Transfer data from Java beans to portlet

[John Lincoln]

Hi,

How to transfer data from a form to the Portlet. I mean can i set the data in JavaBean with the values in the form ?. Do the bean needs to stored in renderRequest and what should be the scope ?

If you have an example doing that. Can you provide a url. I tired the following, but it did not work.

Thanks in advance

Following is the code:

<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/portlet" prefix="portlet"%>
<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1" session="false" import="com.portlets.*" %>
<portlet :mrgreen: efineObjects />
<jsp:useBean id="mybean" scope="session" class="com.portlets.AddressBean" />
 

<P><b>Edit Personal Information</b></P>
<br><br><br>
<b>Physical Address</b>
<br><br><br>
<Form method=post name="Form0" action="<portlet:actionURL/>">
Address 1     <input type=text name="address1"> <br><br><br>
Address 2     <input type=text name="address2"> <br><br><br>
City             <input type=text name="city"> <br><br><br>
<br><br><br>
Zip              <input type=text name="zip"> <br><br><br>
 

<jsp:setProperty name=mybean property=address1 value="address1"/>
<%renderRequest.setAttribute("mybeanvalue", mybean); %>

[Cameron Wallace McKenzie]

Moving data from a form to a portlet should be relatively straight forward.

Look at the following form that might make up the landing page of a portlet (the field is not namespace encoded, although it should be:

  
 
<FORM   action = '<%=renderResponse.createRenderURL() %>'  >
I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10.<BR><BR>
<I>What is it? </I> 
<INPUT type="text" name="number" size="10"> 
<INPUT type="submit" name="SUBMIT" value="Guess!!"> 
</FORM>  
 

On the portlet side, you can simply pull out the field using the portetRequest:

  
 
package com.examscam.portlet;
 
import java.io.*;
 
import javax.portlet.*;
 

public class NumberGuesserPortlet extends GenericPortlet {
 

 protected void 
    doView(RenderRequest request, RenderResponse response)
                      throws PortletException, IOException {
/*see if a number is passed to the server as a parameter*/
    String number = request.getParameter("number");
 
    //if no number was entered, just show the form
    if (number == null) {
      String url = "/numberguesser.jsp";
      getPortletContext()
                    .getRequestDispatcher(url)
                              .include(request, response);
    } else {
 /*if a number was entered, display the correct answer*/
      response.setContentType("text/html");
      PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
      out.print("You guessed " + number);
      out.print("<BR>The number was 5");
      out.print("<BR>Try again.");
      
/*create a link back to the portlet using a PortletURL*/
      out.print("<A href=\"");
      out.print(response.createRenderURL());
      out.print("\">Try Again</A>");
    }
  }
 

Now this is an overly simple example, which excludes namespace encoding, not to mention the action processing phase of a portlet, where form handling should be performed. But it is simple, and it works.

Start with the simple, and move on.

Here is a link to the page where you can download the completed war file for this JSR-168 portlet application. It's been tested on both JetSpeed2 and WebSphere Portal Server:

Free Sample Portlets Available for Download and Installation

There are also tutorials on that site that demonstrate some of the more advanced and complicated aspects of portlet development, including the creation of the JSR-168 Struts portlet, and JSR-168 JSF portlet, both of which use the Apache bridge, and both of which handle form input from the user.

Enjoy!

-Cameron McKenzie