THIS IS A TEST INSTANCE. ALL YOUR CHANGES WILL BE LOST!!!!
...
To check simply re-start OFBiz (Ctrl+C followed by "./gradlew ofbiz") and direct your browser to Entity Data Maintenance Tool here: https://localhost:8443/webtools/control/entitymaint and search for entities OfbizDemoType and OfbizDemo. You will see it as shown in below given image.
Preparing data for an entity
As you have set up your custom entities, now is the time to prepare some sample data for it. You can do it in data XML files already set up under the data directory of your component as $OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/data/OfbizDemoTypeData.xml and $OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/data/OfbizDemoDemoData.xml. Set it up as shown below:
| Code Block | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<entity-engine-xml>
<OfbizDemoType ofbizDemoTypeId="INTERNAL" description="Internal Demo - Office"/>
<OfbizDemoType ofbizDemoTypeId="EXTERNAL" description="External Demo - On Site"/>
</entity-engine-xml> |
| Code Block | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<entity-engine-xml>
<OfbizDemo ofbizDemoId="SAMPLE_DEMO_1" ofbizDemoTypeId="INTERNAL" firstName="Sample First 1" lastName="Sample Last 1" comments="This is test comment for first record."/>
<OfbizDemo ofbizDemoId="SAMPLE_DEMO_2" ofbizDemoTypeId="INTERNAL" firstName="Sample First 2" lastName="Sample last 2" comments="This is test comment for second record."/>
<OfbizDemo ofbizDemoId="SAMPLE_DEMO_3" ofbizDemoTypeId="EXTERNAL" firstName="Sample First 3" lastName="Sample last 3" comments="This is test comment for third record."/>
<OfbizDemo ofbizDemoId="SAMPLE_DEMO_4" ofbizDemoTypeId="EXTERNAL" firstName="Sample First 4" lastName="Sample last 4" comments="This is test comment for fourth record."/>
</entity-engine-xml> |
Now again have a look at $OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/ofbiz-component.xml file. You already have resource entry made in it for loading data prepared in these files as:
| Code Block | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
<entity-resource type="data" reader-name="seed" loader="main" location="data/OfbizDemoTypeData.xml"/>
<entity-resource type="data" reader-name="demo" loader="main" location="data/OfbizDemoDemoData.xml"/> |
Loading data in the entity
At this moment to load this sample data into entities/tables defined you can either run "./gradlew loadAll" on the console or can directly go here in webtools to load entity XML https://localhost:8443/webtools/control/EntityImport.
Simply put your xml data in " Complete XML document (root tag: entity-engine-xml):" text area and hit "Import Text", as shown in below given image
As you will hit Import Text, it will load data and will show the result as shown below
After completing the data load process again visit Entity Data Maintenance(https://localhost:8443/webtools/control/entitymaint) and check your entities, you will find this data here that you just loaded.
That's it, you have successfully imported the data in the database tables, super easy, right!
Form and Services
In our previous section, we have seen how to create the entities (tables), now it's time to create a form which will allow you to make entries in that entity.
Create a Service
Before preparing the form, let's write a service to create records in the database for the OfbizDemo entity in the service definition XML file ($OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/servicedef/services.xml)
| Code Block | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<services xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/services.xsd">
<description>OfbizDemo Services</description>
<vendor></vendor>
<version>1.0</version>
<service name="createOfbizDemo" default-entity-name="OfbizDemo" engine="entity-auto" invoke="create" auth="true">
<description>Create an Ofbiz Demo record</description>
<auto-attributes include="pk" mode="OUT" optional="false"/>
<auto-attributes include="nonpk" mode="IN" optional="false"/>
<override name="comments" optional="true"/>
</service>
</services> |
Now again have a look at $OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/ofbiz-component.xml file. You already have resource entry made in it for loading services defined in this file as:
| Code Block | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
<!-- service resources: model(s), eca(s) and group definitions -->
<service-resource type="model" loader="main" location="servicedef/services.xml"/> |
For this service definition to load you will need to restart OFBiz. To test this service you directly go to webtools --> Run Service option here: https://localhost:8443/webtools/control/runService
| Info |
|---|
Running service via Web Tools: This is a smart utility provided by the framework to run your service. On submission of the form above, you will presented a form to enter IN parameters of the service. |
Use of UI Labels (Introduction)
Internationalization of Apache OFBiz is really easy, we define the UI Labels in various languages and on the basis of user's locale, respective label is shown.
