Extending FormComponentPanel is useful if you want your panel to return
some IModel<BusinessObject> that is built from the various controls on
the page.
You can override convertInput and onBeforeRender to build/show the
BusinessObject into the panel fields.
It can make things a lot simpler because the validation logic is lower
(on the custom panels) so the form processing logic can work on just the
BusinessObject's themselves.
For example:
class MyBusinessObjectPanel extends FormComponentPanel<BusinessObject> {
private TextField nameField;
private Calendar cal;
... skipping constructor, etc ...
@Override
protected void convertInput() {
nameField.processInput();
cal.processInput();
String name = nameField.getModel().getObject();
DateTime date = cal.getModel().getObject();
setConvertedInput (new BusinessObject (name, date));
}
@Override
protected void onBeforeRender() {
BusinessObject bo = getModelObject();
nameField.setModelObject(bo.getName());
cal.setModelObject(bo.getDate());
super.onBeforeRender();
}
Notice how the inner components of the panel don't use a property or
field wise model but instead are simply a string model and a datetime model?
This allows the current value of the panel's model object to be
protected. The convertedValue object is what the validation
infrastructure validates (if ok then it becomes the model object).
I've found this is the best way to handle really complex forms and
properly internalize their operations.
Regards,
Mike
Simply nestle sub Panel contain form components is fine if you make sure
that there are a form component higher in hierarchy. FormComponentPanel is
useful if you want the panel itself participating in form processing, I
don't think this is the case.
On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 10:08 AM, Chris Colman<[email protected]
wrote:
I have a complex form that I choose to break down into logical sub Panel
components and then add them as children to the Form.
The sub Panels themselves then have FormComponents like text fields and
DropDownChoice components added to them. Will the normal validate/update
mechanism simply work like that or do I need to override some methods in
my Panel classes or make the Panel classes implement certain interfaces
(eg., IFormVisitorParticipant etc.,)?
Chris Colman
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