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Managing the AJAXTableContainerProviderThis technical note contain the following sections: Technical Note Revision History
Overview of the AJAXTableContainerProviderThis section contains the following: AJAXTableContainerProvider FeaturesThe AJAXTableContainerProvider integrates Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) capabilities at the portal framework level. The container provides asynchronous loading of individual channels and portlets. Therefore, a slow channel or portlet will not affect the loading time of the other channels and portlets on a page, improving overall performance. The AJAXTableContainerProvider includes AJAX based interaction for all container controls and features which provides for a much richer and faster user experience. The AJAXTableContainerProvider also supports rich user interface functionality such as:
AJAXTableContainerProvider ConstraintsThe AJAXTableContainerProvider has the following constraints:
AJAXTableContainerProvider ArchitectureThe AJAXTableContainerProvider is based on a hybrid architecture. Unlike other portal containers where all the processing takes place on the server and only the HTML content is returned to a browser, in the AJAXTableContainerProvider, several tasks such as page construction, style, and container controls are handled at the client side using DHTML and Javascript. The server-side component of the container provider sends a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) message in response to requests, and the client-side JavaScript processes the JSON message to make the appropriate changes to the portal interface. Similarly, if the user modifies the portal interface, the changes are persisted to the server using AJAX. 
The diagram shows the high-level architecture of the AJAXTableContainerProvider. The container is divided into two pieces: Server-side Container ArchitectureThe AJAXTableContainerProvider is implemented as a JSPTableContainerProvider instance on the server. All the provider logic is implemented in JavaServer Page (JSP) template files of the AJAXTableContainerProvider. The container provider class remains JSPTableContainerProvider. For a content request, the AJAX Container returns a JavaScript object as a JSON representation of the display profile for the current user. Example 1 JSON Representation of the Display ProfileAn example JSON Representation of the Display Profile is shown here. "title": "News",
"name": "NewsContainer",
"layout": 3,
"isAuthless": false,
"maximizedChannel": "",
"channelsIsMinimizable": {"SiteSearch": false},
"channelsIsMinimized": {
"NewsContainer/NextTourPoll": false,
"SiteSearch": false
},
"channelsHasFrame": {
"SiteSearch": false,
"NewsContainer/google": true
},
"selectedChannels": [
{
"width": 1,
"isEditable": false,
"title": "Vote for our Next Tour",
"description": "A poll to vote for what tour should be offered next.",
"refreshTime": 0,
"name": "NewsContainer/NextTourPoll",
"id": "NextTourPoll"
},
{
"width": 1,
"isEditable": false,
"title": "Search",
"description": "Enter search term to search site content.",
"refreshTime": 0,
"name": "SiteSearch",
"id": "SiteSearch"
}
],
"channelsIsDetachable": {"SiteSearch": false},
"channelsRow": {
"SiteSearch": "1",
"NewsContainer/NextTourPoll": "1"
},
"refreshTime": "0",
"isEditable": true,
"channelsColumn": {
"SiteSearch": "3",
"NewsContainer/NextTourPoll": "1"
},
"description": Search",
"channelsIsMaximizable": {"SiteSearch": false},
"availableChannels": [
{
"width": 1,
"isEditable": false,
"title": "Customer Favorites",
"description": "The top tours as rated by customers.",
"refreshTime": 0,
"name": "NewsContainer/CustomerFavorites",
"id": "CustomerFavorites"
},
{
"width": 2,
"isEditable": false,
"title": "UrlScraper Channel",
"description": "This is a test for urlscraper",
"refreshTime": 0,
"name": "NewsContainer/google",
"id": "google"
}
]
}
The AJAXTableContainerProvider uses JSON Java API to construct a JSON representation of the display profile. The following JSON Java API classes are currently used in AJAXTableContainerProvider to construct the JSON message:
Client-side ArchitectureThere are three high-level client side components: AJAXTableContainerProvider JavaScript libraryThe AJAXTableContainerProvider JavaScript library handles the core logic of the container layout, style and container functionality. This library defines the following JavaScript classes:
AJAXTableContainerProvider CSSThe AJAXTableContainerProvider ships with three out-of-the-box CSS themes: blue, orange and gray. Each CSS theme has the following directory structure: styles |---- <css theme name> | |---- PrintableFloatingPane.css | |---- images | | |---- ajaxChannelEdit.png | | |---- ajaxChannelHelp.png | | |---- ajaxChannelMaximize.png | | |---- ajaxChannelMinimize.png | | |---- ajaxChannelRefresh.png | | |---- ajaxChannelRemove.png | | |---- ajaxChannelTitlebarBackground.gif | | |---- ajaxChannelUnmaximize.png | | |---- ajaxChannelUnminimize.png | | |---- preview.png | |---- screen.css To create a customized theme, developers can copy an existing theme directory and modify the screen.css file, PrintableFloatingPane.css file, and the images to desired design and color. The screen.css file defines all the CSS classes used by the container. The PrintableFloatingPane.css is used by the floating pane widget that is used by some channels in the container. Dojo JavaScript libraryThe AJAXTableContainerProvider uses Dojo, an open source Javascript library, for all the DOM manipulation, network I/O and visual effects. More information about Dojo can be found at http://www.dojotoolkit.org. The Dojo packages & classes used in the container are listed below
AJAXEditContainer OverviewIn addition to AJAXTableContainerProvider, an AJAXEditContainer is also implemented. AJAXEditContainer allows inline editing of channel preferences from the AJAXTableContainerProvider. AJAXEditContainer is an instance of JSPSingleContainerProvider. AJAXEditContainer sends back HTML content for edit pages, and a JSON response upon successful completion of edit process. Examples of JSON messages returned by the AJAXEditContainer are shown below. Example 2 Success Message{
"response": {
"status": "SUCCESS",
"messages": [
""
]
}
}
Example 3 Failure Message{
"response": {
"status": "FAIL",
"messages": [
"A serious error has occured in the Desktop.
