00001 <pages title="Obsolete Pages"> 00002 <page id="Demo" name="Demonstration" requiresRole="none" 00003 title="Jwaa Demo Application" > 00004 00005 <p><img align="right" 00006 src="/jwaa/pix/states.gif" 00007 width="167" 00008 height="177" />The six pages that make up the demo 00009 application are shown in this figure as ovals with the 00010 hotlinks that connect them as arrows.</p> 00011 00012 <p>Each of the pages in this figure are generated by objects, 00013 called <i>Page Objects</i>. These are defined by classes that you define 00014 while developing your application. Browsers issue page requests 00015 with urls of the form 00016 <pre> http://hostname:port/contextName/servletName/pageName...</pre>. 00017 If a servlet engine (for example, #link("Jetty") is configured to 00018 listen to that port on that host, it routes the request to the 00019 servlet configured to respond to the specified <code>context</code>and 00020 <code>servlet</code>and the servlet dispatches the request to the 00021 desired page based on the url. You define the servlet and several 00022 other glue classes as will be described later.</p> 00023 00024 <p>Every page is defined by a Page class, each of which defines a 00025 MetaPage, a no-args constructor, and a run method as shown here:</p> 00026 00027 <p>The PageMapping provides a unique name for each page. It must 00028 be consistent with the <servlet-mapping> entry of your 00029 web.xml file. For example, if <servlet-name> is /foo, 00030 <servlet-mapping> is /bar/*, and the unique name of this 00031 page is gag, the PageMapping argument is /bar/gag. The servlet 00032 name is automatically added as required.</p> 00033 00034 <p>The servlet calls the no-args constructor to create a page 00035 instance, initializes the instance with information it needs to 00036 respond to browser requests, and calls the instance's run method 00037 to handle the request. The MetaPage instance bundles static 00038 information about the page's relationship to other pages and will 00039 be described later.</p> 00040 00041 <p>The run method is where all the action happens. For 00042 non-interactive pages (pages that don't process forms), the run 00043 method simply sends html text to the browser (via the 00044 <code>page.send(...) call outlined above</code>). Interactive 00045 pages can be considerably more elaborate since they must decide 00046 what to send based on form parameter inputs.</p> 00047 00048 <h2>Templates</h2> 00049 00050 <p>Multi-page web applications must do something to ensure that 00051 the site's standard look and feel is preserved as the user moves 00052 from page to page. In Jwaa, the solution is to define a 00053 00054 <code>Template</code>class with static methods that the run 00055 methods call to compute the standard html boilerplate at the 00056 beginning and end of each page. For example, run methods are 00057 typically coded like this:</p> 00058 00059 <pre> 00060 public final void 00061 run() throws Fault { 00062 page.send(...); 00063 } 00064 </pre> 00065 00066 <p>JWAA's only requirement is that a run method exist to send the 00067 response to the browser. It does not constrain <i>how</i> run methods 00068 compute that response. One common approach, <i>separation of concerns</i>, 00069 reads the response text from files, often with the aid of a 00070 template engine like #link("Velocity"). The other, 00071 <i>integration of concerns</i>, maintains text as strings 00072 within the application. This will take the latter approach 00073 because this is the approach used in the Demo applications.</p> 00074 00075 <h2>Multi-line Strings</h2>send html boilerplate at the 00076 beginning/end of each page and the page.send(...) call sends the 00077 page content. It would be tedious to write long (multiline) text 00078 as Java Strings. #link("JavaPlus") simply provides a syntax that 00079 makes long strings much easier to manage than plain Java strings. 00080 00081 <p>For example, #link("INNER") shows how everything we've 00082 discussed so far works in practice. Notice that the page's 00083 content is a single long string enclosed in Java+ string 00084 delimiters ( 00085 00086 <code>{{...}}</code>)</p> 00087 00088 <h2>Executable Inclusions</h2> 00089 00090 <p>Notice that the long string contains java code enclosed in 00091 embedded <code>{{...}}</code>delimiters (for example at the 00092 beginning of the second paragraph). These are <i>executable inclusions</i>; 00093 Java expressions embedded within strings to be evaluated and 00094 spliced into the surrounding string at run-time.</p> 00095 00096 <p>Executable inclusions are a generally useful feature. One 00097 common use is supporting compile-time checking of cross-page 00098 references, or hotlinks. The first paragraph shows the 00099 conventional technique in which pages reference other pages (or 00100 in this case, a graphic) by hard-coding <a href=""> (or in 00101 this case, an <img...> command) into the html.</p> 00102 00103 <p>The JWAA alternative is shown in the second paragraph. An 00104 executable inclusion is used to splice the output of the 00105 <code>link</code>command into the surrounding string. The link 00106 command's argument, EntryPage.meta, identifies the target page 00107 such that if the page is ever renamed or moved, a compile-time 00108 error will report the error rather than letting the user discover 00109 the problem at run-time as in the first approach.</p> 00110 00111 <p>Another improvement is less obvious. Java servlets provide two 00112 techniques for tracking session information: cookies and 00113 url-rewriting. When a user logs in successfully, their identity 00114 is typically recorded as a cookie as they move from page to page. 00115 However some browsers don't support cookies, and some users turn 00116 them off, so the fallback technique, url rewriting, is needed for 00117 the system to remember who they are. But url rewriting only works 00118 when each and every url is generated on-the-fly, and is of no use 00119 when urls are hard-coded inside html text. By habitually adopting 00120 the JWAA technique, user sessions are automatically preserved 00121 even when the system can't count on cookies for maintaining the 00122 user's identity.</p> 00123 00124 <h2>Meta Pages</h2> 00125 00126 <p>Notice that the link command's argument ends in .meta. This is 00127 the first, and simplest use of the MetaPage object that was 00128 defined without explanation in the ExamplePage example. By 00129 convention, every page class defines a public final static 00130 variable, named meta. Other pages rely on this variable for 00131 generating hotlinks to that page as demonstrated above.</p> 00132 00133 <p>Also notice that the link command in this example contains a 00134 second argument, "Click here". If this argument were omitted, the 00135 anchor text of the emitted url would have been as defined in the 00136 MetaPage constructor argument, "Entry" in this case. But since we 00137 wanted the anchor to read "Click here" in this case, we overrode 00138 the default by providing the additional argument.</p> 00139 00140 <p>This is only the simplest example of how the MetaPage is used. 00141 #link("MetaPageDox" "Click here") for a complete discussion.</p> 00142 00143 <h2>Rewriting here</h2> 00144 00145 <p>Each page is a subclass of #link("GenericPage"), and they 00146 reference other pages by calling the <code>link, form, redirect 00147 or forward</code>methods that they inherit with the target page 00148 as an argument. Since Java checks all object references at compile 00149 time, if the target page doesn't 00150 exist, the error will be reported at compile time.</p> 00151 00152 <p>JwaaPage defines several abstract methods such that each 00153 subclass must implement the following methods. In addition, pages 00154 can and often do define additional methods to support the 00155 mandatory ones listed here</p> 00156 00157 <dl> 00158 00159 <dt>public PageName()</dt> 00160 00161 <dd>Each page class must be public and must define a public 00162 no-args constructor. The application's servlet uses the 00163 constructor to create an instance of your Page class to handle 00164 the request. It then calls the instance's public final void 00165 init() populate the Page's four instance variables with the 00166 request-specific information that the page needs to handle the 00167 request: 00168 00169 <ol> 00170 00171 <li>The servlet that dispatched the request</li> 00172 00173 <li>The HttpServletRequest instance</li> 00174 00175 <li>The HttpServletResponse instance</li> 00176 00177 </ol></dd> 00178 00179 <dt>public final static MetaPage meta = new MetaPage(...)</dt> 00180 00181 <dd>Every page defines a global handle, by convention named 00182 "meta", that other pages will use to reference the page in 00183 hotlinks, form references, redirects and forward commands. This 00184 structure would be the page's meta class in other 00185 object-oriented languages. Think of it as the page's factory 00186 object because it provides a way to create instances of the 00187 page and maintains information that must be known even when no 00188 00189 instances of the page are available.</dd> 00190 00191 <dt>public void run() throws Fault</dt> 00192 00193 <dd>The page's run method sends the page's html to the browser 00194 and processes form parameters that the browser returns as its 00195 00196 response.</dd> 00197 00198 </dl> 00199 00200 <h3>MetaPage</h3> 00201 00202 <p>#link("LOGOUT") is the simplest page in the demo, but it 00203 contains all of the elements that are required of all pages. 00204 Notice the MetaPage constructor, which takes the following 00205 parameters:</p> 00206 00207 <ul> 00208 00209 <li>The first is the page's class. The servlet uses this to 00210 construct an instance of the page to service each page 00211 request.</li> 00212 00213 <li>The second is the page's dispatch key. This is a unique 00214 name for each page. The form and link commands will use this to 00215 compose the URL that browsers use to refer to the page.</li> 00216 00217 <li>The third is a brief string (ideally one word) that the 00218 link method will use as the anchor text in navigation bars and 00219 hotlinks if an explicit anchor is not provided as an 00220 argument.</li> 00221 00222 <li>The fourth is a longer string that the link method will use 00223 as the default title string in navigation bars, page titles and 00224 hotlinks, if an explicit title is not provided as an 00225 argument.</li> 00226 00227 <li>The fifth determines who can access the page. It must be an 00228 an object that abides by JWAA's #link("GenericRole") interface, 00229 such as #link("Role"). This class defines three capability 00230 levels, Visitor for those who have not registered and logged 00231 in, Registered for those who have, and Admin for specially 00232 authorized administrative accounts. The capability parameter 00233 determines whether the navigation bar will offer links to that 00234 page and whether the servlet will dispatch requests for that 00235 visitor. The servlet will redirect unauthorized requests to the 00236 page specified by the servlet's getRefusePage() method.</li> 00237 00238 <li>The sixth defines this page's contribution to the page 00239 hierarchy as an MetaPage[] array of sub-pages. This parameter 00240 is optional because the notion of "hierarchy" is not intrinsic, 00241 but is often added to help users understand and navigate the 00242 site.</li> 00243 00244 </ul> 00245 00246 <p>The Meta structures must abide by the following rules, which 00247 are checked when the servlet engine is starting up. Violations 00248 are not fatal but are logged to the log file to warn you to fix 00249 00250 them.</p> 00251 00252 <ul> 00253 00254 <li>Each page's dispatch key must be globally unique since 00255 00256 external browsers use this to uniquely identify the page.</li> 00257 00258 <li>Each page may not be a child of multiple parents. The page 00259 hierarchy is a tree, not a graph, and is managed as a doubly 00260 00261 linked parent-child tree.</li> 00262 00263 <li>Pages that are in the hierarchy will be automatically 00264 loaded when the servlet engine is starting up. The trigger is 00265 that #link("JwaaServlet") is imported (by the 00266 #link("GenericServlet") interface), which references the root 00267 of the page hierarchy #link("JwaaPage"). If a page does not 00268 appear in the hierarchy, the class loader won't load it. Pages 00269 that aren't in the hierarchy must be explicitly referenced 00270 elsewhere or they will not be registered in the dispatch table 00271 00272 so dispatches will fail.</li> 00273 00274 </ul> 00275 00276 <h3>Run Method</h3> 00277 00278 <p>A page's meta object specifies its static nature and its 00279 dynamic nature is determined by its run method. 