[Wicket-user] Wicket customizability
Hi all, I have just created my first wicket app: a simple JCR (jsr-170) browser/editor with a tree showing nodes on the left, a form for editing node properties on the right, and a menu with some actions (add, delete, save etc.) on top. All 100% Ajax, it just works! As a side note: I started from scratch (completely new to wicket), and it took me two weeks to learn wicket and build the application. Needless to say that I'm a definite a convert, thank you guys for creating this wonderful thing called wicket! Now for my question(s): What my shop actually needs is a customizable gui. We develop a core module and users can write plugins for it, think eclipse, firefox etc. I know of Pax Wicket which is an An OSGification of the Wicket web framework. It sounds very interesting and reading the documentation it looks like exactly the thing we need. However creating a 'Pax Wicket' application is something very different from an ordinary Wicket app. I have the impression that 'going OSGi' is a decision comparable to 'going J2EE' and should not be made overnight, but I might be wrong there. I would prefer a simpler way of going this. Therefore I did some experimenting and tried to inject a wicket Component (a Label) with wicket-spring, but found that injecting Wicket Components doesn't work. The proxy will try to access a protected method on Component and fail. My guess is that that is a Good Thing because you're not supposed to inject wicket Components this way, but I may be wrong there, am I? Is there another way? What I did manage with just base Wicket was a custom ModalWindow.PageCreator that dynamically loads a Page (using Class.forName) in it's createPage() method. That works, and because the class name is stored in the Model (it's a property of the selected node in the tree) I now have a 'dynamic' modal window whose implementation (java + markup) depends on the selected treenode and can be plugged in by adding a jar file to the project. However, extensibility 'just' through popup dialogs is not enough, and as far as I understand it is not possible to do the same trick for 'inline' (on the main Page) Components. Or is it? I guess that my question boils down to this: Am I on the right track or should I stop doing this and go to my boss and tell him that we should go OSGi (and Java 5 btw. currently we are strictly bound to jdk1.4) Regards Wander - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now http://get.splunk.com/ ___ Wicket-user mailing list Wicket-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wicket-user
Re: [Wicket-user] Wicket customizability
i don't really understand what you're talking about because i don't know your requirements. but don't forget two things: 1) the primary unit of reuse in wicket is the panel and 2) you can put any component (such as a panel) in a completely self-contained jar because of packaged resources. if you just want users to be able to add panels that work on entities exposed through an API maybe all you need is jarred panels. Wander Grevink wrote: Hi all, I have just created my first wicket app: a simple JCR (jsr-170) browser/editor with a tree showing nodes on the left, a form for editing node properties on the right, and a menu with some actions (add, delete, save etc.) on top. All 100% Ajax, it just works! As a side note: I started from scratch (completely new to wicket), and it took me two weeks to learn wicket and build the application. Needless to say that I'm a definite a convert, thank you guys for creating this wonderful thing called wicket! Now for my question(s): What my shop actually needs is a customizable gui. We develop a core module and users can write plugins for it, think eclipse, firefox etc. I know of Pax Wicket which is an An OSGification of the Wicket web framework. It sounds very interesting and reading the documentation it looks like exactly the thing we need. However creating a 'Pax Wicket' application is something very different from an ordinary Wicket app. I have the impression that 'going OSGi' is a decision comparable to 'going J2EE' and should not be made overnight, but I might be wrong there. I would prefer a simpler way of going this. Therefore I did some experimenting and tried to inject a wicket Component (a Label) with wicket-spring, but found that injecting Wicket Components doesn't work. The proxy will try to access a protected method on Component and fail. My guess is that that is a Good Thing because you're not supposed to inject wicket Components this way, but I may be wrong there, am I? Is there another way? What I did manage with just base Wicket was a custom ModalWindow.PageCreator that dynamically loads a Page (using Class.forName) in it's createPage() method. That works, and because the class name is stored in the Model (it's a property of the selected node in the tree) I now have a 'dynamic' modal window whose implementation (java + markup) depends on the selected treenode and can be plugged in by adding a jar file to the project. However, extensibility 'just' through popup dialogs is not enough, and as far as I understand it is not possible to do the same trick for 'inline' (on the main Page) Components. Or is it? I guess that my question boils down to this: Am I on the right track or should I stop doing this and go to my boss and tell him that we should go OSGi (and Java 5 btw. currently we are strictly bound to jdk1.4) Regards Wander - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now http://get.splunk.com/ ___ Wicket-user mailing list Wicket-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wicket-user -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Wicket-customizability-tf4144822.html#a11801677 Sent from the Wicket - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now http://get.splunk.com/ ___ IMPORTANT NOTICE: This mailing list is shutting down. Please subscribe to the Apache Wicket user list. Send a message to: users-subscribe at wicket.apache.org and follow the instructions. ___ Wicket-user mailing list Wicket-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wicket-user
Re: [Wicket-user] Wicket customizability
sounds to me like what you need is indirection
something like
IComponentFactory { Component newComponent(String id, IModel model); }
then you can configure these in whatever context (in your case spring) and
inject those into pages/panels/etc and let them create children.