This may have been caused by a mis-configuration on the server.",
"Please report this problem to your administrator.",
"Possible causes : Your session has expired or has been otherwise
terminated. Please re-login.",
]
}
}
Using the AJAXTableContainerProviderThis sections contains the following: Installing the AJAXTableContainerProviderThe AJAXTableContainerProvider is available, by default, on the Portal Server Enterprise sample with a fresh install of this relase of the Portal Server software. The container provider is added to the top level organization of the portal server and will be available in all the sub-organizations created under the top level organization. However, the AJAXTableContainerProvider will not be installed with other samples because other samples do not need the AJAXTableContainerProvider to function. However, AJAXTableContainerProvider can be easily added to the display profile to allow usage on any other custom portal.
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To add the AJAXTableContainerProvider to a New Portal
container.submitContentForm('<%=jsChannelName%>', '<%=jsChannelName%>_form');
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The value of jsChannelName will be substituted during runtime by the proper channel name. jsChannelName can be initialized as follows in the JSP:
<dt:obtainChannel channel="$JSPProvider">
<dtpc:providerContext>
<dt:getName id="jsChannelName"/>
<jx:declare id="jsChannelName" type="java.lang.String" />
:
:
</dtpc:providerContext>
</dt:obtainChannel>
|
For more information refer to the portal desktop tag library documentation.
For static HTML files or channels and portlets that do not use JSP, a token, %{CHANNEL_NAME}, can be used in place of the channel name. This token will be replaced by the AJAXTableContainerProvider JavaScript with the appropriate channel name at runtime. For example, a JavaScript can be written as:
container.submitContentForm('%{CHANNEL_NAME}', '%{CHANNEL_NAME}_form');
|
Similarly, a token, %{CHANNEL_ID}, can be used to get the channel node ID.
Using Dojo
AJAXTableContainerProvider ships with Dojo 0.3.1. The Dojo object is available for channels and portlets to use on the portal page. The Dojo object instance name is dojo. Channels can call utility methods of Dojo, such as dojo.byId() using the dojo object. Channels can also create Dojo widgets using the dojo object, and also use dojo.io.bind for content requests. For example, a channel can use dojo.io.bind to fetch content from some URL (that has to be on the same domain as the portal).
Namespacing Channel Elements
Namespacing your channel elements to avoid conflicts is very important. To ensure that two channel elements do not conflict, unique names for elements have to be used.
Channels names can be made unique by any of the following ways:
-
Add the channel name to elements in a JSP Provider channel as follows:
var <%jsChannelName%>_name = "test"; <%=jsChannelName%>_doSomething = function() { ... } ... <div <%jsChannelName%>_content"></div> -
Add the portlet namespace in a JSR-168 channel as follows:
<portlet:namespace/>_loadInvoice = function (invoice) { ... <div id="<portlet:namespace/>_content"></div> -
In static content that does not use JSP, use tokens:
var %{CHANNEL_NAME}_name = "test"; %{CHANNEL_ID}_doSomething = function() { ... }
Cross-domain AJAX
At the core of every AJAX request lies the XMLHttpRequest object. One of the security restrictions of the XMLHttpRequest object is that cross domain requests cannot be made. You cannot use the XMLHttpRequest object on the portal page to fetch content from a server that resides on a different domain than the host portal. This restriction applies to sunportal.AJAXRequest and dojo.io.*. There are work arounds for this restriction, such as implementing a cross-domain proxy and on-demand JavaScript loading. You can find more information about these techniques on AJAX related websites.
AJAXTableContainerProvider Localization
All the English messages used by the AJAXTableContainerProvider are defined in ajaxcontainers.properties resource bundle deployed under /var/opt/SUNWportal/portals/portal-ID/desktop/classes (on Solaris).
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