00280 #link("LOGOUT") has the simplest run method, because it sends 00281 nothing at all to the browser. It simply logs the visitor out by 00282 calling setViewer(null) to erase the viewer's account information 00283 00284 from the session and forwards control elsewhere.</p> 00285 00286 <p>#link("INNER") is more typical. Its run method uses the 00287 send method (that all pages inherit from #link("JwaaPage")) to 00288 send a long batch of HTML text to the browser. The problem here 00289 is how to write the HTML, since Java's String syntax is oriented 00290 to short uni-line strings. $fixme()</p> 00291 00292 <p>A final refinement is to eliminate the leading and trailing 00293 html that define the site's look and feel by moving it into 00294 static methods of an application-specific JwaaPage.template 00295 class. With these two refinements, the run method of a simple 00296 00297 "Hello World" application would be written like this:</p> 00298 00299 <pre> 00300 send({{<h1>Hello world</h1>}}); 00301 00302 00303 </pre> 00304 00305 <p>See #link("INNER") and #link("JwaaPage") for fully 00306 00307 elaborated examples.</p> 00308 00309 <h3>Cross-page References</h3> 00310 00311 <p>Although you can always write <a href> and <form> 00312 commands as hard-coded strings within the html, JWAA provides a 00313 new technique that does exactly the same thing but allows linkage 00314 errors to be detected at compile-time.</p> 00315 00316 <p>All pages inherit link, form, forward, and redirect methods 00317 from #link("JwaaPage") which all require a MetaPage instance as 00318 their first argument. The link and form commands return the 00319 appropriate <a href> or <form> command as a String 00320 while the forward and redirect commands actually redirect control 00321 to the specified page. Java's strong type-checking automatically 00322 determines if the MetaPage structure is not accessible. For 00323 example, the Hello World example might be extended like this:</p> 00324 00325 <pre> 00326 send({{ 00327 <h1>Hello world</h1> {{link(SomeOtherPage.meta, "Click 00328 here")}} for more information. }}); 00329 </pre> 00330 00331 <p>See #link("INNER") for a longer example.</p> 00332 00333 <h3>Interactive Pages</h3> 00334 00335 <p>Non interactive pages (pages that don't process form 00336 parameters) typically handle everything in their run() method. 00337 Interactive pages, such as the #link("EDITOR") which supports 00338 editing of an account's registration information, confine the run 00339 method to specifying the page's logic and handle presentation 00340 elsewhere, either in a private method of the same class 00341 (integration of concerns) or in a separate file (separation of 00342 00343 concerns) as described #link("INTERACTION" "here").</p> 00344 00345 <p>The #link("PORTAL"), #link("EDITOR"), 00346 #link("RegisterPage"), and #link("ADMIN") pages provide fully 00347 developed examples of the integration of concerns approach. 00348 Notice that the control logic invariably follows this simple 00349 00350 pattern:</p> 00351 00352 <ol> 00353 00354 <li>Gather the form parameters by using getField to build 00355 00356 #link("Field") instances.</li> 00357 00358 <li>If all field instances are valid, process them.</li> 00359 00360 <li>Otherwise prompt the user to fix them.</li> 00361 00362 </ol> 00363 00364 <p>The else clause automatically handles the initial presentation 00365 of the page, when all fields contain default values (typically 00366 empty ones), and subsequent presentations in which one or more 00367 fields contain errors that the user must fix to proceed. Notice 00368 that the run method boils down to a few initialization statements 00369 and an if statement. It can't get any simpler than that!</p> 00370 00371 <h2><a name="mortar" id="mortar">Support Classes: the Mortar</a></h2> 00372 00373 <p>In addition to the Page classes described above, every 00374 application needs a number of supporting classes to glue the 00375 separate pages into a functioning application. The remaining 00376 sections describe the supporting classes for the demo 00377 application.</p> 00378 00379 </page> 00380 00381 <page id="OLD_DOCUMENTATION" name="Documentation" requiresRole="none" 00382 title="Pages are atoms, applications the molecules" > 00383 <logic /> 00384 00385 <child idref="METAPAGES"></child> 00386 <child idref="ROLES"></child> 00387 <child idref="SERVLETS"></child> 00388 <child idref="MODELS"></child> 00389 <child idref="FIELDS"></child> 00390 00391 00392 <p><img align="right" src="/jwaa/pix/states.gif" width="167" height="177" /> 00393 The six pages that make up the demo application are shown in this figure 00394 as ovals with the hotlinks that connect them as arrows.</p> 00395 00396 <p>Each of the pages in this figure are generated by objects, 00397 called <i>Page Objects</i>. These are defined by classes that you define 00398 while developing your application. Browsers issue page requests 00399 with urls of the form 00400 00401 <code> http://hostname:port/contextName/servletName/pageName...</code>. 00402 00403 If a servlet engine is configured to listen to that port on that 00404 host, it routes the request to the servlet configured to respond 00405 to the specified <code>context</code>and <code>servlet</code>. 00406 The servlet dispatches the request to the desired page based on 00407 the url. You define the servlet and other glue classes as will be 00408 described later.</p> 00409 00410 <p>Every page is defined by a Page class, each of which defines a 00411 MetaPage, a no-args constructor, and a run method as shown here:</p> 00412 00413 <pre> 00414 public class ExamplePage extends GenericPage { public final static 00415 MetaPage meta = new MetaPage( 00416 ExamplePage.class, "PageMapping", "AnchorText", "TitleText", 00417 ...capability, new MetaPage[] { subPages.meta, } 00418 ); public ExamplePage() {} public final void run() throws Fault { 00419 page.send(...); 00420 } } 00421 00422 00423 </pre>The PageMapping argument must be a unique name for this page. 00424 It must be consistent with the <servlet-mapping> defined in 00425 your web.xml file. For example If servlet-name is foo, 00426 servlet-mapping is bar, and the name of this page is gag the 00427 PageMapping value must be /bar/gag. The servlet-name is 00428 automatically added as required. 00429 00430 <p>The servlet calls the no-args constructor to create a page 00431 instance, initializes the instance with information it needs to 00432 respond to browser requests, and calls the instance's run method 00433 to handle the request. The MetaPage instance bundles static 00434 information about the page's relationship to other pages and will 00435 00436 be describe later.</p> 00437 00438 <p>The run method is where all the action happens. For 00439 non-interactive pages (pages that don't process forms), the run 00440 method simply sends html text to the browser (via the 00441 00442 <code>page.send(...) call outlined above</code>). Interactive 00443 pages can be considerably more elaborate since they must decide 00444 00445 what to send based on form parameter inputs.</p> 00446 00447 <h2>Templates</h2> 00448 00449 <p>Multi-page web applications must do something to ensure that 00450 the site's standard look and feel is preserved as the user moves 00451 from page to page. In Jwaa, the solution is to define a 00452 00453 <code>Template</code>class with static methods that the run 00454 methods call to compute the standard html boilerplate at the 00455 beginning and end of each page. For example, run methods are 00456 00457 typically coded like this:</p> 00458 00459 <pre> 00460 public final void 00461 run() throws Fault { 00462 page.send(...); 00463 } 00464 00465 00466 </pre> 00467 00468 <p>Note that JWAA's only requirement is that a run method sends a 00469 response to the browser. It does not constrain 00470 00471 <i>how</i>run methods compute that response. One approach, 00472 emphasizing 00473 00474 <i>separation of concerns</i>, is to read the response text from 00475 a file, typically with the aid of a template engine such as 00476 Velocity. The separation of concerns approach is described 00477 separately, see #link("INTERACTION" "Dynamic Content").</p> 00478 00479 <p>A different approach, emphasizing 00480 <i>integration of concerns</i>, is to maintain the response text 00481 as strings within the application. I will emphasize the latter 00482 approach here because this is the approach used in the Demo 00483 00484 applications.</p> 00485 00486 <h2>Multi-line Strings</h2>send html boilerplate at the 00487 beginning/end of each page, and send(...) sends the page content. 00488 It would be tedious to express long (multiline) text as Java 00489 Strings, so #link("Java+") was developed to support syntax for 00490 long strings that isn't as tedious as Java string syntax. 00491 00492 <p>#link("INNER") demonstrates everything we've discussed 00493 so far. Notice that the page's content is a single long string 00494 enclosed in Java+ string delimiters ( 00495 00496 <code>{{...}}</code>)</p> 00497 00498 <h2>Executable Inclusions</h2> 00499 00500 <p>Notice that the long string contains java code enclosed in 00501 embedded 00502 00503 <code>{{...}}</code>delimiters (for example at the beginning of 00504 the second paragraph). These are 00505 00506 <i>executable inclusions</i>; Java expressions embedded within 00507 strings to be evaluated and spliced into the surrounding string 00508 00509 at run-time.</p> 00510 00511 <p>Executable inclusions are a generally useful feature. One 00512 common use is supporting compile-time checking of cross-page 00513 references, or hotlinks. The first paragraph shows the 00514 conventional technique in which pages reference other pages (or 00515 in this case, a graphic) by hard-coding <a href=""> (or in 00516 00517 this case, an <img...> command) into the html.</p> 00518 00519 <p>The JWAA alternative is shown in the second paragraph. An 00520 executable inclusion is used to splice the output of the 00521 00522 <code>link</code>command into the surrounding string. The link 00523 command's argument, EntryPage.meta, identifies the target page 00524 such that if the page is ever renamed or moved, a compile-time 00525 error will report the error rather than letting the user discover 00526 00527 the problem at run-time as in the first approach.</p> 00528 00529 <p>Another improvement is less obvious. Java servlets provide two 00530 techniques for tracking session information: cookies and 00531 url-rewriting. When a user logs in successfully, their identity 00532 is typically recorded as a cookie as they move from page to page. 00533 However some browsers don't support cookies, and some users turn 00534 them off, so the fallback technique, url rewriting, is needed for 00535 the system to remember who they are. But url rewriting only works 00536 when each and every url is generated on-the-fly, and is of no use 00537 when urls are hard-coded inside html text. By habitually adopting 00538 the JWAA technique, user sessions are automatically preserved 00539 even when the system can't count on cookies for maintaining the 00540 00541 user's identity.</p> 00542 00543 <h2>Meta Pages</h2> 00544 00545 <p>Notice that the link command's argument ends in .meta. This is 00546 the first, and simplest use of the MetaPage object that was 00547 defined without explanation in the ExamplePage example. By 00548 convention, every page class defines a public final static 00549 variable, named meta. Other pages rely on this variable for 00550 00551 generating hotlinks to that page as demonstrated above.</p> 00552 00553 <p>Also notice that the link command in this example contains a 00554 second argument, "Click here". If this argument were omitted, the 00555 anchor text of the emitted url would have been as defined in the 00556 MetaPage constructor argument, "Entry" in this case. But since we 00557 wanted the anchor to read "Click here" in this case, we overrode 00558 00559 the default by providing the additional argument.</p> 00560 00561 <p>This is only the simplest example of how the MetaPage is used. 00562 00563 See #link("MetaPageDox") for more information.</p></page> 00564 00565 <page id="ROLES" name="Roles" requiresRole="none" 00566 title="Roles determine who can see what pages" > 00567 00568 <logic /> 00569 00570 <p>Since each application is likely to have unique requirements 00571 for determining who is allowed to access each page, JWAA 00572 capability system is extendible. The demonstration uses the 00573 00574 simple three-level role system defined in #link("Role").</p> 00575 00576 <ul> 00577 00578 <li>Visitor: for visitors whose identity is unknown because 00579 00580 they've not registered and logged on.