At the same time, though, being able to simply specify "InputRequired =Yes"
on a field definition and have the UI take care of the editing is a nice
capability. But even there I still have one major question: is there a
"Command Attention" feature? That is, can you set an attribute
on a command button that effectively skips all editing? Otherwise, you end
up with pages where the user can't even use the Cancel button,
because it never gets back to the program.
Excellent question and another "bummer" that I ran across and had to work
through (and another reason I don't use JSF validation :-). On a JSF button
you can specify the "immediate" attribute to basically tell it to skip the
validation portion of the JSF cycle. Here's an example:
<h:commandButton value="UPLOAD" action="#{DocumentCtl.uploadDocument}"
styleClass="button"/>
<h:commandButton value="CANCEL" action="#{DocumentCtl.cancelDocumentUpload}"
styleClass="button" immediate="true" />
I am not trying to poke fun at EGL, but I have been using JSF for about four
years and have been through many mud puddles with it. That is why I have
been so skeptical of the ease-of-use statements being made about EGL. I am
waiting until somebody actually develops a medium sized application (let's
say 100+ JSF pages) to see if EGL addressed some of those "bummers" and to
see if that person developing a medium app still uses the same
out-of-the-box features at that point or strayed away from them because they
could save more time by "spinning their own wool" for certain portions
(which is what I have done).
Good discussion.
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
midrange.com
