Panel tab page template application

Question

Dear All,
I would like to ask for comments regarding what I have done since I can't find a good resource that
can point me to the right direction.
My Use Case:
I have a jsff page with a panel tab as the outermost component. Inside it are a variable number of showdetailitems.
My requirement is for me to apply a certain template to all detail item. What I did was embed the page template inside
each iterator.
<af:panelTabbed>
      <af:iterator>
          <af:showDetailItem>
               <af:pageTemplate viewId="/MyTemplate.jspx" value="#{bindings}">
                    <!-- Components go here -->
               </af:pageTemplate>
          </af:showDetailItem>
      </af:iterator>
</af:panelTabbed>To my surprise, it did not cause an exception and my components follow the changes that I am doing in the template
I read from a previous post from Frank that *'not because its not throwing an exception then its okay'.*
I have used templates to style my pages but they are at the top of my page. In this case, my use case is different.
Comments are very much welcome.
Thanks.
Edited by: Neliel on Jul 7, 2011 6:51 PM

Answer 1

Hi,
dynamic declarative components would do the same trick. Unfortunately those are less well documented. In summary, a dynamic declarative component is a JSFF page that you define Facets for and FecetRefs in (this is where users then add the content (or in your case the showDetail content would be generated in). Below is a simple sample:
JSFF page
=======
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<jsp:root xmlns:jsp="http://java.sun.com/JSP/Page" version="2.1"
          xmlns:af="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adf/faces/rich"
          xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core">
<af:componentDef var="attrs">
  <af:xmlContent>
   <component xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adf/faces/rich/component">
    <facet>
     <description>
      What goes in right
     </description>
     <facet-name>
      LeftArea
     </facet-name>
    </facet>
    <facet>
     <description>
      What goes in left
     </description>
     <facet-name>
      RightArea
     </facet-name>
    </facet>
    <attribute>
     <attribute-name>
      headerTitle
     </attribute-name>
     <attribute-class>
      java.lang.String
     </attribute-class>
    </attribute>
   </component>
  </af:xmlContent>
  <af:panelStretchLayout id="psl1">
   <f:facet name="center">
    <af:panelBox id="dc_pb1" text="#{attrs.headerTitle}"
                 styleClass="AFStretchWidth">
     <f:facet name="toolbar"/>
     <af:panelSplitter id="dc_ps1" splitterPosition="293">
      <f:facet name="first">
       <af:facetRef facetName="LeftArea"/>
      </f:facet>
      <f:facet name="second">
       <af:facetRef facetName="RightArea"/>
      </f:facet>
     </af:panelSplitter>
    </af:panelBox>
    <!-- id="af_one_column_stretched"   -->
   </f:facet>
  </af:panelStretchLayout>
</af:componentDef>
</jsp:root>The "<af:xmlContent>" area defines the metaData (Facets). After the "</af:xmlContent>" tag you add the visual content. Note the use of FaceRef in the
panelSplitter for users to later add their stuff
The JSFF file that represents the dynamic declarative component must reside in the same project as the page consuming it
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<jsp:root xmlns:jsp="http://java.sun.com/JSP/Page" version="2.1"
          xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
          xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
          xmlns:af="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adf/faces/rich">
  <jsp:directive.page contentType="text/html;charset=UTF-8"/>
  <f:view>
    <af:document id="d1">
      <af:form id="f1">
        <af:panelDashboard id="pd1">
          <af:declarativeComponent viewId="BeautifulBoxDef.jsff" headerTitle="One">
            <f:facet name="LeftArea">
              <af:commandButton text="Open Calculator" id="cb1"/>
            </f:facet>
            <f:facet name="RightArea">
              <af:commandButton text="Open Calendar" id="cb2">
                <af:showPopupBehavior popupId="::p1"/>
              </af:commandButton>
            </f:facet>
          </af:declarativeComponent>
          <af:declarativeComponent viewId="BeautifulBoxDef.jsff" headerTitle="Two"/>
        </af:panelDashboard>
        <af:popup id="p1">
          <af:dialog id="d2" title="Info" type="ok">
            <af:outputFormatted id="of1"/>
            <af:calendar id="c1"/>
          </af:dialog>
        </af:popup>
      </af:form>
    </af:document>
  </f:view>
</jsp:root>You see the declarative component being added twice to the page ( <af:declarativeComponent viewId="BeautifulBoxDef.jsff" headerTitle="One">). The IDE will flag an error saying that the DashBoard component expects a PanelBox as a child. This however is not true.
Note that dynamic declarative components participate in teh geometry management which means they stretch if their parent container stretches its children
See also:
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E21764_01/apirefs.1111/e12419/tagdoc/af_declarativeComponent.html
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E21764_01/apirefs.1111/e12419/tagdoc/af_componentDef.html
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E21764_01/apirefs.1111/e12419/tagdoc/af_xmlContent.html
I'll take a not to write something up about this for ADF Code Corner or OTN Harvest as the above really is the recommended way to do this in 11.1.1.x
Frank