Here is the example of UI Labels (while creating component <component-name>UiLabels.xml is created by default, in our case it is OfbizDemoUiLabels.xml)
| Code Block | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<resource xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/ofbiz-properties.xsd">
<property key="OfbizDemoApplication">
<value xml:lang="en">OfbizDemo Application</value>
<value xml:lang="zh">OfbizDemo应用程�?</value>
<value xml:lang="zh-TW">OfbizDemo應用程�?</value>
</property>
<property key="OfbizDemoCompanyName">
<value xml:lang="en">OFBiz: OfbizDemo</value>
<value xml:lang="zh-TW">OFBiz: OfbizDemo</value>
</property>
<property key="OfbizDemoCompanySubtitle">
<value xml:lang="en">Part of the Apache OFBiz Family of Open Source Software</value>
<value xml:lang="it">Un modulo della famiglia di software open source Apache OFBiz</value>
<value xml:lang="zh">开�?软件OFBiz的组�?部分</value>
<value xml:lang="zh-TW">開�?軟體OFBiz的組�?部分</value>
</property>
<property key="OfbizDemoViewPermissionError">
<value xml:lang="en">You are not allowed to view this page.</value>
<value xml:lang="zh">�?�?许你�?览这个页�?�。</value>
<value xml:lang="zh-TW">�?�?許您檢視這個�?�?�.</value>
</property>
</resource>
|
Create the add Form
Let's create our first form for this service and for that let's edit the existing file at location $OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/widget/OfbizDemoForms.xml and add Create Form for OfbizDemo as shown below:
| Code Block | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<forms xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/widget-form.xsd">
<form name="AddOfbizDemo" type="single" target="createOfbizDemo">
<!-- We have this utility in OFBiz to render form based on service definition.
Service attributes will automatically lookedup and will be shown on form
-->
<auto-fields-service service-name="createOfbizDemo"/>
<field name="ofbizDemoTypeId" title="${uiLabelMap.CommonType}">
<drop-down allow-empty="false" current-description="">
<!---We have made this drop down options dynamic(Values from db) using this -->
<entity-options description="${description}" key-field-name="ofbizDemoTypeId" entity-name="OfbizDemoType">
<entity-order-by field-name="description"/>
</entity-options>
</drop-down>
</field>
<field name="submitButton" title="${uiLabelMap.CommonAdd}"><submit button-type="button"/></field>
</form>
</forms>
|
Here you can notice we have used auto-fields-service to auto generate the form based on service definition IN/OUT attributes.
Go to Screens xml file(OfbizDemoScreens.xml) add this form location in decorator body to your screen that you used to show the Hello World... text. As shown below
| Code Block | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<screens xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/widget-screen.xsd">
<screen name="main">
<section>
<actions>
<set field="headerItem" value="main"/> <!-- this highlights the selected menu-item with name "main" -->
</actions>
<widgets>
<decorator-screen name="main-decorator" location="${parameters.mainDecoratorLocation}">
<decorator-section name="body">
<screenlet title="Add Ofbiz Demo">
<include-form name="AddOfbizDemo" location="component://ofbizDemo/widget/OfbizDemoForms.xml"/>
</screenlet>
</decorator-section>
</decorator-screen>
</widgets>
</section>
</screen>
</screens> |
Controller Entry for Form
Before you go to the form and start creating OfbizDemo records from add form, you will need to make an entry in the $OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/webapp/ofbizDemo/WEB-INF/controller.xml file for the target service which will be called when a form is submitted. You can do it as shown below under Request Mappings in your ofbizdemo apps controller file:
| Code Block | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
<request-map uri="createOfbizDemo">
<security https="true" auth="true"/>
<event type="service" invoke="createOfbizDemo"/>
<response name="success" type="view" value="main"/>
</request-map> |
Everything set, let's have a look into to our recently create form https://localhost:8443/ofbizDemo
Primary key(ofbizDemoId) is not needed to be send in with the form, it will be auto sequenced by OFBiz in db records.
Create a Find Form
Let's create a find form for the entity OfbizDemo, so that you search OfbizDemos being created.
