Implementing the Action Events

The action events link to a data entry form for entering Coffee records. The form supports Add, Edit and Delete modes. Here we see edit mode:

This portlet is also a Velocity Portlet. Like all Velocity portlets, it has a templates and an action. 


<parameter name="template" value="coffees-form" hidden="true"/>

<parameter name="action" value="portlets.TutorialCoffeesAction" />

The form posts back to itself by default. 


<form method="post" action="$jslink.setAction("portlets.TutorialCoffeesAction")">

An action event is connected to the button: 


<input type="submit" name="eventSubmit_doUpdate" value="Save"/>
Form values are entered with the standard Jetspeed data entry macros. See the tutorial on Action Events for more information on programming data entry forms and with Velocity macros and input fields. 


	<tr>

        #formCell ("Brand of Coffee" "coffeeName" $!coffee.CoffeeName)

      </tr>

      <tr>

        #formCell ("Supplier Id" "supplierId" $!coffee.SupplierId)

      </tr>

      <tr>

        #formCell ("Unit Price" "price" $!coffee.Price)

      </tr>

      <tr>

        #formCell ("Sales Tax" "sales" $!coffee.Sales)

      </tr>

      <tr>

        #formCell ("Total Price" "total" $!coffee.Total)

      </tr>

Finally we have an action event (TutorialCoffeesAction) that stores the row to the database. 


public void doUpdate(RunData rundata, Context context) throws Exception
{
        Coffees coffee = null;
        Connection con = null;

        try
        {
            con = Torque.getConnection();
            coffee = (Coffees)rundata.getUser().getTemp(SESSION_COFFEE);

            if(coffee == null)
            {
                Log.error(NO_CURRENT_REC);
                rundata.setMessage(NO_CURRENT_REC);
                return;
            }

            rundata.getParameters().setProperties(coffee);
            validate(coffee);
            coffee.save(con);
            con.commit();

            returnToBrowser(rundata, true);
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            Log.error("error in saving coffee: " + e);
            rundata.setMessage(e.toString());

            if (con != null)
            {
                con.rollback();
            }
        }
        finally
        {
            try
            {
                Torque.closeConnection(con);
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {}
        }
    }

The update method is used by both Add and Update modes. Take note of the usage of Torque's object-relational programming model. The objects can store themselves. The Coffees objects were automatically generated for you as a task in the tutorials ant build. First we get a connection: 


con = Torque.getConnection();

then get the object from the session, which was placed there when the link was clicked on from the database browser. 


coffee = (Coffees)rundata.getUser().getTemp(SESSION_COFFEE);

The parameter parser will automatically populate any bean, as long as the names of the inputs on the HTML form match (case-insensitive) the names of the properties on the bean. 


rundata.getParameters().setProperties(coffee);

We then validate and save the input, finally committing it: 


		validate(coffee);

        coffee.save(con);

        con.commit();

If there is an error, we store the error message for later retrieval from our template: 


rundata.setMessage(e.toString());




	  #if ($data.Message)
      <tr>
        <td colspan="2">
          <table bgcolor="red">
            <tr>
              <td>
                $data.Message
              </td>
            </tr>
          </table>
        </td>
      </tr>
      #end

Finally, we redirect to the browser on success and invalidate the browser to refresh and pick up the modifications: 


   JetspeedLink link = JetspeedLinkFactory.getInstance(rundata);
   DynamicURI duri = link.getPaneByName("TutorialCoffeesBrowser");

   if (refresh)
   {
         duri.addQueryData(CoffeesBrowserAction.BROWSER_COMMAND, 
                    CoffeesBrowserAction.BROWSER_REFRESH);
   }

   rundata.setRedirectURI(duri.toString());
   JetspeedLinkFactory.putInstance(link);