</li> 00581 00582 <li>Registered: for visitors that have registered and logged 00583 00584 on.</li> 00585 00586 <li>Admin: a privileged account permitted to access 00587 00588 administrative functions.</li> 00589 00590 </ul> 00591 00592 <p>In practice, the pages of a web application can be thought 00593 of as an outer lobby with the pages that should be accessible 00594 to everyone, and an inner sanctum with the pages that can only 00595 be accessed by those who have logged in. In the demo 00596 application, the inner sanctum consists of only three pages. 00597 #link("EDITOR") supports editing an account's registration 00598 information, #link("LOGOUT"), supports logging out, and 00599 #link("AdminPage"), is available only to administrative 00600 00601 users.</p> 00602 00603 <p>#link("PORTAL") is the doorway between the two regions. 00604 Until a visitor has registered and logged in, their account is 00605 null, signifying a special account reserved for unknown 00606 visitors.</p> 00607 00608 <p>When the visitor identifies themselves to the login 00609 procedure (in the demo, by providing a previously registered 00610 email address, but more typically, by also providing the 00611 corresponding password), #link("PORTAL")loads the account's 00612 persistent information from the database as an instance of 00613 #link("AccountAbstraction") and stores a reference to this 00614 instance as a specially named session attribute. The session 00615 attribute persists as the user browses from page to page. It 00616 will only be erased by the LogoutPage, if the session times 00617 out, or if the server itself is restarted.</p> 00618 00619 <p>Notice that #link("DemoAccount") implements the 00620 #link("AccountAbstraction") interface, which requires that all 00621 subclasses provide a isCapable(Capability c) method. The system 00622 calls this method to determine if a given account has the 00623 capability level in the method's argument.</p> 00624 00625 <ul> 00626 00627 <li>#link("LookAndFeelDox") will refuse to show links to that 00628 page in the navigation bar. This lets the page hierarchy, 00629 which governs the navigation bar, be specified without 00630 concern for account capabilities, since the navigation bar 00631 will offer only the links that the viewer is allowed to 00632 00633 access.</li> 00634 00635 <li>#link("GenericServlet") redirects requests from viewers 00636 with inadequate capabilities by redirecting them to the page 00637 specified by the servlet's getRefusePage() method. This is a 00638 second line of defense to ensure that unauthorized visitors 00639 00640 can't bypass the protection by editing requests by hand.</li> 00641 00642 </ul> 00643 00644 </page> 00645 00646 <page id="SERVLETS" name="Servlets" requiresRole="none" 00647 title="Servlets are the top-level control point for an application" > 00648 00649 <p>Each web application defines an instance of 00650 #link("GenericServlet") to handle all requests by that 00651 application. Every application's servlet simply overrides the 00652 following methods. For example, see the demo's servlet class, 00653 #link("JwaaServlet").</p> 00654 00655 <dl> 00656 00657 <dt>public void init(ServletConfig servletConfig) throws 00658 00659 ServletException</dt> 00660 00661 <dd>All servlets override this method. Nothing special 00662 00663 here.</dd> 00664 00665 <dt>public final MetaPage getDefaultPage() { return 00666 00667 DemoHomePage.meta; }</dt> 00668 00669 <dd>The page to be displayed if the servlet can't locate the 00670 page named in the browser request. This might happen if the 00671 user composes the request manually. Another possibility is 00672 that the page is not registered in the page dispatch table 00673 because it was not loaded by the class loader, as might 00674 happen if the page is not listed as a child of some other 00675 00676 page in the page hierarchy.</dd> 00677 00678 <dt>public final MetaPage getRefusePage() { return 00679 00680 EntryPage.meta; }</dt> 00681 00682 <dd>This is the page the servlet should dispatch to if the 00683 user requests a page for which they don't have the required 00684 capability. The demo handles this by silently forwarding them 00685 to the default entrance page (EntryPage). Other applications 00686 00687 might forward to an explicit "permission denied" page.</dd> 00688 00689 <dt>private final static MetaPage rootPage = JwaaRoot.meta; 00690 00691 <br />public final MetaPage getRootPage() { return rootPage; 00692 00693 }</dt> 00694 00695 <dd>This method exists as a reminder that the servlet must 00696 reference the root of the page hierarchy so that the class 00697 loader will automatically load all pages in the hierarchy as 00698 the servlet starts up. If you have pages that aren't listed 00699 in the hierarchy, the servlet will be unable to dispatch them 00700 since their name won't be defined in its dispatch table. 00701 Eliminating the static variable above will not work; the root 00702 00703 reference must occur at load time, not run time.</dd> 00704 00705 </dl> 00706 00707 </page> 00708 00709 <page id="FIELDS" name="Fields" requiresRole="none" 00710 title="Fields are the atoms; models the molecules" > 00711 00712 <logic></logic> 00713 00714 <p>Models are made of Fields not Strings. Strings are avoided 00715 00716 because:</p> 00717 00718 <ul> 00719 00720 <li>Fields are uniquely reusable units of reuse because they 00721 are so concrete, immediately tangible and visible to everyone 00722 00723 in the application's user interface</li> 00724 00725 <li>Fields encapsulate the rules for determining whether 00726 user-provided inputs comply with the syntactical validity 00727 constraints of that field. Centralizing this logic in 00728 reusable field classes makes applications much simpler than 00729 the traditional approach of distributing this logic 00730 00731 throughout the application.</li> 00732 00733 <li>Each field can enforce DBMS-specific constraints, such as 00734 00735 the maximum length of fixed-length fields.</li> 00736 00737 </ul> 00738 00739 <p>The JWAA package provides a #link("Validatable") interface, 00740 which defines the protocol that all field implementations 00741 adhere to. It also provides an abstract #link("Field") that 00742 00743 defines methods for subclasses to inherit.</p> 00744 00745 <p>The full list of Field classes is available in the 00746 #link("SOURCE"). The ones used by the demo application are 00747 #link("City"), #link("Country"), #link("Email"), #link("ID"), 00748 #link("Identifier"), #link("Name"), #link("Op"), #link("Pass"), 00749 00750 #link("Phone"), #link("Street"), and #link("Zipcode").</p> 00751 00752 <p>Typically you'd define your database to use the field 00753 lengths specified by these classes. If not you should edit the 00754 classes to match. Only U.S. address and phone numbers are 00755 provided. Revisions to support international usage would be 00756 00757 gratefully accepted.</p> 00758 00759 </page> 00760 00761 <page id="METAPAGES" name="MetaPages" requiresRole="none" 00762 title="MetaPages collect pages into hierarchies" > 00763 00764 <logic /> 00765 00766 <p>The developer sees each page as just one of many 00767 interconnected objects, the end-user wants to see them 00768 organized into simple hierarchies, with a home page at the top 00769 and clear navigational hints for moving from one to another. 00770 JWAA supports both of these views. Each page is an object as 00771 defined on the previous page. If pages are organized into 00772 hierarchies via the MetaPage structure to be described here, 00773 JWAA will generate navigational bars, such as those at the top 00774 00775 of this page, automatically.</p> 00776 00777 <p>Pages are instances of #link("GenericPage") subclasses that 00778 are created by the servlet to handle each request and discarded 00779 immediately thereafter. MetaPages, by contrast, are instances 00780 of #link("MetaPage") that are created at load time by each page 00781 class to initialize a 00782 00783 <code>public final static</code>variable, named by convention, 00784 00785 <code>meta</code>. The MetaPage maintains meta information 00786 about Page instances, such as their url, the page's default 00787 anchor and title strings, the accounts that permitted to access 00788 that page (the 00789 00790 <i>Capability</i>), and the page's position in the site's page 00791 00792 hierarchy.</p> 00793 00794 <p>JwaaPage defines several abstract methods such that each 00795 subclass must implement the following methods. In addition, 00796 pages can and often do define additional methods to support the 00797 00798 mandatory ones listed here</p> 00799 00800 <dl> 00801 00802 <dt>public PageName()</dt> 00803 00804 <dd>Each page class must be public and must define a public 00805 no-args constructor. The application's servlet uses the 00806 constructor to create an instance of your Page class to 00807 handle the request. It then calls the instance's public final 00808 void init() populate the Page's four instance variables with 00809 the request-specific information that the page needs to 00810 handle the request: 00811 00812 <ol> 00813 00814 <li>The servlet that dispatched the request</li> 00815 00816 <li>The HttpServletRequest instance</li> 00817 00818 <li>The HttpServletResponse instance</li> 00819 00820 </ol></dd> 00821 00822 <dt>public final static MetaPage meta = new 00823 00824 MetaPage(...)</dt> 00825 00826 <dd>Every page defines a global handle, by convention named 00827 "meta", that other pages will use to reference the page in 00828 hotlinks, form references, redirects and forward commands. 00829 This structure would be the page's meta class in other 00830 object-oriented languages. Think of it as the page's factory 00831 object because it provides a way to create instances of the 00832 page and maintains information that must be known even when 00833 00834 no instances of the page are available.</dd> 00835 00836 <dt>public void run() throws Fault</dt> 00837 00838 <dd>The page's run method sends the page's html to the 00839 browser and processes form parameters that the browser 00840 00841 returns as its response.</dd> 00842 00843 </dl> 00844 00845 <h3>MetaPage</h3> 00846 00847 <p>#link("LOGOUT") is the simplest page in the demo, but it 00848 contains all of the elements that are required of all pages. 00849 Notice the MetaPage constructor, which takes the following 00850 00851 parameters:</p> 00852 00853 <ul> 00854 00855 <li>The first is the page's class. The servlet uses this to 00856 construct an instance of the page to service each page 00857 00858 request.</li> 00859 00860 <li>The second is the page's dispatch key. This is a unique 00861 name for each page. The form and link commands will use this 00862 to compose the URL that browsers use to refer to the 00863 00864 page.</li> 00865 00866 <li>The third is a brief string (ideally one word) that the 00867 link method will use as the anchor text in navigation bars 00868 and hotlinks if an explicit anchor is not provided as an 00869 00870 argument.</li> 00871 00872 <li>The fourth is a longer string that the link method will 00873 use as the default title string in navigation bars, page 00874 titles and hotlinks, if an explicit title is not provided as 00875 00876 an argument.</li> 00877 00878 <li>The fifth determines who can access the page. It must be 00879 an an object that abides by JWAA's #link("GenericRole") 00880 interface, such as #link("Role"). This class defines three 00881 capability levels, Visitor for those who have not registered 00882 and logged in, Registered for those who have, and Admin for 00883 specially authorized administrative accounts. The capability 00884 parameter determines whether the navigation bar will offer 00885 links to that page and whether the servlet will dispatch 00886 requests for that visitor. The servlet will redirect 00887 unauthorized requests to the page specified by the servlet's 00888 00889 getRefusePage() method.</li> 00890 00891 <li>The sixth defines this page's contribution to the page 00892 hierarchy as an MetaPage[] array of sub-pages. This parameter 00893 is optional because the notion of "hierarchy" is not 00894 intrinsic, but is often added to help users understand and 00895 00896 navigate the site.</li> 00897 00898 </ul> 00899 00900 <p>The Meta structures must abide by the following rules, which 00901 are checked when the servlet engine is starting up. Violations 00902 are not fatal but are logged to the log file to warn you to fix 00903 00904 them.</p> 00905 00906 <ul> 00907 00908 <li>Each page's dispatch key must be globally unique since 00909 external browsers use this to uniquely identify the 00910 00911 page.</li> 00912 00913 <li>Each page may not be a child of multiple parents. The 00914 page hierarchy is a tree, not a graph, and is managed as a 00915 00916 doubly linked parent-child tree.