1.) Add the forms (FindOfbizDemo and ListOfbizDemo) in OfbizDemoForms.xml
| Code Block | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
<form name="FindOfbizDemo" type="single" target="FindOfbizDemo" default-entity-name="OfbizDemo">
<field name="noConditionFind"><hidden value="Y"/> <!-- if this isn't there then with all fields empty no query will be done --></field>
<field name="ofbizDemoId" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoId}"><text-find/></field>
<field name="firstName" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoFirstName}"><text-find/></field>
<field name="lastName" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoLastName}"><text-find/></field>
<field name="ofbizDemoTypeId" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoType}">
<drop-down allow-empty="true" current-description="">
<entity-options description="${description}" key-field-name="ofbizDemoTypeId" entity-name="OfbizDemoType">
<entity-order-by field-name="description"/>
</entity-options>
</drop-down>
</field>
<field name="searchButton" title="${uiLabelMap.CommonFind}" widget-style="smallSubmit"><submit button-type="button" image-location="/images/icons/magnifier.png"/></field>
</form>
<form name="ListOfbizDemo" type="list" list-name="listIt" paginate-target="FindOfbizDemo" default-entity-name="OfbizDemo" separate-columns="true"
odd-row-style="alternate-row" header-row-style="header-row-2" default-table-style="basic-table hover-bar">
<actions>
<!-- Preparing search results for user query by using OFBiz stock service to perform find operations on a single entity or view entity -->
<service service-name="performFind" result-map="result" result-map-list="listIt">
<field-map field-name="inputFields" from-field="ofbizDemoCtx"/>
<field-map field-name="entityName" value="OfbizDemo"/>
<field-map field-name="orderBy" from-field="parameters.sortField"/>
<field-map field-name="viewIndex" from-field="viewIndex"/>
<field-map field-name="viewSize" from-field="viewSize"/>
</service>
</actions>
<field name="ofbizDemoId" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoId}"><display/></field>
<field name="ofbizDemoTypeId" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoType}"><display-entity entity-name="OfbizDemoType"/></field>
<field name="firstName" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoFirstName}" sort-field="true"><display/></field>
<field name="lastName" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoLastName}" sort-field="true"><display/></field>
<field name="comments" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoComment}"><display/></field>
</form> |
Form or Screen's action tag is used for data preparation logics for your view.
| Info |
|---|
We have used OOTB OFBiz generic service performFind to do the search operations which is easy and efficient to use when you have to perform search on one entity or one view entity. |
2.) In next step, we will include these form in the screen, let's add these form in OfbizDemoScreens.xml file. For this include the FindOfbizDemo screen defined below in the OfbizDemoScreens.xml
| Code Block | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
<!-- Find and list all ofbizdemos in a tabular format -->
<screen name="FindOfbizDemo">
<section>
<actions>
<set field="headerItem" value="findOfbizDemo"/>
<set field="titleProperty" value="PageTitleFindOfbizDemo"/>
<set field="ofbizDemoCtx" from-field="parameters"/>
</actions>
<widgets>
<decorator-screen name="main-decorator" location="${parameters.mainDecoratorLocation}">
<decorator-section name="body">
<section>
<condition>
<if-has-permission permission="OFBIZDEMO" action="_VIEW"/>
</condition>
<widgets>
<decorator-screen name="FindScreenDecorator" location="component://common/widget/CommonScreens.xml">
<decorator-section name="search-options">
<include-form name="FindOfbizDemo" location="component://ofbizDemo/widget/OfbizDemoForms.xml"/>
</decorator-section>
<decorator-section name="search-results">
<include-form name="ListOfbizDemo" location="component://ofbizDemo/widget/OfbizDemoForms.xml"/>
</decorator-section>
</decorator-screen>
</widgets>
<fail-widgets>
<label style="h3">${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoViewPermissionError}</label>
</fail-widgets>
</section>
</decorator-section>
</decorator-screen>
</widgets>
</section>
</screen> |
3.) Add request mapping for accessing this new Find Ofbiz Demo page in controller.xml
| Code Block | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
<!-- Request Mapping -->
<request-map uri="FindOfbizDemo"><security https="true" auth="true"/><response name="success" type="view" value="FindOfbizDemo"/></request-map>
<!-- View Mapping -->
<view-map name="FindOfbizDemo" type="screen" page="component://ofbizDemo/widget/OfbizDemoScreens.xml#FindOfbizDemo"/> |
4.) Now, let's add a new menu for showing find option.
Creating a menu is really simple in OFBiz, all the menus are defined is *menus.xml.
