (XHTMLB) tabStrip the rendering code is more optimized. For example, only the tabStripItem that will actually be showed is processed.
The benefit of server switching is better rendering performance (only render one tab per request/response cycle), plus reduced bandwidth. Our recommendation is in general to use the newer <xhtmlb:tabStrip>.
In terms of using a tree to switch a tabStrip, I can not really say that it sounds like the way to go. The tabStrip itself already has tabs for switching. Just give them nice names. But then, I am no usability expert. So maybe a tree is acceptable.
The request is not so complex. All you want to do is that the when you click on a tree node, it fires for you a server side event. No, don't try to start messing with URLs and things like second guessing formfield names. This is bound to fail on you, leading to five more appends in the forum before the sun goes down. It is also the reason why you loose complete viewState of all controls on the page. Hmmm...you should really in the beginning copy more code from the SBSPEXT_*HTMLB examples. Just use the onClick attributes to get back to server when you require it. At the server pick up relevant data, and go out again on the next response.
So we have a tree, which fires a server side event. At the server, we pick up the event, and set the selection on tabStrip new. (If you click in tabStrip, just let the tabStrip handle the setting of the new active tabStrip. Do not do anything more.) I have written all the event handling code also in the layout just to make the example simple cut-and-paste. You can put the event handling code into the onInputProcessing. Code included below.
++bcm
<%@page language="abap"%>
<%@extension name="htmlb" prefix="htmlb"%>
<%@extension name="xhtmlb" prefix="xhtmlb"%>
<%
   DATA: event     TYPE REF TO IF_HTMLB_DATA,
         selection TYPE string.
   event = CL_HTMLB_MANAGER=>GET_EVENT_EX( request ).
   IF  event IS NOT INITIAL
   AND event->event_name = 'tree'
   AND event->event_type = 'click'
   AND event->event_server_name IS NOT INITIAL.
     selection = event->event_server_name.
   ENDIF.
%>
<htmlb:content design="design2003">
<htmlb:page title = " ">
<htmlb:form>
<xhtmlb:tabStrip id="details" selection="<%=selection%>">
  <xhtmlb:tabStripItem name="clients"   title="Clients"/>
  <xhtmlb:tabStripItem name="info"      title="Info"/>
  <xhtmlb:tabStripItem name="employees" title="Employees"/>
</xhtmlb:tabStrip>
<htmlb:tree id        = "menutree"
             showTitle = "true"
             title     = "Quick Links"
             width     = "220px" >
  <htmlb:treeNode id="c" text="Clients"   onNodeClick="clients"/>
  <htmlb:treeNode id="i" text="Info"      onNodeClick="info"/>
  <htmlb:treeNode id="e" text="Employees" onNodeClick="employees"/>
</htmlb:tree>
</htmlb:form>
</htmlb:page>
</htmlb:content>