On Tue, 2008-03-18 at 18:24 +0100, Thomas Fischer wrote: > In an JSF 1.2 application I'd like to have some "global service" pages, > which which can be accessed from different parts of the application and > deliever their result back to that part where it came from. > > This is a bit abstract, so here is an example: In different places of the > application, there is a need to search a user in a user database. The > process of selecting the user is the same each time, e.g. entering the > user's name and department in a search form. So on each of these pages, > there should be a "select user" button, which opens a new page where the > search data is read and the search is performed. Of course, the result of > the search needs to be returned to the calling page (i.e. its controller) > somehow. There might be different "select user" buttons on one single page > (for different roles, e.g. "select administrator", "select technical > writer" etc.) > > This is problematic because the "select user" page does not know what to do > with the result, and how to return control to the calling page so that the > calling page can fetch the result and take appropriate action. > > I have a solution which I consider quite a hack: The original page stores > an ELExpression in the session, which is to be evaluated by the "search > user page" controller after it has stored the selected users in the > session. The outcome of the ELExpression selects a navigation rule which > directs back to the original point. The ELExpression in the session stores > the user from the session in the appropriate place of the calling page's > controller. > What I do not like about this solution: > - Defining and calling an EL programatically is complicated and not easily > understandable. I'd be happy if I would not have to do this. > What I like about the solution: > - The "search user" page does not need to know where to store the result. > It provides a "service" and does not care from where it is called. > > So my question is: Can anyone think of an alternative approach to this, > which preserves the "service" idea ?
I haven't done this myself, but believe that there are a few solutions to this issue. Try searching for "trinidad page flow", "shale dialog", "spring webflow". I suspect that Seam has something for this too. Regards, Simon