When we create a component from a Gra, we get a file named OfbizDemoMenus.xml
Make the following entry in the OfbizDemoMenus.xml file.
| Code Block | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<menus xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/widget-menu.xsd">
<menu name="MainAppBar" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoApplication}" extends="CommonAppBarMenu" extends-resource="component://common/widget/CommonMenus.xml">
<menu-item name="main" title="${uiLabelMap.CommonMain}"><link target="main"/></menu-item>
<menu-item name="findOfbizDemo" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoFind}"><link target="FindOfbizDemo"/></menu-item>
</menu>
</menus> |
Use of UI Labels (Completion)
As we have seen above Internationalization of Apache OFBiz is really easy, we define the UI Labels in various languages and on the basis of user's locale, respective label is shown.
Here we complete the example of UI Labels (while creating component <component-name>UiLabels.xml is created by default, in our case it is OfbizDemoUiLabels.xml)
| Code Block | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
<property key="OfbizDemoFind">
<value xml:lang="en">Find</value>
</property>
<property key="OfbizDemoFirstName">
<value xml:lang="en">First Name</value>
</property>
<property key="OfbizDemoId">
<value xml:lang="en">OFBiz Demo Id</value>
</property>
<property key="OfbizDemoLastName">
<value xml:lang="en">Last Name</value>
</property> |
Now simply restart the server, under the ofbizdemo application (https://localhost:8443/ofbizDemo/control/main) you will see the Find menu option.
Services using other engines
Whenever you have to build a business logic you should prefer to write services to leverage features from its built in Service Engine.
The service "createOfbizDemo" that you created earlier was using engine="entity-auto" and hence you didn't need to provide its implementation and OFBiz took care of create operation. When you need to work on complex operations in service involving multiple entities from database and custom logics to be built, you need to provide custom implementation to your service. In this section we will focus on this.
Service in Java
You can implement a service in Java as directed here in below given steps:
1.) Define your service, here again we will be operating on the same entity(OfbizDemo) of our custom Ofbiz Demo application. Open your service definition file $OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/servicedef/services.xml and add a new definition as:
| Code Block | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
<service name="createOfbizDemoByJavaService" default-entity-name="OfbizDemo" engine="java"
location="com.companyname.ofbizdemo.services.OfbizDemoServices" invoke="createOfbizDemo" auth="true">
<description>Create an Ofbiz Demo record using a service in Java</description>
<auto-attributes include="pk" mode="OUT" optional="false"/>
<auto-attributes include="nonpk" mode="IN" optional="false"/>
<override name="comments" optional="true"/>
</service>
|
| Info |
|---|
Notice we have this time used engine="java". |
2.) Create package "com.companyname.ofbizdemo.services" in your ofbizDemo components src/main/java directory (create those if they don't exist in your src directory).
Example: src/main/java/com/companyname/ofbizdemo/services. Services for your application which have to be implemented in Java can be placed in this java directory.
3.) Define new Java Class in file OfbizDemoServices.java here in services directory and implement method, which is going to be invoked by your service definition, as shown below:
OfbizDemoServices.java
|
4.) Stop server and re-start using "./gradlew ofbiz", it will compile your class and will make it available when ofbiz restarts which updated jar file.
5.) Test service implemented using webtools --> Run Service option(https://localhost:8443/webtools/control/runService) or simply update the service name being called by your controller request to use this service instead and use add form in your app that you prepared earlier. By doing this your Add OfbizDemo form will call this java service.
|
To make sure this new service implementation is being executed, you can check this line in console log that you have put in your code using Debug.log(....). For logging in OFBiz you must always use Debug class methods in Java classes.
Console Log
|
Service in Groovy
To utilize feature of on the fly compilation and less line of code you can implement services for building business logics in OFBiz using Groovy DSL.
To implement a service using Groovy you can follow below given steps:
1.) Add new service definition to services/services.xml file as:
services.xml
|
2.) Add new groovy services file here component://ofbizDemo/script/com/companyname/ofbizdemo/OfbizDemoServices.groovy
3.) Add service implementation to the file OfbizDemoServices.groovy
OfbizDemoServices.groovy
import org.apache.ofbiz.entity.GenericEntityException; createOfbizDemo() { result = [:]; try { ofbizDemo = delegator.makeValue("OfbizDemo"); // Auto generating next sequence of ofbizDemoId primary key ofbizDemo.setNextSeqId(); // Setting up all non primary key field values from context map ofbizDemo.setNonPKFields(context); // Creating record in database for OfbizDemo entity for prepared value ofbizDemo = delegator.create(ofbizDemo); result.ofbizDemoId = ofbizDemo.ofbizDemoId; logInfo("==========This is my first Groovy Service implementation in Apache OFBiz. OfbizDemo record " +"created successfully with ofbizDemoId: "+ofbizDemo.getString("ofbizDemoId")); } catch (GenericEntityException e) { logError(e.getMessage()); return error("Error in creating record in OfbizDemo entity ........"); } return result;} |
4.) Stop server and re-start using"./gradlew ofbiz", this time we just need to load the new service definition, no explicit compilation is required as its a service implementation in Groovy.