</li> 00917 00918 <li>Pages that are in the hierarchy will be automatically 00919 loaded when the servlet engine is starting up. The trigger is 00920 that #link("JwaaServlet") is imported (by the 00921 #link("GenericServlet") interface), which references the root 00922 of the page hierarchy #link("JwaaPage"). If a page does not 00923 appear in the hierarchy, the class loader won't load it. 00924 Pages that aren't in the hierarchy must be explicitly 00925 referenced elsewhere or they will not be registered in the 00926 00927 dispatch table so dispatches will fail.</li> 00928 00929 </ul> 00930 00931 <h3>Run Method</h3> 00932 00933 <p>A page's meta object specifies its static nature and its 00934 dynamic nature is determined by its run method. 00935 #link("LOGOUT") has the simplest run method, because it 00936 sends nothing at all to the browser. It simply logs the visitor 00937 out by calling setViewer(null) to erase the viewer's account 00938 information from the session and forwards control 00939 00940 elsewhere.</p> 00941 00942 <p>#link("INNER") is more typical. Its run method uses 00943 the send method (that all pages inherit from #link("JwaaPage")) 00944 to send a long batch of HTML text to the browser. The problem 00945 here is how to write the HTML, since Java's String syntax is 00946 oriented to short uni-line strings. JWAA relies on the 00947 00948 $fixme()</p> 00949 00950 <p>A final refinement is to eliminate the leading and trailing 00951 html that define the site's look and feel by moving it into 00952 static methods of an application-specific JwaaPage.template 00953 class. With these two refinements, the run method of a simple 00954 00955 "Hello World" application would be written like this:</p> 00956 00957 <pre> 00958 send({{<h1>Hello world</h1>}}); 00959 </pre> 00960 00961 <p>See #link("INNER") and #link("JwaaPage") for 00962 00963 examples.</p> 00964 00965 <h3>Cross-page References</h3> 00966 00967 <p>Although you can always write <a href> and 00968 <form> commands as hard-coded strings within the html, 00969 JWAA provides a new technique that does exactly the same thing 00970 but allows linkage errors to be detected at compile-time.</p> 00971 00972 <p>All pages inherit link, form, forward, and redirect methods 00973 from #link("JwaaPage") which all require a MetaPage instance as 00974 their first argument. The link and form commands return the 00975 appropriate <a href> or <form> command as a String 00976 while the forward and redirect commands actually redirect 00977 control to the specified page. Java's strong type-checking 00978 automatically determines if the MetaPage structure is not 00979 accessible. For example, the Hello World example might be 00980 extended like this:</p> 00981 00982 <pre> 00983 send({{ 00984 <h1>Hello world</h1> {{link(SomeOtherPage.meta, "Click 00985 here")}} for more information. }}); 00986 </pre> 00987 00988 <p>See #link("INNER") for a longer example.</p> 00989 00990 <h3>Interactive Pages</h3> 00991 00992 <p>Non interactive pages (pages that don't process form 00993 parameters) typically handle everything in their run() method. 00994 Interactive pages, such as the #link("EDITOR") which 00995 supports editing of an account's registration information, 00996 confine the run method to specifying the page's logic and 00997 handle presentation elsewhere, either in a private method of 00998 the same class (integration of concerns) or in a separate file 00999 (separation of concerns) as described #link("INTERACTION" 01000 "here").</p> 01001 01002 <p>The #link("PORTAL"), #link("EDITOR"), #link("RegisterPage"), 01003 and #link("AdminPage") pages demonstrate the integration of 01004 concerns approach. Notice that the control logic invariably 01005 follows this simple pattern:</p> 01006 01007 <ol> 01008 01009 <li>Gather the form parameters by using getField to build 01010 #link("Field") instances.</li> 01011 01012 <li>If all fields are valid, process them.</li> 01013 01014 <li>Else prompt the user to fix them.</li> 01015 01016 </ol> 01017 01018 <p>The else clause above automatically handles the initial 01019 presentation of the page, when all fields contain default 01020 values (typically empty ones). Subsequent presentations handle 01021 the case where one or more fields contain errors that the user 01022 must fix to proceed. Notice that the run method boils down to 01023 a few initialization statements and an if statement. It can't 01024 get any simpler than that!</p> 01025 01026 <h2> <a name="mortar" id="mortar">Support Classes: the Mortar</a> </h2> 01027 01028 <p>In addition to the Page classes described above, every 01029 application needs a number of supporting classes to glue the 01030 separate pages into a functioning application. The remaining 01031 sections describe the supporting classes for the demo 01032 application: #link("JwaaPage"), #link("JwaaServlet") and 01033 01034 #link("Role").</p> 01035 01036 <h3>JwaaPage.template Class</h3> 01037 01038 <p>How a page emits its html is entirely up to the page's run 01039 method. But the recommended style is to move common look and 01040 feel issues into static methods of an application-specific 01041 JwaaPage.template class so that look and feel can be shared by 01042 01043 all pages.</p> 01044 01045 <p>The demonstration application's JwaaPage.template class is 01046 #link("JwaaPage"). It uses CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) 01047 commands extensively. It also uses the MetaPage page hierarchy 01048 to add navigational menus at the top of each page. To build 01049 your own application, copy this class to an 01050 01051 application-specific new name and modify to suit.</p> 01052 01053 <h3>Servlet Class</h3> 01054 01055 <p>Each web application defines an instance of 01056 #link("GenericServlet") to handle all requests by that 01057 application. Every application's servlet simply overrides the 01058 following methods. For example, see the demo's servlet class, 01059 #link("JwaaServlet").</p> 01060 01061 <dl> 01062 01063 <dt>public void init(ServletConfig servletConfig) throws 01064 01065 ServletException</dt> 01066 01067 <dd>All servlets override this method. Nothing special 01068 01069 here.</dd> 01070 01071 <dt>public final MetaPage getDefaultPage() { return 01072 01073 DemoHomePage.meta; }</dt> 01074 01075 <dd>The page to be displayed if the servlet can't locate the 01076 page named in the browser request. This might happen if the 01077 user composes the request manually. Another possibility is 01078 that the page is not registered in the page dispatch table 01079 because it was not loaded by the class loader, as might 01080 happen if the page is not listed as a child of some other 01081 01082 page in the page hierarchy.</dd> 01083 01084 <dt>public final MetaPage getRefusePage() { return 01085 01086 EntryPage.meta; }</dt> 01087 01088 <dd>This is the page the servlet should dispatch to if the 01089 user requests a page for which they don't have the required 01090 capability. The demo handles this by silently forwarding them 01091 to the default entrance page (EntryPage). Other applications 01092 01093 might forward to an explicit "permission denied" page.</dd> 01094 01095 <dt>private final static MetaPage rootPage = JwaaRoot.meta; 01096 01097 <br />public final MetaPage getRootPage() { return rootPage; 01098 01099 }</dt> 01100 01101 <dd>This method exists as a reminder that the servlet must 01102 reference the root of the page hierarchy so that the class 01103 loader will automatically load all pages in the hierarchy as 01104 the servlet starts up. If you have pages that aren't listed 01105 in the hierarchy, the servlet will be unable to dispatch them 01106 since their name won't be defined in its dispatch table. 01107 Eliminating the static variable above will not work; the root 01108 01109 reference must occur at load time, not run time.</dd> 01110 01111 </dl> 01112 01113 <h3>Capability Class</h3> 01114 01115 <p>Since each application is likely to have unique requirements 01116 for determining who is allowed to access each page, JWAA 01117 capability system is extendible. The demonstration uses the 01118 simple three-level capability system defined in 01119 01120 #link("Role").</p> 01121 01122 <ul> 01123 01124 <li>Visitor: for visitors whose identity is unknown because 01125 01126 they've not registered and logged on.</li> 01127 01128 <li>Registered: for visitors that have registered and logged 01129 01130 on.</li> 01131 01132 <li>Admin: a privileged account permitted to access 01133 01134 administrative functions.</li> 01135 01136 </ul> 01137 01138 <p>In practice, the pages of a web application can be thought 01139 of as an outer lobby with the pages that should be accessible 01140 to everyone, and an inner sanctum with the pages that can only 01141 be accessed by those who have logged in. In the demo 01142 application, the inner sanctum consists of only three pages. 01143 #link("EDITOR") supports editing an account's registration 01144 information, #link("LOGOUT"), supports logging out, and 01145 #link("AdminPage"), is available only to administrative 01146 01147 users.</p> 01148 01149 <p>#link("PORTAL") is the doorway between the two regions. 01150 Until a visitor has registered and logged in, their account is 01151 null, signifying a special account reserved for unknown 01152 01153 visitors.</p> 01154 01155 <p>When the visitor identifies themselves to the login 01156 procedure (in the demo, by providing a previously registered 01157 email address, but more typically, by also providing the 01158 corresponding password), #link("PORTAL")loads the account's 01159 persistent information from the database as an instance of 01160 #link("DemoAccount") and stores a reference to this instance as 01161 a specially named session attribute. The session attribute 01162 persists as the user browses from page to page. It will only be 01163 erased by the LogoutPage, if the session times out, or if the 01164 server itself is restarted.</p> 01165 01166 <p>Notice that #link("DemoAccount") implements the 01167 #link("AccountAbstraction") interface, which requires that all 01168 subclasses provide a isCapable(Capability c) method. The system 01169 calls this method to determine if a given account has the 01170 capability level in the method's argument.</p> 01171 01172 <ul> 01173 01174 <li>#link("JwaaPage") will refuse to show links to that page 01175 in the navigation bar. This lets the page hierarchy, which 01176 governs the navigation bar, be specified without concern for 01177 account capabilities, since the navigation bar will offer 01178 01179 only the links that the viewer is allowed to access.</li> 01180 01181 <li>#link("GenericServlet") redirects requests from viewers 01182 with inadequate capabilities by redirecting them to the page 01183 specified by the servlet's getRefusePage() method. This is a 01184 second line of defense to ensure that unauthorized visitors 01185 01186 can't bypass the protection by editing requests by hand.</li> 01187 01188 </ul> 01189 01190 <h3>Model Classes</h3> 01191 01192 <p>In addition to an application's user-interface components 01193 (Views/Controllers) every application needs one or more Model 01194 classes to manage the application's data as persistent 01195 01196 objects.</p> 01197 01198 <p>The demo's model class is #link("DemoAccount"), which 01199 demonstrates the principle that <i>Fields are to models as atoms 01200 are to molecules.</i> Models are not defined in terms of basic 01201 Java types such as Strings. Rather the models' instance variables and 01202 method arguments are uniformly declared in terms of objects 01203 that abide by the #link("Validatable") interface. Since these 01204 objects are typically implemented as subclasses of 01205 #link("Field"), these higher-level classes are called Field 01206 01207 Classes.</p> 01208 01209 <h3>Field Classes</h3> 01210 01211 <p>Models are defined in terms of #link("Field")s, not Strings, 01212 01213 because:</p> 01214 01215 <ul> 01216 01217 <li>Fields are uniquely reusable units of reuse because they 01218 are so concrete, immediately tangible and visible to everyone 01219 01220 in the application's user interface</li> 01221 01222 <li>Fields encapsulate the rules for determining whether 01223 user-provided inputs comply with the syntactical validity 01224 constraints of that field. Centralizing this logic in 01225 reusable field classes makes applications much simpler than 01226 the traditional approach of distributing this logic 01227 01228 throughout the application.</li> 01229 01230 <li>Each field can enforce DBMS-specific constraints, such as 01231 01232 the maximum length of fixed-length fields.