On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 4:45 PM, Musachy Barroso <musa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Do you want to implement the plugin using Java instead of FreeMarker?
> Unless the output is very simple, generating javascript from java will
> be a pain to write and maintain.
JQuery/MooTools/Prototype/.. + external S2 libraries added via the
head tag, to the rescue ! ;-)
Other than that, I agree: a nice extension tutorial for extending or
overriding the Java templates would be a good idea.
Phil
>
> musachy
>
> On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 10:30 AM, Obinna <obi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi James, Thanks for getting back so quickly.
>>
>> I see two major areas of extensibility required:
>> 1) Allow plugging in of custom themes
>> 2) Allow for easy extensibility/re-use of existing themes (currently
>> SimpleTheme or DefaultTheme)
>>
>> 1) We need a way of specifying custom themes to the JavaTemplateEngine via
>> configuration. For now, the best I can come up with is a new struts
>> configuration constant that takes a comma-delimited list of theme names
>> as its value.
>>
>> So lets add something like the following constant to StrutsConstants:
>>
>> /** Custom theme classes for the javatemplates rendering engine
>> */
>> public static final String STRUTS_JAVATEMPLATES_CUSTOM_THEMES =
>> "struts.javatemplates.customThemes";
>>
>> We can then specify in our struts.xml
>>
>> <constant name="struts.javatemplates.customThemes"
>> value="com.example.ui.struts2.MyCustomJavaTheme" />
>>
>> and add to the JavaTemplateEngine class
>>
>> /**
>> * Allows for providing custom theme classes (implementations of
>> the org.apache.struts2.views.java.Theme) interface
>> * for custom rendering of tags using the javatemplates engine
>> * @param themeClasses a comma delimited list of custom theme
>> class names
>> */
>> @Inject(StrutsConstants.STRUTS_JAVATEMPLATES_CUSTOM_THEMES)
>> public void setThemeClasses(String themeClasses) {
>>
>> StringTokenizer customThemes = new
>> StringTokenizer(themeClasses, ",");
>>
>> while (customThemes.hasMoreTokens()) {
>> String themeClass = customThemes.nextToken().trim();
>> try {
>> LOG.info("Registering custom theme '" + themeClass +
>> "' to javatemplates engine");
>>
>>
>> //FIXME: This means Themes must have no-arg
>> constructor - should use object factory here
>>
>> //ObjectFactory.getObjectFactory().buildBean(ClassLoaderUtil.loadClass(themeClass,
>> getClass()), null);
>>
>> themes.add((Theme)ClassLoaderUtil.loadClass(themeClass,
>> getClass()).newInstance());
>>
>> } catch (ClassCastException cce) {
>> LOG.error("Invalid java them class '" + themeClass +
>> "'. Class does not implement 'org.apache.struts2.views.java.Theme'
>> interface");
>> } catch (ClassNotFoundException cnf) {
>> LOG.error("Invalid java theme class '" + themeClass
>> + "'. Class not found");
>> } catch (Exception e) {
>> LOG.error("Could not find messages file " +
>> themeClass + ".properties. Skipping");
>> }
>> }
>> }
>>
>>
>> For the custom theme implemetations, most will probably extend
>> SimpleTheme/DefaultTheme and simply insert/remove component handlers in
>> their desired sequence and perhaps provide
>> a different (or additional) serializer.
>> so it would be nice to:
>>
>> - lower the protection level on some of the methods/members to
>> protected
>>
>> (eg. make DefaultTheme.handlerFactories protected, make
>> FactoryList inner-class protected or a separate public class)
>>
>> - provide some utility methods. For example:
>>
>> Add to DefaultTheme class:
>>
>> /**
>> * Set (replace if exists) the tag handler factories for
>> specific tag
>> * @param tagName
>> * @param handlers
>> */
>> protected void setTagHandlerFactories(String tagName,
>> List<TagHandlerFactory> handlers) {
>> if(tagName != null && handlers != null &&
>> this.handlerFactories != null) {
>>
>> handlerFactories.put(tagName,handlers);
>> }
>> }
>>
>> /**
>> * Insert a new tag handler into a sequence of tag
>> handlers for a specific tag
>> * TODO: Need to take care of serializers, if handler
>> specified is not a TagSerializer it should never
>> * be placed after the serializer, but if it is not a
>> TagSerializer, it should never
>> * @param tagName
>> * @param sequence
>> * @param factory
>> */
>> protected void insertTagHandlerFactory(String tagName,
>> int sequence, TagHandlerFactory factory) {
>>
>> if(tagName != null && factory != null &&
>> this.handlerFactories != null) {
>>
>> List<TagHandlerFactory> tagHandlerFactories =
>> handlerFactories.get(tagName);
>>
>> if(tagHandlerFactories == null) {
>> tagHandlerFactories = new
>> ArrayList<TagHandlerFactory>(); //TODO: Could use public FactoryList here
>> }
>>
>> if(sequence > tagHandlerFactories.size()) {
>> sequence = tagHandlerFactories.size();
>> }
>>
>> //TODO, need to account for TagHandlers vs.
>> TagSerializers here
>> tagHandlerFactories.add(sequence, factory);
>> }
>> }
>>
>> - Allow multiple TagSerializers (make sure framework supports
>> chaining serizliers). For example, in my application I'd like to add a
>> serializer which writes some javascript (think Ajax event binding)
>> after
>>
>> - The way the serializers are registered simply as the last handler
>> is neat, but it may cause some trouble when developers extend the themes and
>> iject their own handlers, perhaps
>> I like the chaining, so perhaps this should simply be accounted
>> for carefully in the utiolity methods (such as the insertTagHandlerFactory()
>> method i suggested above) and in the
>> renderTag() method of the DefaultTheme.
>>
>> - DefaultTheme could probably be an abstract class and maybe called
>> somehting like AbstractTheme or AbstractThemeSupport
>>
>>
>> Incidentally, the reason I am looking into this is because I am starting to
>> write a jQuery Ajax plugin (given the imminent deprecation of dojo, which I
>> never really liked so much anyway - too large and clunky)
>> I'm not sure how far I'll get on this, but I'm currently optimistic.
>>
>> Best,
>> Eric
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 4:26 PM, James Holmes <ja...@jamesholmes.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I don't know if any plugging mechanism for themes has been discussed.
>>> Please
>>> send us your thoughts.
>>>
>>> On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 2:24 AM, Obinna <obi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> > Hi,
>>> >
>>> > I'd like to know if there's a 'recommended' way of extending the
>>> > javatemplates theme.
>>> > I've been using the default freemarker templates and have developed a few
>>> > custom tag templates for some custom tags. I'm eager to port to
>>> > javatemplates.
>>> >
>>> > I noticed that the SimpleTheme is 'hard-coded' in the JavaTemplateEngine
>>> > like:
>>> >
>>> > private Themes themes = new Themes() {{
>>> > add(new SimpleTheme());
>>> > }};
>>> >
>>> > which doesn't really allow for registering new themes. I can suggest a
>>> > theme
>>> > plugin/registry but wondered if it's already been considered. There
>>> should
>>> > also be a pluggable way of adding Handlers to a theme.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > - Eric
>>> >
>>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "Hey you! Would you help me to carry the stone?" Pink Floyd
>
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