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1. Create a file by name "services.xml" in servicedef directory.
2. Define services for CRUD operations for Party entity. Name of services will be createPracticeParty, updatePracticeParty, deletePracticeParty and specify the correct location to the file where these services will be implemented like /framework/example/script/org/ofbiz/example/example/ExampleServices.xml.
3. Create directory structure and PracticeServices.xml file in your component directory for giving the implementation of these services. (For implementation take reference from services.xml and ExampleServices.xml files of Example component)

   Note
   title Important
   Do not use the <override> tag as it is introduced later in the tutorial. From this place if you want to run these services then you can run them by webtools--> Run Service . By this place you can test your services. At this place you must read http://markmail.org/message/dj4wvtm4u2nxoz3r. This feature has been added against the traditional approach of writing CRUD operations for an entity.

   This new feature enables you to just define the services by mentioning the operation you want to perform.Basically just set the engine attribute to "entity-auto" and the invoke attribute to "create", "update", or "delete".
   like you can take a look in the following code from services.xml of example component:  

   Code Block

   <service name="createExample" default-entity-name="Example" engine="entity-auto" invoke="create" auth="true"> <description>Create a Example</description> <permission-service service-name="exampleGenericPermission" main-action="CREATE"/> <auto-attributes include="pk" mode="OUT" optional="false"/> <auto-attributes include="nonpk" mode="IN" optional="true"/> <override name="exampleTypeId" optional="false"/> <override name="statusId" optional="false"/> <override name="exampleName" optional="false"/> </service>

   engine="entity-auto" invoke="create" play the role for creating the records for the default-entity "Example."
   Here for practice you may go by following further steps those steps will help you in understanding the concept then onwards you can practice the pattern given above  in your code as its the best practice for these kind of simple operations in OFBiz.

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1. Make entry of /js in allowedPaths of web.xml. So now allowed paths parameter will look like given below:
   1. This will allow .js files which are under /js folder to load.
   2. Step -7 will make you understand more, why we are doing this entry here.

      Code Block
      <init-param> <param-name>allowedPaths</param-name> <param-value>/control:/select:/index.html:/index.jsp:/default.html:/default.jsp:/images:/includes/maincss.css:/js</param-value> </init-param>

      *Note: * Here you must not miss that this will require a server restart.
2. Include validation.js and prototype.js in main-decorator in practice/widget/CommonScreens.xml. For this you have to write below given code in <actions> block of main-decorator.
   1. We are including these library files in main-decorator screen, because all other screens uses main-decorator and thus both the libraries will be available in other screens as well.

      Code Block
      <set field="layoutSettings.javaScripts[+0]" value="/images/prototypejs/validation.js" global="true"/> <set field="layoutSettings.javaScripts[]" value="/images/prototypejs/prototype.js" global="true"/>

      validation.js and prototype.js are located at framework/images/webapp/images/prototypejs/
3. Add another menu item to application menu bar by name "Ajax". Below given is the controller entry:

   Code Block
   <!-- Request Mapping --> <request-map uri="Ajax"> <security https="true" auth="true"/> <response name="success" type="view" value="PersonFormByAjax"/> </request-map> <!-- View Mapping --> <view-map name="PersonFormByAjax" type="screen" page="component://practice/widget/PracticeScreens.xml#PersonFormByAjax"/>

4. Create new screen called "PersonFormByAjax" in PracticeScreens.xml. Example code is given below:
   1. PracticeApp.js is the custom js file where we will be writing our custom js code for ajaxifying our request.
   2. person.ftl is the same file we created above.
   3. CreatePerson.ftl is a new file which you need to create now. This file contains form for creating new person, which is same as we created in step-1 of Part-3 under "Writing CrUD operations for Person entity" section. Only difference is that this form is written in freemarker.

      Code Block

      <screen name="PersonFormByAjax"> <section> <actions> <set field="headerItem" value="ajax"/> <set field="titleProperty" value="PageTitlePracticePersonForm"/> <property-map resource="PartyUiLabels" map-name="uiLabelMap" global="true"/> <set field="layoutSettings.javaScripts[]" value="/practice/js/PracticeApp.js" global="true"/> <entity-condition entity-name="Person" list="persons"/> </actions> <widgets> <decorator-screen name="CommonPracticeDecorator" location="${parameters.mainDecoratorLocation}"> <decorator-section name="body"> <platform-specific> <html> <html-template location="component://practice/webapp/practice/person.ftl"/> <html-template location="component://practice/webapp/practice/CreatePerson.ftl"/> </html> </platform-specific> </decorator-section> </decorator-screen> </widgets> </section> </screen>

5. Create new file CreatePerson.ftl explained above in practice/webapp/practice/ and place below given code:
   1. Also notice ids used in this .ftl file.
   2. We will be using these ids in our js file.