</li> 01233 01234 </ul> 01235 01236 <p>The JWAA package provides a #link("Validatable") interface, 01237 which defines the protocol that all field implementations 01238 adhere to. It also provides an abstract #link("Field") that 01239 defines methods for subclasses to inherit.</p> 01240 01241 <p>Typically you'd define your database to use the field 01242 lengths specified by these classes. If not you should edit the 01243 classes to match. Only U.S. address and phone numbers are 01244 provided. International contributions would be gratefully 01245 accepted.</p> 01246 01247 </page> 01248 01249 <page id="MODELS" name="Models" requiresRole="none" 01250 title="Models are an application's persistent memory" > 01251 01252 <logic /> 01253 01254 <p>In addition to an application's user-interface components 01255 (Views/Controllers) every application needs one or more Model 01256 classes to manage the application's data as persistent 01257 objects.</p> 01258 01259 <p>The demo's model class is #link("DemoAccount"). <i>Fields 01260 are to models as atoms are to molecules.</i>means that 01261 models are not defined in terms of raw Java types such as 01262 Strings. Rather the models' instance variables and method 01263 arguments are declared in terms of objects that abide by the 01264 #link("Validatable") interface. Since Validatable objects are 01265 typically implemented as subclasses of #link("Field"), they are 01266 called Field Classes.</p> 01267 01268 </page> 01269 01270 <page id="PAGES" title="Defining Pages" requiresRole="none"> 01271 <logic /> 01272 01273 <p>If the course is the skeleton and tasks are the meat, then 01274 pages are the skin. They wrap the gory internals into an tidy 01275 package that students use to learn about the course without 01276 being exposed to the gory details.</p> 01277 01278 <p>Those who are familiar with HTML markup should be aware that 01279 XHTML is a markup language exactly like HTML except that strict 01280 syntactic requirements are enforced. See the XHTML tutorial in 01281 01282 the reference section for details.</p> 01283 01284 <p>Right-click the Browsing link in the navigation bar to open 01285 a browser window on these files so that you continue reading 01286 01287 about what they contain.</p> 01288 01289 <dl> 01290 01291 <dt>Step 1: Revise the home page</dt> 01292 01293 <dd>The page with the id="OUTER" attribute defines the 01294 course's home page. Open a new browser window (continue 01295 reading these instructions in your current window) and type 01296 http://localhost/ale/root/YourCourseName in the location bar. 01297 You'll see the contents of the home element displayed there. 01298 Open YourCourseName/outerPages.xml in a text editor, make a 01299 few changes in the content, save them, and click your 01300 browser's reload button. Notice that the changes are 01301 01302 reflected in your browser.</dd> 01303 01304 <dd>You're might make errors when you do this so see the XML 01305 link (top row in the navigation bar) for how to deal with 01306 01307 them.</dd> 01308 01309 <dt>Step 2: Page Hierarchies versus Page Sequences</dt> 01310 01311 <dd>JWAA provides two automated tools to support navigating 01312 from page to page without having to hand-code navigational 01313 links into each and every page. The navigation bar (the row 01314 of hotlinks at the top of this page) is used to support 01315 non-sequential navigation, which is usually what you want for 01316 ordinary pages. The other, a menu of Prev, Save, Next 01317 buttons, supports sequential navigation which is most 01318 appropriate when you want to constrain navigation to 01319 sequential movement in structured tasks.</dd> 01320 01321 <dd>The two kinds of navigational aids are governed by the 01322 child and logic elements at the beginning of each page. The 01323 child elements specify which other pages (defined elsewhere 01324 in this file) should be presented in the navigation bar as 01325 children of the current page. For example Tasks, Pages, 01326 LookAndFeel, and Java are children of the Reference Manual 01327 page.</dd> 01328 01329 <dd>Notice that each of these pages contain a <logic/> 01330 element. This is a command to turn 01331 01332 <b>off</b>the automatic logic that would otherwise add a row 01333 of Prev/Save/Next buttons to each page. These are 01334 inappropriate for hierarchical pages so the logic command 01335 turns them off. Try deleting one temporarily and observe the 01336 01337 result.</dd> 01338 01339 <dt>Step 3: Complete your Outer Pages</dt> 01340 01341 <dd>Revise the home page and its child pages until they 01342 reflect what you want for your course. Be careful not to 01343 delete anything except what is specifically instructed. Many 01344 of these pages, particularly those near the end, are required 01345 to exist, and must have exactly the identifiers they have now 01346 to be recognized by the system. Always be ready to undo any 01347 01348 changes that the system won't accept.</dd> 01349 01350 </dl> 01351 01352 <h2>References</h2> 01353 01354 <dl> 01355 01356 <dt> 01357 01358 <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/">XHTML 01359 01360 Tutorial</a> 01361 01362 </dt> 01363 01364 <dd>An XHTML tutorial by W3Schools.</dd> 01365 01366 </dl> 01367 01368 </page> 01369 01370 <page id="BROADCAST" name="Broadcast" requiresRole="none" 01371 title="Defining Simple Broadcast-style Pages" 01372 > 01373 01374 <logic /> 01375 01376 <p>Task pages that simply broadcast information in a 01377 sequential, page by page manner, are built exactly as described 01378 in the Pages section. There are only two differences:</p> 01379 01380 <ol> 01381 01382 <li>Omit the <logic/> element from the page. This tells 01383 JWAA to automatically present page flipper buttons 01384 (Prev/Save/Next) at the top and bottom of the page. JWAA will 01385 01386 take it from there.</li> 01387 01388 <li>Omit the page's requiresRole="none" attribute. This tells 01389 JWAA that to require that the student be logged in to access 01390 01391 this page.</li> 01392 01393 </ol> 01394 01395 <p>Being logged in is important. That is how JWAA knows how to 01396 record that student's information in the database. Although 01397 simple broadcast pages don't collect much information, not as 01398 Interactive Pages do, the Talk to Me feature (the closing page 01399 of each task) certainly does. It would be disconcerting to 01400 reach the last page and be required to login to proceed. 01401 01402 Catching this early is important.</p> 01403 01404 </page> 01405 01406 <page id="INTERACTIVE" name="Interactive Pages" requiresRole="none" 01407 title="Defining Interactive (Question/Answer) Pages" 01408 > 01409 01410 <logic /> 01411 01412 <p>Interactive task pages are exactly the same as ordinary 01413 broadcast pages except that they contain special markup 01414 commands to position question fields within the page 01415 01416 content.</p> 01417 01418 <p>Each field has an id="..." attribute whose sole 01419 purpose is to uniquely identify the question within that page. 01420 They are used as keys to identify student answers in the 01421 database, so it is very important to not change them task after 01422 the database has accumulated student work. Since they do take 01423 up space in the database, I recommend using very short strings. 01424 I generally use q0, q1, q2, etc. To insert new questions, use 01425 q0a, q0b, etc. Anything convention will do so long as each 01426 question on a page is given a unique id that 01427 permanently identifies that question within that task and that 01428 page. I'll number these examples according to this convention. 01429 The text of the question is written as "mixed" content in the 01430 body of the question element as shown in the following 01431 01432 examples.</p> 01433 01434 <dl> 01435 01436 <dt>essayField</dt> 01437 01438 <dd>These are used to present essay-style questions. The 01439 question itself should be stated inside the body of the 01440 essayField, like this 01441 01442 <pre> 01443 <essayField id="q1"> What is your opinion of that? 01444 </essayField> 01445 01446 </pre>which looks like this when the student encounters this page: 01447 01448 <essayField id="q1">What is your opinion of 01449 01450 that?</essayField></dd> 01451 01452 <dt>textField, emailField, urlField, phoneField</dt> 01453 01454 <dd>These look exactly the same in the student's browser. The 01455 only difference is that textFields are used for unstructured 01456 information; the other three provide validation logic to 01457 prevent the student from proceeding until the information is 01458 syntactically valid. For example: 01459 01460 <pre> 01461 <emailField id="q2"> Type your email address here. 01462 </emailField> 01463 01464 </pre>Looks like this in the browser: 01465 01466 <emailField id="q2">Type your email address 01467 01468 here.</emailField></dd> 01469 01470 <dt>choiceField</dt> 01471 01472 <dd>These (along with menuFields) are used for picking a 01473 single correct answer from a list. They're used like this: 01474 01475 <pre> 01476 <choiceField 01477 id="q3"> A menu for choosing answers from a list of 01478 alternatives <choice id="1">Yes</choice> 01479 <choice id="2">No</choice> <choice 01480 id="3">Maybe</choice> </choiceField> 01481 01482 </pre>Chose the correct answer from this list. 01483 01484 <choiceField id="q3"> 01485 01486 <choice id="1">Yes</choice> 01487 01488 <choice id="2">No</choice> 01489 01490 <choice id="3">Maybe</choice> 01491 01492 </choiceField></dd> 01493 01494 <dt>multiChoiceField</dt> 01495 01496 <dd>These are used for multiple choice questions, like this: 01497 01498 <pre> 01499 <multiChoiceField id="q3"> Chose 01500 as many answers as apply: <choice 01501 id="1">Yes</choice> 01502 <choice id="2">No</choice> <choice 01503 id="3">Maybe</choice> </multiChoiceField> 01504 01505 </pre>Chose as many answers as apply: 01506 01507 <multiChoiceField id="q3"> 01508 01509 <choice id="1">Yes</choice> 01510 01511 <choice id="2">No</choice> 01512 01513 <choice id="3">Maybe</choice> 01514 01515 </multiChoiceField></dd> 01516 01517 <dt>menuField</dt> 01518 01519 <dd>These (or choiceFields) are for picking a single correct 01520 answer from a list. They're used like this: 01521 01522 <pre> 01523 <menuField id="q3"> A menu for choosing answers from 01524 a 01525 list of alternatives <choice 01526 id="1">Yes</choice> 01527 <choice id="2">No</choice> <choice 01528 id="3">Maybe</choice> </menuField> 01529 01530 </pre>Chose the correct answer from this list. 01531 01532 <menuField id="q3"> 01533 01534 <choice id="1">Yes</choice> 01535 01536 <choice id="2">No</choice> 01537 01538 <choice id="3">Maybe</choice> 01539 01540 </menuField></dd> 01541 01542 <dt>submitField</dt> 01543 01544 <dd>These are rarely used in ordinary task pages, but are 01545 indispensable when the usual page by page sequencing of the 01546 Prev/Save/Next buttons must be circumvented, in the login 01547 page for example. Browsers use the <input type="submit 01548 ...> form that this element emits to submit form contents 01549 to the server. JWAA automatically recognizes the 01550 Prev/Save/Next submit button names as commands to save all 01551 form contents on this page in the database and advance to the 01552 next page. Pages that contain submitFields should provide a 01553 <logic;> element that provides code to handle all this 01554 explicitly. This will be described in the next section, 01555 01556 Structured Pages.</dd> 01557 01558 </dl> 01559 01560 <p>All of these features contain provisions for annotating 01561 student answers with comments the instructor may provide on 01562 each question during the review process. By default, instructor 01563 comments are presented in a contrasting (red) font immediately 01564 below the student's answer answer. A separate box is available 01565 01566 for commenting on the task as a whole.</p> 01567 01568 </page> 01569 01570 <page id="PROGRAMMABLE" name="ProgrammablePages" requiresRole="none" 01571 title="Defining Programmable Pages" > 01572 01573 <logic /> 01574 01575 <p>JWAA automatically allows pages to contain programmable 01576 statements written in the Velocity Template Language (see the 01577 01578 References section for details).</p> 01579 01580 <p>The key to understanding the JWAA programming model is to 01581 think of each page element is an active 01582 01583 <b>program</b>, not just static data as with HTML pages. JWAA 01584 provides programming logic automatically that is sufficient for 01585 most pages. Programmable Pages differ only in that the 01586 automatically provided logic is insufficient for some reason 01587 01588 and must therefore be provided manually.</p> 01589 01590 <p>The program that handles each page must deal with 01591 01592 <b>two</b>entirely different events: sending the page's 01593 contents to the browser and handling the information the 01594 browser sends back when the student clicks a submit button. 