5.) Test service implemented using webtools --> Run Service option(https://localhost:8443/webtools/control/runService) or simply update the service name being called by your controller request to use this service instead and use add form in your app that you prepared earlier for testing. By doing this your Add OfbizDemo form will call this groovy service.
controller.xml
|
To make sure this new service implementation is being executed, you can check this line in console log that you have put in your code using Debug.log(....). For logging in OFBiz you must always use Debug class methods in Java classes.
|
To get more details around using Groovy DSL for service and events implementation in Apache OFBiz you can refer document created by Jacopo Cappellato in OFBiz Wiki here.
Events
Events demonstration
Events in Apache OFBiz are simply methods used to work with HttpServletRequest and HttpServletResponse objects. You don't need to provide definitions of these as you did with services. These are directly called from controller. Events are also useful when you want to add custom server side validations to input parameters. For performing db operations you still call prebuilt services from events.
To write an event in OFBiz follow these steps:
1.) Add a new events directory to package and a new Events class file as mentioned here:
OfbizDemoEvents.java
|
2.) Add controller request of calling this event as:
controller.xml
|
3.) Stop and start server by rebuilding it as we need to compile Java event class that we have added in #1.
4.) Now to test the event you can simply change the AddOfbizDemo form target to read "createOfbizDemoEvent" and as its submitted now it will call your event.
Difference between service and event
Here are some difference between services and events,
- Events are used for validations and conversions using map processor, while services are used for business logics like CRUD operations.
- Service returns Map.
- Event returns String.
- Services are loaded with the server, any changes in definition (not implementation if in MiniLang) needs a reload.
- We can call service inside event. But we cannot call event inside service.
- An event is specific local piece functionality normally used in one place for one purpose and called from its location.
- A service is a piece of functionality which can be located anywhere on the network, is most of time used in several different places and is called by its 'name'.
- In case of events you have access to HttpServletRequest and HttpServletResponse objects and you can read/write whatever you want. In case of services, you have access only to service parameters.
References: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/FAQ+-+Tips+-+Tricks+-+Cookbook+-+HowTo#FAQ-Tips-Tricks-Cookbook-HowTo-DifferenceBetweenEventAndService and http://ofbiz.135035.n4.nabble.com
| Criteria | Services | Events |
|---|---|---|
| Require Definition | Yes | No |
| Implementation possibilities | Entity auto, Java, Simple (XML) & Groovy | Simple (XML), Java & Groovy |
| Return Type | Map | String |
| Used to write business logic | Yes | No |
| Job Scheduling possible | Yes | No |
Customizing User Interface
Using FreeMarker Template and Groovy Script
Okay so we are here in the last part of OFBiz tutorial. In this part we will focus on customizing UI layer of Apache OFBiz for business management apps i.e. backend apps and esp. Most of the time you will find the OFBiz Widgets are enough. But sometimes the important thing is to develop applications as users exactly want it.
So to customize UI part of your application first of all to make it easy we will be using Freemarker Templates instead of inbuilt Form Widgets. First of all we will see how to use Freemarker and Groovy scripts with Apache OFBiz and then we'll see how to put on custom styling on it by defining your own decorators. Initially we will be using OFBiz default decorators.
Starting from here follow steps given:
1.) Add two Freemarker files at location $ OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/webapp/ofbizDemo/crud/AddOfbizDemo.ftl and ListOfbizDemo.ftl, as shown below:
AddOfbizDemo.ftl
|
ListOfbizDemo.ftl
|
2.) Add new Groovy file for data fetching logic at location $ OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/webapp/ofbizDemo/WEB-INF/actions/crud/ListOfbizDemo.groovy and add code as shown to list out OfbizDemo records:
|
3.) Add new screen file with Ofbiz default decorator to OfbizDemoScreens.xml with newly added freemarker and groovy files as:
OfbizDemoScreens.xml
|
4.) Add new controller request and a new item for OfbizDemo menu as:
controller.xml
|
OfbizDemoMenus.xml
|
5.) Add new UI Labels as used by your app.
6.) Run your ofbiz demo application and go to the new tab you just added. You should have view as: