[opencms-dev] iframe-base custom widgets ....

[Michael Moossen]

Hi, Ruben!

well, what i have done before for very large and nice widgets is to have 
the widget class loading (and caching) html fragments from VFS files. 
for this i normally create a module with following structure:
system
   modules
     my.nice.widget
       elements
         headers.html (css + js includes)
         html-templates.xml (generic XML content with templates)
         messages.xml (generic XML content with localization messages, i 
prefer this instead of resource bundles since no restart needed)
       lib
         my.nice.widget.jar (the widget code)
       resources (all static files)
         css
         images
         js
       schemas (xsd's for the templates and messages)

for html generation i use a macro resolver for setting the id and value 
in the correct place, as well as localized strings coming from the 
messages.xml and options coming from the widget configuration.

so the most important methods of the widget class would look like this:

public String getDialogIncludes(CmsObject cms, I_CmsWidgetDialog 
widgetDialog) {

    return the content of headers.html
}

public String getDialogWidget(CmsObject cms, I_CmsWidgetDialog 
widgetDialog, I_CmsWidgetParameter param) {

    create a macro resolver
    put the id and the value of the widget in the macro resolver
    put all messages for the right locale in messages.xml in the macro 
resolver
    put all templates in html-templates.xml in the macro resolver (i use 
this to selected the displayed controls depending on the options)
    read the main template element from html-templates.xml, resolve the 
macros and return the result
}

HTH
--
Michael Moossen

Alkacon Software GmbH  - The OpenCms Experts
http://www.alkacon.com - http://www.opencms.org


Ruben Malchow wrote:
> 
> hi,
> 
> with the widgets available, i have always had a somewhat tense 
> relationship. it is very hard to implement something really nice with 
> that. and html code in classes is the only big thing i hate about 
> opencms. for example, somewhat more complicated chosers are a pain in 
> the butt to implement.
> 
> now ... i am attaching a little snippet that would give you an 
> iframe-based choser. of course, the jsp (or even the HTML page) will not 
> have all the context that the getDialogWidget method has, but for many 
> things, it should be enough.
> 
> using this, it is possible to implement custom widgets using only jsp 
> code. a proper, let's say "IFrameWidget" class could have enough 
> configuration options to accomodate plenty of the everyday problems.
> 
> actually, this mightbe extended to provide an "edit" and a "display" 
> mode, this should be easy to implement.
> 
> any thoughts on this?
> 
> 
> .rm
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> This mail is sent to you from the opencms-dev mailing list
> To change your list options, or to unsubscribe from the list, please visit
> http://lists.opencms.org/mailman/listinfo/opencms-dev