      Code Block

      <h2>${uiLabelMap.PartyCreateNewPerson}</h2> <div id="createPersonError" style="display:none"></div> <form method="post" id="createPersonForm" action="<@ofbizUrl>createPracticePersonByAjax</@ofbizUrl>"> <fieldset> <div> <label>${uiLabelMap.FormFieldTitle_salutation}</label> <input type="text" name="salutation" value=""/> </div> <div> <label>${uiLabelMap.PartyFirstName}*</label> <input type="text" name="firstName" value=""/> </div> <div> <label>${uiLabelMap.PartyMiddleName}</label> <input type="text" name="middleName" value=""/> </div> <div> <label>${uiLabelMap.PartyLastName}*</label> <input type="text" name="lastName" class="required" value=""/> </div> <div> <label>${uiLabelMap.PartySuffix}</label> <input type="text" name="suffix" value=""/> </div> <div> <a id="createPerson" href="javascript:void(0);" class="buttontext">${uiLabelMap.CommonCreate}</a> </div> </fieldset> </form>

   3. Click on "Ajax" menu to observe the PersonFormByAjax screen.
6. Add new div in person.ftl file. Now person.ftl will look like:
   1. Here again div's id will be used in PracticeApp.js file

      Code Block
      <#if persons?has_content> <div id="personList"> <h2>Some of the people who visited our site are:</h2> <br> <ul> <#list persons as person> <li>${person.firstName!} ${person.lastName!}</li> </#list> </ul> </div> </#if>

7. Now create PracticeApp.js in practice/webapp/practice/js/ and place the below given code :
   1. Here on first line, Event.observe(element, eventName, handler), registers an event handler on a DOM element.
      1. Argument 1: The DOM element you want to observe; as always in Prototype, this can be either an actual DOM reference, or the ID string for the element.
      2. Argument 2: The standardized event name, as per the DOM level supported by your browser. This can be as simple as 'click'.
      3. Argument 3: The handler function. This can be an anonymous function you create on-the-fly, a vanilla function.
   2. So here on window load, on-the-fly function is called. where form validations and request calling is done.
   3. Important thing to notice is why we write other observation code on window load event, and answer is here we keep restriction, that on window load, all the elements of the form will get activated and then we put observation on form's elements.
   4. In CreatePerson.ftl you see that class="required" are used on forms's input element, You then activate validation by passing the form or form's id attribute as done in second line. More on this can be learned from learn validation
   5. On third line, observer is on "createPerson" which is id of anchor tag (button) in CreatePerson.ftl,
   6. so that when end user clicks "create button" , the instance method, validate(), will return true or false. This will activate client side validation.
   7. And then createPerson function is called which is out of the scope of window load observer.
   8. In request variable, createPersonForm's action is stored. $('createPersonForm') is again a id of form in CreatePerson.ftl.
   9. new Ajax.Request(url) : Initiates and processes an AJAX request.
   10. The only proper way to create a requester is through the new operator. As soon as the object is created, it initiates the request, then goes on processing it throughout its life-cyle.
   11. Request life cycle:
       1. Created
       2. Initialized
       3. Request sent
       4. Response being received (can occur many times, as packets come in)
       5. Response received, request complete
   12. So here createPracticePersonByAjax request will be called from controller.xml, which will call createPracticePerson service and do needful entries.
   13. Form's elements are serialized and passed as a parameter in ajax request. This is represented in last line of createPerson function.
   14. Now if response is successful and server has not returned an error, "new Ajax.Updater($('personList'), 'UpdatedPersonList'" will be executed.
   15. Ajax updater, performs an AJAX request and updates a container's contents based on the response text. To get more on this please read : ajax updater
   16. So "personList" is the id of div in person.ftl, which will be replaced by response of UpdatedPersonList request.

       Code Block

       Event.observe(window, 'load', function() { var validateForm = new Validation('createPersonForm', {immediate: true, onSubmit: false}); Event.observe('createPerson', 'click', function() { if (validateForm.validate()) { createPerson(); } }); }); function createPerson() { var request = $('createPersonForm').action; new Ajax.Request(request, { asynchronous: true, onComplete: function(transport) { var data = transport.responseText.evalJSON(true); var serverError = getServerError(data); if (serverError != "") { Effect.Appear('createPersonError', {duration: 0.0}); $('createPersonError').update(serverError); } else { Effect.Fade('createPersonError', {duration: 0.0}); new Ajax.Updater($('personList'), 'UpdatedPersonList', {evalScripts: true}); } }, parameters: $('createPersonForm').serialize(), requestHeaders: {Accept: 'application/json'} }); } getServerError = function (data) { var serverErrorHash = []; var serverError = ""; if (data._ERROR_MESSAGE_LIST_ != undefined) { serverErrorHash = data._ERROR_MESSAGE_LIST_; serverErrorHash.each(function(error) { if (error.message != undefined) { serverError += error.message; } }); if (serverError == "") { serverError = serverErrorHash; } } if (data._ERROR_MESSAGE_ != undefined) { serverError += data._ERROR_MESSAGE_; } return serverError; };

8. Now do required controller.xml entries :
   1. Here you may see that after service invocation request is chained and and is redirected to json request.
   2. json request is in common-controller.xml which invokes common json reponse events and send back json reponses.

      Code Block

      <request-map uri="createPracticePersonByAjax"> <security https="true" auth="true"/> <event type="service" invoke="createPracticePerson"/> <response name="success" type="request" value="json"/> <response name="error" type="request" value="json"/> </request-map> <request-map uri="UpdatedPersonList"> <security https="true" auth="true"/> <response name="success" type="view" value="UpdatedPersonList"/> </request-map> <!--View Mappings --> <view-map name="UpdatedPersonList" type="screen" page="component://practice/widget/PracticeScreens.xml#UpdatedPersonList"/>

9. Finally create UpdatedPersonList screen in practice/widget/PracticeScreens.xml
   1. This is same as Person Screen
   2. Now this screen will be shown by Ajax updater.

      Code Block
      <screen name="UpdatedPersonList"> <section> <actions> <script location="component://practice/webapp/practice/WEB-INF/actions/person.groovy"/> </actions> <widgets> <platform-specific> <html> <html-template location="component://practice/webapp/practice/person.ftl"/> </html> </platform-specific> </widgets> </section> </screen>

10. Now submit the form and and run your ajax request.

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