Managed Beans

In Html Dialogs it is possible to communicate with normal Java objects by using ManagedBeans. Use the following annotations to define the lifecycle scope of the managed bean:

@ApplicationScoped - the bean instance is created at creation of the application or at the engine startup and destroyed when the application is either deleted or the engine shuts down.
@SessionScoped - the bean lives for the whole duration of the session
@RequestScoped - an instance of the bean is created for each new request and thrown away after the response has been sent. This is the default scope that will be used when no scope is set specifically.

Note

JSF 2.0 introduced an additional scope @ViewScoped and offers the possibility to define custom scopes. This is basically also supported in Axon.ivy, but it is recommended to use it with care since it might not behave as expected.

In the HtmlDialogDemo Project that is included in the Axon.ivy Designer you find an example.

Bean Validation (JSR 303)

The JSR 303 is a specification that defines a metadata model for bean validation. The fields of the JavaBean classes, that are used for storing the data, are annotated to describe the constraints and their validation. Experienced programmers can use JSR 303 annotations in Axon.ivy projects. The validation information will then be considered by Html Dialogs when the field of the class is bound to a widget. There is no validation information given in the *.xhtml file of the Html Dialog itself. However, the Html Dialog uses the annotations of the fields to validate the user input.

All annotations defined in the package javax.validation.constraints are supported. For the validation messages you can use Ivy macros to get the message content from the Content Management System. For example:

@NotNull means that a value is required
@Size restricts the length of a string or array or the size of a collection or map
@Max restricts the maximum allowed value
@Min restricts the minimum allowed value
@Pattern restricts a string to a given regular expression
@Digits restricts the maximum number of digits of the integer and faction part
@Future restricts a date to the dates in the future
@Past restricts a date to the dates in the past

@SessionScoped
public class Person
{
    @Size(min=3, max=10, message="<%=ivy.cms.co(\"/ch.ivyteam.htmldialog.demo/BeanValidationDemo/between3And10Characters\")%>")
    @NotNull(message="<%=ivy.cms.co(\"/ch.ivyteam.htmldialog.demo/BeanValidationDemo/notnull\")%>")
    private String name;

    @Pattern(regexp="[1-9][0-9]{2}\\.[0-9]{2}\\.[1-8]([0-8][0-9]|9[012])\\.[0-9]{3}", message="<%=ivy.cms.co(\"/ch.ivyteam.htmldialog.demo/BeanValidationDemo/socialSecurityNumber\")%>")
    @NotNull(message="<%=ivy.cms.co(\"/ch.ivyteam.htmldialog.demo/BeanValidationDemo/notnull\")%>")
    private String socialSecurityNumber;

There will always be validation requirements for which these standard annotation will not suffice. For these cases it is possible to create your own annotation. You find an example in the HtmlDialogDemo Project.

public class Person
{
    @LicensePlate(message="<%=ivy.cms.co(\"/ch.ivyteam.htmldialog.demo/BeanValidationDemo/licensePlate\")%>")
    private String vehicleLicense;

// re-use other existing constraints:
@NotNull
@Size(min=4, max=20)
@UpperCase // custom constraint in same package
@StartsWith(prefix="ZG") // custom constraint in same package

//only show the validation message from this annotation and not from it's re-used types:
@ReportAsSingleViolation

@Target( { METHOD, FIELD, ANNOTATION_TYPE })
@Retention(RUNTIME)
@Constraint(validatedBy = {})
@Documented
public @interface LicensePlate {
    String message() default "Field does not contain a valid license plate";
    Class<?>[] groups() default {};
    public abstract Class<? extends Payload>[] payload() default {};
}