01595 Pages that need to override the logic that JWAA automatically 01596 provides must somehow deal with the difference, which is where 01597 01598 the page's <logic> steps in.</p> 01599 01600 <p>Actually there's a step that proceeds both of these, the 01601 step of parsing the XML file that actually defines each page 01602 and getting it ready for execution. We'll start with that step, 01603 then describe the remaining two halves of the process, 01604 beginning with the process of displaying a page followed by the 01605 01606 process of responding to page submissions.</p> 01607 01608 <h2>Loading/Parsing the XML</h2> 01609 01610 <p>Recall that JWAA handles precisely two kinds of XML files: 01611 course.xml, which defines the structure and schedule of the 01612 course as a whole while pointing to additional xml files that 01613 01614 each define any number of pages.</p> 01615 01616 <p>XML is rather time-consuming to parse so pages are parsed 01617 only as they are needed. So JWAA examines the modification time 01618 on all XML files each time the contents of that file is 01619 accessed, and converts it to an in-memory representation at 01620 that time. Error conditions, such as XML errors, are noticed at 01621 this time and reported as the page is being loaded. From then 01622 on the XML format is irrelevant: the XML has been converted to 01623 01624 a network of Java objects in the server's memory.</p> 01625 01626 <p>The XHTML content of each <page> element is converted 01627 at load time to a simple string much like an ordinary XHTML 01628 01629 file, with these differences:</p> 01630 01631 <ol> 01632 01633 <li>The velocity macros, \#header() and \#footer(), are 01634 automatically inserted at the beginning and end of each 01635 string of XHTML code. These macros will be interpreted when 01636 the page is displayed to add XHTML boilerplate, navigation 01637 bars, and the like to each page. These macros are described 01638 in more detail on the LookAndFeel page.</li> 01639 01640 <li>The content of each page is automatically rewritten to 01641 replace JWAA's special markup language for each question 01642 fields with the corresponding Velocity macro. For example, 01643 <textField> is replaced with a string that calls the 01644 01645 velocity macro, \#textField(...).</li> 01646 01647 <li>If the page provides a <logic> element, it is 01648 attached verbatim to the front of the text that the 01649 Controller will pass to velocity to interpret. If not a call 01650 to the velocity macro, #defaultLogic(), is placed there 01651 instead. Notice that the processing logic is at the very 01652 beginning of the information that velocity will interpret, 01653 ahead of the automatically inserted \#header() and \#footer() 01654 01655 macro calls.</li> 01656 01657 </ol> 01658 01659 <p>If the XML parsing and validation is successful, the result 01660 is an instance of the Java class, Page, that has two internal 01661 variables set to ordinary Java strings, one containing logic 01662 for processing the page when it is submitted and the other for 01663 01664 displaying the page itself.</p> 01665 01666 <h2>Page Processing Overview</h2> 01667 01668 <p>The controller's response to a page request involves the 01669 01670 following steps:</p> 01671 01672 <ol> 01673 01674 <li>The servlet engine creates a Controller instance, 01675 initialized with a database connection (automatically 01676 retrieved from a connection pool and automatically returned 01677 there at the end), the httpServletRequest and 01678 httpServletResponse objects (which the controller needs to 01679 service the request), and the servlet that initiated the 01680 request. Then it calls the Controller's run method. The 01681 Controller is an instance of JWAA's GenericController class, 01682 01683 which is described in more detail in the reference list.</li> 01684 01685 <li>The Controller's run method decodes the the pathInfo 01686 string to determine which page to display. Each Course object 01687 manages an independent page lookup table which is why all 01688 01689 page identifiers for a given course must be unique.</li> 01690 01691 <li>The Controller retrieves the Person object of the 01692 currently logged in user from the servlet's session object 01693 and uses that to determine the user's Role (unknown because 01694 they're not logged in, guest, student, faculty, 01695 administrator, etc). The Role object is then used to 01696 determine if the requested page should be provided and 01697 01698 redirects the request to a RequestDenied page if not.</li> 01699 01700 <li>The Controller then builds the Context object that all 01701 Velocity code uses to communicate with the rest of the 01702 system. The context object contains a reference to the 01703 controller instance (named $self) a reference to the current 01704 user (named $person), and the values of any form 01705 01706 parameters.</li> 01707 01708 <li>Finally, the controller retrieves the text of the page 01709 from the Page object and passes that plus the context object 01710 01711 to the velocity engine for processing.</li> 01712 01713 <li>The velocity statements in the page's logic and body 01714 sections can make arbitrary changes to the text. For example, 01715 if statements may omit sections of the text, foreach 01716 statements can loop over arbitrarily complex data structures, 01717 macro calls can insert new text, and 01718 $self.gotoPage(someOtherPage) can break the control flow by 01719 01720 sending control to some other page in midstream.</li> 01721 01722 <li>The controller sends whatever string the velocity engine 01723 returns to the browser (and it may not return if the velocity 01724 code calls gotoPage()), thus determining what is actually 01725 01726 displayed by the browser.</li> 01727 01728 </ol> 01729 01730 <p>In summary, the XML code for each page is converted at XML 01731 load time into a single long string that is filtered at run 01732 time by the velocity engine. The velocity engine interprets 01733 velocity statements embedded in this text, returning a new 01734 string that the Controller sends to the browser. We'll examine 01735 01736 how the embedded velocity statements work next.</p> 01737 01738 <h2>Velocity Statements</h2> 01739 01740 <p>Velocity reserves two characters from the usual HTML 01741 character set, \# and \$, and uses them to trigger special 01742 processing. The \# character is used to designate a macro call 01743 or various other built-in velocity commands (\#if, \#foreach, 01744 \#set), and the \$ character is reserved to indicate a 01745 reference to something in the velocity context object. These 01746 are described in detail in the velocity reference material, 01747 along with how to escape these characters if you need them in 01748 01749 your XHTML document.</p> 01750 01751 <p>Open YourCourseName/innerPages.xml in a text editor and find 01752 the page that defines the course locker (id="locker"). 01753 Notice the line a few lines down from the top that reads 01754 <h2>Welcome \$person<h2>. Velocity just replaces 01755 the string, \$person, with the string value of the context 01756 variable, person.</p> 01757 01758 <p>A few lines below that is a more complex example. This line 01759 generates the person's mailing address by accessing address 01760 information from inside that person's Person object; i.e. 01761 \$person.name, \$person.street, \$person.city, \$person.state, 01762 \$person.zipcode, etc.</p> 01763 01764 <p>Such expressions can be arbitrarily complex. A few lines 01765 below that is the expression, 01766 \$self.emitLink(\$self.findPage("edit"), "Edit") that calls the 01767 emitLink method of the "self" object (self is always the name 01768 of the Controller for the current page), the first argument 01769 being the result of calling the findPage() method of the 01770 controller with the id of the desired page. See the 01771 velocity reference manual for more information on how Velocity 01772 code interacts with Java code.</p> 01773 01774 <p>Finally, notice the \#foreach statements a bit further down. 01775 These build the locker by looping through each lesson in the 01776 course (\$self.course.lessons) and then looping through each 01777 task in the lesson (\$lesson.tasks).</p> 01778 01779 <h2>References</h2> 01780 01781 <ul> 01782 01783 <li> 01784 01785 <a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/velocity/user-guide.html"> 01786 01787 Velocity User's Guide</a>is the most relevant.</li> 01788 01789 <li> 01790 01791 <a href="/jwaa">JWAA:</a>JWAA is baed on the Java Web 01792 Application Architecture, which provides form validation, 01793 page dispatching, and other support facilities that JWAA's 01794 01795 Java code relies on.</li> 01796 01797 <li> 01798 01799 <a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/velocity"> 01800 01801 Other</a>Velocity references may be useful, particularly for 01802 01803 configuring.</li> 01804 01805 </ul> 01806 01807 </page> 01808 01809 <page id="DATABASE" name="Database" requiresRole="none" 01810 title="Accessing the Database" > 01811 01812 <logic /> 01813 01814 <p>Under construction</p> 01815 01816 </page> 01817 01818 <page id="CONFIGURING" name="Configuring" requiresRole="none" 01819 title="Configuring JWAA" > 01820 01821 <logic /> 01822 01823 <p>The simplest way to run JWAA involves only MySQL and a Jetty 01824 (or Tomcat) servlet engine. A better but more complex way is to 01825 install the servlet engine so that static data (graphics and 01826 static web pages) are served by a web server such as Apache, 01827 which being written in C, is faster that the servlet engine's 01828 Java code. We will assume the latter because the former is 01829 01830 adequately covered by each servlet engine's instructions.</p> 01831 01832 <p>This means that each web page request is handled 01833 (dispatched) by four different pieces of code: the web server 01834 (we'll call that Apache; others are similar), the servlet 01835 engine (we'll call that Jetty; others are similar), the JWAA 01836 servlet, and the JWAA page controller/dispatcher. Each of these 01837 must be configured to know which requests to dispatch 01838 elsewhere, and configuring them all properly is by far the most 01839 troublesome part of the installation process. This overview may 01840 01841 help understand what's involved:</p> 01842 01843 <ol> 01844 01845 <li>The web server (apache) breaks the URL down into parts 01846 and routes the request according to what it finds there. 01847 Somewhat oversimplified, the URL 01848 virtualschool.edu:80/ale/root/course/page?foo=bar, is broken 01849 down into virtualschool.edu:80 (the hostname and port 01850 number), the context name (/ale), the context mapping 01851 (/root), the pathInfo (/ale/root/ale), and the request 01852 arguments (?foo=bar). The context name and mapping strings 01853 determine which requests will be handled by directly to 01854 apache or routed to one of the several servlet engines that 01855 might be available on that server. This is described 01856 under #link("CONFIGURING).</li> 01857 01858 <li>If the context name and mapping correspond to a servlet 01859 engine apache knows about, sends the pathInfo string and 01860 arguments there, else it will process the request 01861 internally.</li> 01862 01863 <li>The servlet engine strips the context name and mapping 01864 (/ale/root) from the request, and attempts to find a course 01865 whose id matches the first part of whats left 01866 (course). If it succeeds, it uses the remainder to search for 01867 one of that course's pages and proceeds as described below. 01868 Otherwise it issues a "can't find" response and gives 01869 up.</li> 01870 01871 <li>We now know the course and a specific page within that 01872 course. The servlet engine builds an object for controlling 01873 processing of that page (the "Controller"). It temporarily 01874 allocates a database connection from a pool and initializes 01875 that objects variables with the database connection, the 01876 servlet, the httpRequest and httpResponse that it received 01877 from the servlet engine. These are mainly useful to the 01878 Controller, but it is occasionally useful for page logic to 01879 know that this information is available there. The controller 01880 also initializes one of its variables with the page being 01881 01882 served.</li> 01883 01884 <li>The controller then constructs the context object with 01885 two variables via which velocity code will communicate with 01886 the rest of the system. The context variable, $self, contains 01887 a reference to the controller object. $person contains a 01888 reference to the object that represents the person that is 01889 01890 currently logged in (if any).