Sorry, my last attempt to reply didn't come out right; just wanted to thank you for the tip, I ended up using media-specific css classes to solve my problem. I would like to eventually figure out what was wrong with my initial approach, as I can conceive situations where I will need to open new windows and access serialized backing beans from them, but I guess getting to that point with JSF/MyFaces takes time...
Thanks again for taking the time to respond. Paul Spencer-3 wrote: > > Mjovanov, > I just have time for short answers. You will need to do the research. > > 1) Media specific CSS Classes may be the answer. This way the user > prints from the browser without the need of a "Printable Format" page. > > 2) Shale Dialogs. http://shale.apache.org. > > > Paul Spencer > > > > mjovanov wrote: >> Hello, >> >> Please consider the following scenario: a page with a dataTable component >> and a backing bean with two DataModel properties, one for the rows >> (binding >> to the 'value' attribute of the dataTable) and one for columns (binding >> to >> the 'value' attribute of the nested t:columns tag). The backing bean is >> configured in faces-config.xml to 'request' scope, but is being >> serialized >> between requests by using the t:saveState tag (so that paging for example >> would not require additional hits to the database). So far everything is >> working as expected. However, problems arise when I try to implement a >> link >> on the page that allows a user to open the table in a new window, and >> without paging (for printing purposes). The catch is that I want to be >> able >> to still use the same backing bean so that the data doesn’t have to be >> retrieved again, and also so that the sort would be preserved. Could >> anyone >> suggest the approach to take? I tried the following: >> >> Define a commandLink component and bind it to an action method on the >> backing bean, like this: >> >> <h:outputLink value="searchView.faces" target="_blank" >> class="linkCaption" rendered="#{workbenchForm.dataFound}"> >> <t:graphicImage url="images/printer_icon.gif" >> alt="#{msg.labelPrintQueueSumm}" width="21" height="14" /> >> <h:outputText value="#{msg.labelPrintQueueSumm}"/> >> </h:outputLink><br/> >> >> The body of the action method would then look like something like this: >> >> public void forwardToPrintView() throws IOException, ServletException { >> HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest)getRequest(); >> HttpServletResponse response = (HttpServletResponse)getResponse(); >> request.setAttribute("rows", rows.getWrappedData()); >> request.setAttribute("columns", columns.getWrappedData()); >> >> request.getRequestDispatcher("/workbenchPrint.faces").forward(request, >> response); >> getFacesContext().responseComplete(); >> } >> >> However this only works one time; after that I start seeing some really >> weird behavior, like all links on the original page that were previously >> working correctly start opening content in a new window?! At first I >> though >> there may be a problem with the target=”_blank” attribute, but when I >> switched the commandLink component to an outputLink and had it point to >> another page all together (without accessing the serialized backing bean) >> the problem went away; could it be that the JSF state some how got >> corrupted? Any suggestions/clues would be greatly appreciated. >> >> PS I was able to get very similar functionality to work for "Exporting >> to >> Excel"; the action method for this looks like this: >> >> public void exportHtmlTableToExcel() throws IOException{ >> >> /*Set the filename >> DateTime dt = new DateTime(); >> DateTimeFormatter fmt = >> DateTimeFormat.forPattern("yyyy-MM-dd_HHmmss"); >> String filename = dt.toString(fmt) + ".xls";*/ >> >> //Setup the output >> String contentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"; >> FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance(); >> String filename = >> fc.getExternalContext().getUserPrincipal().getName() >> + "-"+ System.currentTimeMillis() + ".xls"; >> HttpServletResponse response = >> (HttpServletResponse)fc.getExternalContext().getResponse(); >> response.setHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment; filename=" + >> filename); >> response.setContentType(contentType); >> >> //Write the table back out >> PrintWriter out = response.getWriter(); >> //First write column headings >> List columnList = (List)columns.getWrappedData(); >> for (Iterator it = columnList.iterator(); it.hasNext(); ) { >> out.print(((TableColumnDTO)it.next()).getLabel() + "\t"); >> } >> out.println(); >> List data = (List)rows.getWrappedData(); >> for (Iterator i = data.iterator(); i.hasNext(); ) { >> List row = (List)i.next(); >> for (Iterator j = row.iterator(); j.hasNext(); ) { >> Object value = j.next(); >> out.print((value != null ? value : "") + "\t"); >> } >> out.println(); >> } >> out.close(); >> fc.responseComplete(); >> } >> >> One important difference to note is that the link for "Exporting to >> Excel" >> does not have the target attribute set to '_blank' (since the content >> type >> would force another application to handle it, thus opening it in a new >> window automatically). > > > -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Implementing-Printable-View-for-dataTable%3A-Problem-with-target%3D%22_blank%22--tf2265822.html#a6313789 Sent from the MyFaces - Users forum at Nabble.com.