this is essentially the same as osgi or anything else would work. a named
component factory is an osgi service/spring bean/plugin/whatever
-igor
On 7/25/07, Wander Grevink [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hi all,
I have just created my first wicket app: a simple JCR (jsr-170)
browser/editor with a tree showing nodes on the left, a
form for editing node properties on the right, and a menu with some
actions (add, delete, save etc.) on top.
All 100% Ajax, it just works!
As a side note: I started from scratch (completely new to wicket), and it
took me two weeks to learn wicket and build
the application. Needless to say that I'm a definite a convert, thank you
guys for creating this wonderful thing called
wicket!
Now for my question(s):
What my shop actually needs is a customizable gui. We develop a core
module and users can write plugins for it, think
eclipse, firefox etc.
I know of Pax Wicket which is an An OSGification of the Wicket web
framework. It sounds very interesting and reading
the documentation it looks like exactly the thing we need. However
creating a 'Pax Wicket' application is something very
different from an ordinary Wicket app. I have the impression that 'going
OSGi' is a decision comparable to 'going J2EE'
and should not be made overnight, but I might be wrong there.
I would prefer a simpler way of going this. Therefore I did some
experimenting and tried to inject a wicket Component (a
Label) with wicket-spring, but found that injecting Wicket Components
doesn't work. The proxy will try to access a
protected method on Component and fail. My guess is that that is a Good
Thing because you're not supposed to inject
wicket Components this way, but I may be wrong there, am I? Is there
another way?
What I did manage with just base Wicket was a custom
ModalWindow.PageCreator that dynamically loads a Page (using
Class.forName) in it's createPage() method. That works, and because the
class name is stored in the Model (it's a
property of the selected node in the tree) I now have a 'dynamic' modal
window whose implementation (java + markup)
depends on the selected treenode and can be plugged in by adding a jar
file to the project.
However, extensibility 'just' through popup dialogs is not enough, and as
far as I understand it is not possible to do
the same trick for 'inline' (on the main Page) Components. Or is it?
I guess that my question boils down to this: Am I on the right track or
should I stop doing this and go to my boss and
tell him that we should go OSGi (and Java 5 btw. currently we are strictly
bound to jdk1.4)
Regards
Wander
-
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Re: [Wicket-user] Wicket customizability
i don't really understand what you're talking about because i don't know your requirements. but don't forget two things: 1) the primary unit of reuse in wicket is the panel and 2) you can put any component (such as a panel) in a completely self-contained jar because of packaged resources. if you just want users to be able to add panels that work on entities exposed through an API maybe all you need is jarred panels. Also, take a look at wicket.properties and IInitializer. Basically, this is Wicket's mechanism for auto-discovery. When starting up, it loads all instances of wicket.properties it can find it the (root of the) classpath, and instantiates the IInitializer class that is configured in it. That initializer can then for instance register the components it has in case you would work with a central component registry (sounds like this is something you might want to have). OSGi can do even more for you, including automatic discovery at runtime (so you drop in a jar and it should connect without even having to restart... actually now that I think of it, we could poll for new additions as well if we wanted) and it provides a much broader module mechanism. Not an expert on this field though. Maybe on of the OSGi experts on this list can throw in their opinion? Btw, the system that I'm working on (and others on this list, including Igor) works like a component system where business components (can't think of a better name) provide their own panels for end-users and tasks like administration/ configuration of the components etc. It's all perfectly doable, but you gotta do some upfront thinking :) Eelco - This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now http://get.splunk.com/ ___ IMPORTANT NOTICE: This mailing list is shutting down. Please subscribe to the Apache Wicket user list. Send a message to: users-subscribe at wicket.apache.org and follow the instructions. ___ Wicket-user mailing list Wicket-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wicket-user