</li> 01891 01892 </ol> 01893 01894 </page> 01895 01896 <page id="CONCEPTS" name="Concepts" requiresRole="none" 01897 title="Conceptual Overview" > 01898 01899 <logic /> 01900 01901 <p>JWAA supports two ways to package the logic (control) and 01902 presentation (HTML) parts of a web page.</p> 01903 01904 <dl> 01905 01906 <dt>Integration of concerns for stiffness</dt> 01907 01908 <dd>A stiff application is harder to break (or to get wrong in 01909 the first place) because all interfaces are strongly 01910 type-checked by the compiler. Integration of concerns handles 01911 presentation in separate (typically private) methods of the 01912 same file that specifies the logic. This style is best when a 01913 single person is responsible for the page because everything is 01914 specified in the same file. This reduces the surface area to 01915 the barest minimum, and since Java can rigorously type check 01916 all interfaces, there is less chance for things to break as the 01917 application evolves. The disadvantage is that the application 01918 must be recompiled and reloaded to see changes in the 01919 01920 browser.</dd> 01921 01922 <dt>Separation of concerns for flexibility</dt> 01923 01924 <dd>A flexible application is easier to change on the fly 01925 because some changes don't require recompiling and restarting 01926 the server. This philosophy is best in large shops in which 01927 programmers are responsible for the application's logic and 01928 user interface designers are responsible for the html. Although 01929 this doubles the number of files, it lets HTML designers change 01930 01931 the HTML without recompiling and restarting the server.</dd> 01932 01933 </dl> 01934 01935 <p>The demo applications emphasize the integration of concerns 01936 philosophy because the reduced surface area and type checking 01937 advantages were compelling in my shop. This page provides 01938 everything you need to use JWAA according to the integration of 01939 concerns approach. The separation of concerns approach is 01940 described under #link("INTERACTION" "Integrating JWAA with 01941 Velocity"), but relies on concepts described on this page.</p> 01942 01943 <ul> 01944 01945 <li> 01946 01947 <a href="#concepts">Key Concepts</a> 01948 01949 </li> 01950 01951 <li> 01952 01953 <a href="#bricks">Page classes as the bricks</a> 01954 01955 </li> 01956 01957 <li> 01958 01959 <a href="#mortar">Support classes as the mortar</a>.</li> 01960 01961 </ul> 01962 01963 <p>Each section provides #link("SOURCE") hotlinks to 01964 the source code of the #link("DemoHomePage" "online demo") to 01965 01966 illustrate each point.</p> 01967 01968 <a name="concepts" 01969 01970 id="concepts"></a> 01971 01972 <h2>Key Concepts</h2> 01973 01974 <p>At the highest level, a web application is a number of 01975 <a href="#bricks">page objects</a>, one for each page in your 01976 application. A user's browser session begins at a "home" page 01977 (specified by a configuration parameter) and advances to other 01978 pages when the user clicks hotlinks or submit buttons. These page 01979 objects are the bricks that make up the application. They are 01980 joined by support classes to form the application as a whole.</p> 01981 01982 <h3>Pages are Objects not Files</h3> 01983 01984 <p>Most web application environments view web pages as files that 01985 reference each other via <a href> and <form> commands 01986 hard coded into each file. However web applications are not 01987 browsers and need not abide by this convention. HTML is to a web 01988 application as ASCII is to Hello World.</p> 01989 01990 <p>So JWAA applications are composed of dynamic objects, called 01991 pages, rather than static HTML files. When a page (the ovals in 01992 the figure) references another page (the arrows in the figure), 01993 it specifies the object by name rather than by naming the file 01994 that contains its HTML. This simple change makes all the 01995 difference. Invalid object names are automatically detected and 01996 reported when the application is compiled, rather than going 01997 undetected until the link is clicked by some user.</p> 01998 01999 <h3>Model-View-Controller Paradigm + Fields</h3> 02000 02001 <p> 02002 02003 <img align="right" src="/jwaa/pix/mvc.gif" alt="" width="117" height="114" /> 02004 Trygvee Reenskaug introduced the 02005 Model-View-Controller (MVC) paradigm within Smalltalk during 02006 a summer visit to Xerox Parc. It spread from there to other 02007 02008 languages.</p> 02009 02010 <dl> 02011 02012 <dt>Models</dt> 02013 02014 <dd>Models are objects that manage the application's persistent 02015 state, usually by cooperating with a database of some sort. For 02016 example, #link("AccountAbstraction") maintains account-holder 02017 information (name, address, phone number, etc) for the demo 02018 application by loading the account-holder's information from 02019 the database when the user logs in, saving it thereafter as 02020 02021 necessary.</dd> 02022 02023 <dt>Views</dt> 02024 02025 <dd>Views present the model to the user by sending HTML to a 02026 browser in our case. In the integration of concerns approach, 02027 views are private methods of the class that implements each 02028 page and are called as needed by the controller method. See 02029 #link("INTERACTION" "Integrating JWAA with Velocity") for the 02030 separation of concerns approach.</dd> 02031 02032 <dt>Controllers</dt> 02033 02034 <dd>Controllers provide the logic for controlling the 02035 interaction as a whole. In JWAA, each web page corresponds to a 02036 subclass of Page. The dispatcher allocates instances of this 02037 class to service each request. This instance's run method is 02038 02039 the page's controller.</dd> 02040 02041 <dt>Fields</dt> 02042 02043 <dd>In the original MVC paradigm, models were built from 02044 primitive data types such as Strings. JWAA introduces 02045 higher-level container objects, called Fields, for the same 02046 effect. Fields also encapsulate the logic for validating user 02047 inputs (does the field contain acceptable values?) and for 02048 communicating errors to the user via the user interface. Fields 02049 are a uniquely powerful unit of reuse that simplifies user 02050 02051 interface design and implementation.</dd> 02052 02053 </dl> 02054 02055 <a name="bricks" 02056 02057 id="bricks"></a> 02058 02059 <h2>Pages are the Bricks</h2> 02060 02061 <p> 02062 02063 <img align="right" 02064 src="/jwaa/pix/states.gif" 02065 width="167" 02066 height="177" />The six pages that make up the demo 02067 application are shown in this figure as ovals with the 02068 hotlinks that connect them as arrows. Each page is a 02069 subclass of the abstract page controller class, 02070 #link("GenericPage"), and they reference other pages by 02071 calling the 02072 02073 <code>link, form, redirect or forward</code>methods that they 02074 inherit from JwaaPage with the target page as an argument. Since 02075 Java checks all object references at compile time, if the target 02076 page doesn't exist, the error will be reported at compile 02077 02078 time.</p> 02079 02080 <p>JwaaPage defines several abstract methods such that each 02081 subclass must implement the following methods. In addition, pages 02082 can and often do define additional methods to support the 02083 02084 mandatory ones listed here</p> 02085 02086 <dl> 02087 02088 <dt>public PageName()</dt> 02089 02090 <dd>Each page class must be public and must define a public 02091 no-args constructor. The application's servlet uses the 02092 constructor to create an instance of your Page class to handle 02093 the request. It then calls the instance's public final void 02094 init() populate the Page's four instance variables with the 02095 request-specific information that the page needs to handle the 02096 request: 02097 02098 <ol> 02099 02100 <li>The servlet that dispatched the request</li> 02101 02102 <li>The HttpServletRequest instance</li> 02103 02104 <li>The HttpServletResponse instance</li> 02105 02106 </ol></dd> 02107 02108 <dt>public final static MetaPage meta = new MetaPage(...)</dt> 02109 02110 <dd>Every page defines a global handle, by convention named 02111 "meta", that other pages will use to reference the page in 02112 hotlinks, form references, redirects and forward commands. This 02113 structure would be the page's meta class in other 02114 object-oriented languages. Think of it as the page's factory 02115 object because it provides a way to create instances of the 02116 page and maintains information that must be known even when no 02117 02118 instances of the page are available.</dd> 02119 02120 <dt>public void run() throws Fault</dt> 02121 02122 <dd>The page's run method sends the page's html to the browser 02123 and processes form parameters that the browser returns as its 02124 02125 response.</dd> 02126 02127 </dl> 02128 02129 <h3>MetaPage</h3> 02130 02131 <p>#link("LOGOUT") is the simplest page in the demo, but it 02132 contains all of the elements that are required of all pages. 02133 Notice the MetaPage constructor, which takes the following 02134 02135 parameters:</p> 02136 02137 <ul> 02138 02139 <li>The first is the page's class. The servlet uses this to 02140 construct an instance of the page to service each page 02141 02142 request.</li> 02143 02144 <li>The second is the page's dispatch key. This is a unique 02145 name for each page. The form and link commands will use this to 02146 02147 compose the URL that browsers use to refer to the page.</li> 02148 02149 <li>The third is a brief string (ideally one word) that the 02150 link method will use as the anchor text in navigation bars and 02151 hotlinks if an explicit anchor is not provided as an 02152 02153 argument.</li> 02154 02155 <li>The fourth is a longer string that the link method will use 02156 as the default title string in navigation bars, page titles and 02157 hotlinks, if an explicit title is not provided as an 02158 02159 argument.</li> 02160 02161 <li>The fifth determines who can access the page. It must be an 02162 an object that abides by JWAA's #link("GenericRole") interface, 02163 such as #link("Role"). This class defines three capability 02164 levels, Visitor for those who have not registered and logged 02165 in, Registered for those who have, and Admin for specially 02166 authorized administrative accounts. The capability parameter 02167 determines whether the navigation bar will offer links to that 02168 page and whether the servlet will dispatch requests for that 02169 visitor. The servlet will redirect unauthorized requests to the 02170 02171 page specified by the servlet's getRefusePage() method.</li> 02172 02173 <li>The sixth defines this page's contribution to the page 02174 hierarchy as an MetaPage[] array of sub-pages. This parameter 02175 is optional because the notion of "hierarchy" is not intrinsic, 02176 but is often added to help users understand and navigate the 02177 02178 site.</li> 02179 02180 </ul> 02181 02182 <p>The Meta structures must abide by the following rules, which 02183 are checked when the servlet engine is starting up. Violations 02184 are not fatal but are logged to the log file to warn you to fix 02185 02186 them.</p> 02187 02188 <ul> 02189 02190 <li>Each page's dispatch key must be globally unique since 02191 02192 external browsers use this to uniquely identify the page.</li> 02193 02194 <li>Each page may not be a child of multiple parents. The page 02195 hierarchy is a tree, not a graph, and is managed as a doubly 02196 02197 linked parent-child tree.</li> 02198 02199 <li>Pages that are in the hierarchy will be automatically 02200 loaded when the servlet engine is starting up. The trigger is 02201 that #link("JwaaServlet") is imported (by the 02202 #link("GenericServlet") interface), which references the root 02203 of the page hierarchy #link("JwaaPage"). If a page does not 02204 appear in the hierarchy, the class loader won't load it. Pages 02205 that aren't in the hierarchy must be explicitly referenced 02206 elsewhere or they will not be registered in the dispatch table 02207 02208 so dispatches will fail.</li> 02209 02210 </ul> 02211 02212 <h3>Run Method</h3> 02213 02214 <p>A page's meta object specifies its static nature and its 02215 dynamic nature is determined by its run method. 02216 #link("LOGOUT") has the simplest run method, because it sends 02217 nothing at all to the browser. It simply logs the visitor out by 02218 calling setViewer(null) to erase the viewer's account information 02219 02220 from the session and forwards control elsewhere.</p> 02221 02222 <p>#link("INNER") is more typical. Its run method uses the 02223 send method (that all pages inherit from #link("JwaaPage")) to 02224 send a long batch of HTML text to the browser. The problem here 02225 is how to write the HTML, since Java's String syntax is oriented 02226 02227 to short uni-line $fixme()</p> 02228 02229 <p>A final refinement is to eliminate the leading and trailing 02230 html that define the site's look and feel by moving it into 02231 static methods of an application-specific JwaaPage.template 02232 class. With these two refinements, the run method of a simple 02233 02234 "Hello World" application would be written like this:</p> 02235 02236 <pre> 02237 send({{<h1>Hello world</h1>}}); 02238 02239 02240 </pre> 02241 02242 <p>See #link("INNER") and #link("LookAndFeelDox") for fully 02243 02244 elaborated examples.</p> 02245 02246 <h3>Cross-page References</h3> 02247 02248 <p>Although you can always write <a href> and <form> 02249 commands as hard-coded strings within the html, JWAA provides a 02250 new technique that does exactly the same thing but allows linkage 02251 02252 errors to be detected at compile-time.</p> 02253 02254 <p>All pages inherit link, form, forward, and redirect methods 02255 from #link("JwaaPage") which all require a MetaPage instance as 02256 their first argument. The link and form commands return the 02257 appropriate <a href> or <form> command as a String 02258 while the forward and redirect commands actually redirect control 02259 to the specified page. Java's strong type-checking automatically 02260 determines if the MetaPage structure is not accessible. For 02261 example, the Hello World example might be extended like 02262 02263 this:</p>send({{ <h1>Hello world</h1> 02264 {{link(SomeOtherPage.meta, "Click here")}} for more information. 02265 }}); 02266 02267 <p>See #link("INNER") for a longer example.</p> 02268 02269 <h3>Interactive Pages</h3> 02270 02271 <p>Non interactive pages (pages that don't process form 02272 parameters) typically handle everything in their run() method. 02273 Interactive pages, such as the #link("EDITOR") which supports 02274 editing of an account's registration information, confine the run 02275 method to specifying the page's logic and handle presentation 02276 elsewhere, either in a private method of the same class 02277 (integration of concerns) or in a separate file (separation of 02278 concerns) as described #link("INTERACTION" "here").</p> 02279 02280 <p>The #link("PORTAL"), #link("EDITOR"), 02281 #link("RegisterPage"), and #link("AdminPage") pages demonstrate 02282 the integration of concerns approach. Notice that the control 02283 02284 logic invariably follows this simple pattern:</p> 02285 02286 <ol> 02287 02288 <li>Gather the form parameters by using getField to build 02289 02290 #link("Field") instances.</li> 02291 02292 <li>If all field instances are valid, process them.</li> 02293 02294 <li>Otherwise prompt the user to fix them.</li> 02295 02296 </ol> 02297 02298 <p>The else clause automatically handles the initial presentation 02299 of the page, when all fields contain default values (typically 02300 empty ones), and subsequent presentations in which one or more 02301 fields contain errors that the user must fix to proceed. Notice 02302 that the run method boils down to a few initialization statements 02303 02304 and an if statement. It can't get any simpler than that!</p> 02305 02306 <h2> 02307 02308 <a name="mortar" 02309 02310 id="mortar">Support Classes are the Mortar</a> 02311 02312 </h2> 02313 02314 <p>In addition to the Page classes described above, every 02315 application needs a number of supporting classes to glue the 02316 separate pages into a functioning application. The remaining 02317 sections describe the supporting classes for the demo 02318 application: #link("LookAndFeelDox"), #link("JwaaServlet") and 02319 02320 #link("Role").</p> 02321 02322 <h3>JwaaPage.template Class</h3> 02323 02324 <p>How a page emits its html is entirely up to the page's run 02325 method. But the recommended style is to move common look and feel 02326 issues into static methods of an application-specific 02327 JwaaPage.template class so that look and feel can be shared by 02328 02329 all pages.</p> 02330 02331 <p>The demonstration application's JwaaPage.template class is 02332 #link("LookAndFeelDox"). It uses CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) 02333 commands extensively. It also uses the MetaPage page hierarchy to 02334 add navigational menus at the top of each page. To build your own 02335 application, copy this class to an application-specific new name 02336 02337 and modify to suit.</p> 02338 02339 <h3>Servlet Class</h3> 02340 02341 <p>Each web application defines an instance of 02342 #link("GenericServlet") to handle all requests by that 02343 application. Every application's servlet simply overrides the 02344 following methods. For example, see the demo's servlet class, 02345 02346 #link("JwaaServlet").</p> 02347 02348 <dl> 02349 02350 <dt>public void init(ServletConfig servletConfig) throws 02351 02352 ServletException</dt> 02353 02354 <dd>All servlets override this method. Nothing special 02355 02356 here.</dd> 02357 02358 <dt>public final MetaPage getDefaultPage() { return 02359 02360 WelcomePagePage.meta; }</dt> 02361 02362 <dd>The page to be displayed if the servlet can't locate the 02363 page named in the browser request. This might happen if the 02364 user composes the request manually. Another possibility is that 02365 the page is not registered in the page dispatch table because 02366 it was not loaded by the class loader, as might happen if the 02367 page is not listed as a child of some other page in the page 02368 02369 hierarchy.</dd> 02370 02371 <dt>public final MetaPage getRefusePage() { return 02372 02373 EntryPage.meta; }</dt> 02374 02375 <dd>This is the page the servlet should dispatch to if the user 02376 requests a page for which they don't have the required 02377 capability. The demo handles this by silently forwarding them 02378 to the default entrance page (EntryPage). Other applications 02379 02380 might forward to an explicit "permission denied" page.</dd> 02381 02382 <dt>private final static MetaPage rootPage = JwaaRoot.meta; 02383 02384 <br />public final MetaPage getRootPage() { return rootPage; 02385 02386 }</dt> 02387 02388 <dd>This method exists as a reminder that the servlet must 02389 reference the root of the page hierarchy so that the class 02390 loader will automatically load all pages in the hierarchy as 02391 the servlet starts up. If you have pages that aren't listed in 02392 the hierarchy, the servlet will be unable to dispatch them 02393 since their name won't be defined in its dispatch table. 02394 Eliminating the static variable above will not work; the root 02395 02396 reference must occur at load time, not run time.</dd> 02397 02398 <dt>public final DBPool getConnectionPool() { return pool; 02399 02400 }</dt> 02401 02402 <dd>This method returns the connection pool that the servlet 02403 should use to obtain database connections. The servlet 02404 automatically checks out a new connection from the pool for 02405 each dispatch, stores it as an instance variable in the page 02406 instance that will handle that dispatch, calls the instance's 02407 run() method, and automatically returns the connection to the 02408 02409 pool when the run method returns.</dd> 02410 02411 </dl> 02412 02413 <h3>Capability Class</h3> 02414 02415 <p>Since each application is likely to have unique requirements 02416 for determining who is allowed to access each page, JWAA 02417 capability system is extendible. The demonstration uses the 02418 simple three-level capability system defined in 02419 02420 #link("Role").</p> 02421 02422 <ul> 02423 02424 <li>Visitor: for visitors whose identity is unknown because 02425 02426 they've not registered and logged on.</li> 02427 02428 <li>Registered: for visitors that have registered and logged 02429 02430 on.</li> 02431 02432 <li>Admin: a privileged account permitted to access 02433 02434 administrative functions.</li> 02435 02436 </ul> 02437 02438 <p>In practice, the pages of a web application can be thought of 02439 as an outer lobby with the pages that should be accessible to 02440 everyone, and an inner sanctum with the pages that can only be 02441 accessed by those who have logged in. In the demo application, 02442 the inner sanctum consists of only three pages. 02443 #link("EDITOR") supports editing an account's registration 02444 information, #link("LOGOUT") supports logging out, and 02445 #link("AdminPage"), is for administrative users.</p> 02446 02447 <p>#link("PORTAL") is the doorway between the two regions. 02448 Until a visitor has registered and logged in, their account is 02449 null, signifying a special account reserved for unknown 02450 02451 visitors.</p> 02452 02453 <p>When the visitor identifies themselves to the login procedure 02454 (in the demo, by providing a previously registered email address, 02455 but more typically, by also providing the corresponding 02456 password), #link("PORTAL")loads the account's persistent 02457 information from the database as an instance of 02458 #link("AccountAbstraction") and stores a reference to this 02459 instance as a specially named session attribute. The session 02460 attribute persists as the user browses from page to page. It will 02461 only be erased by the LogoutPage, if the session times out, or if 02462 02463 the server itself is restarted.</p> 02464 02465 <p>Notice that #link("DemoAccount") implements the 02466 #link("AccountAbstraction") interface, which requires that all 02467 subclasses provide a isCapable(Capability c) method. The system 02468 calls this method to determine if a given account has the 02469 02470 capability level in the method's argument.</p> 02471 02472 <ul> 02473 02474 <li>#link("LookAndFeelDox") will refuse to show links to that 02475 page in the navigation bar. This lets the page hierarchy, which 02476 governs the navigation bar, be specified without concern for 02477 account capabilities, since the navigation bar will offer only 02478 02479 the links that the viewer is allowed to access.</li> 02480 02481 <li>#link("GenericServlet") redirects requests from viewers 02482 with inadequate capabilities by redirecting them to the page 02483 specified by the servlet's getRefusePage() method. This is a 02484 second line of defense to ensure that unauthorized visitors 02485 02486 can't bypass the protection by editing requests by hand.</li> 02487 02488 </ul> 02489 02490 <h3>Model Classes</h3> 02491 02492 <p>In addition to an application's user-interface components 02493 (Views/Controllers) every application needs one or more Model 02494 classes to manage the application's data as persistent 02495 02496 objects.</p> 02497 02498 <p>The demo's model class is #link("DemoAccount"), which 02499 demonstrates the principle that 02500 02501 <i>Fields are to models as atoms are to molecules.</i>This means 02502 that models are not defined in terms of basic Java types such as 02503 Strings. Rather the models' instance variables and method 02504 arguments are uniformly declared in terms of objects that abide 02505 by the #link("Validatable") interface. Since these objects are 02506 typically implemented as subclasses of #link("Field"), these 02507 02508 higher-level classes are called Field Classes.</p> 02509 02510 <h3>Field Classes</h3> 02511 02512 <p>Models are defined in terms of #link("Field")s, not Strings, 02513 02514 because:</p> 02515 02516 <ul> 02517 02518 <li>Fields are uniquely reusable units of reuse because they 02519 are so concrete, immediately tangible and visible to everyone 02520 02521 in the application's user interface</li> 02522 02523 <li>Fields encapsulate the rules for determining whether 02524 user-provided inputs comply with the syntactical validity 02525 constraints of that field. Centralizing this logic in reusable 02526 field classes makes applications much simpler than the 02527 traditional approach of distributing this logic throughout the 02528 02529 application.</li> 02530 02531 <li>Each field can enforce DBMS-specific constraints, such as 02532 02533 the maximum length of fixed-length fields.</li> 02534 02535 </ul> 02536 02537 <p>The JWAA package provides a #link("Validatable") interface, 02538 which defines the protocol that all field implementations adhere 02539 to. It also provides an abstract #link("Field") that defines 02540 02541 methods for subclasses to inherit.</p> 02542 02543 <p>The full list of Field classes is available in 02544 02545 #link("SOURCE").</p> 02546 02547 <p>Typically you'd define your database to use the field lengths 02548 specified by these classes. If not you should edit the classes to 02549 match. Only U.S. address and phone numbers are provided. 02550 International contributions would be gratefully accepted.</p> 02551 02552 </page> 02553 02554 02555 </pages>