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Code Block
$ ./gradlew createPlugin -PpluginId=ofbizDemo

 

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Running your first application

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Code Block
languagexml
<entity-resource type="model" reader-name="main" loader="main" location="entitydef/entitymodel.xml"/>

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.

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Preparing data for entity

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Loading data in entity

At this moment to load this sample data into entities/tables defined you can either run "./gradlew loadDefault" on 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

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As you will hit Import Text, it will load data and will show the result as shown below

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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!

 

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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 form, let's write a service to create records in database for OfbizDemo entity in service definition xml file ($OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/servicedef/services.xml)


 

Code Block
languagexml
titleservices.xml
<?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
languagexml
<!-- 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

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Info

Running service via Web Tools: This a smart utility provided by 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
languagexml
titleOfbizDemoUiLabels.xml
<?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
languagexml
titleOfbizDemoForms.xml
<?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
languagexml
titleAdding Form Location to the Main Screen
 <?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 $OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/webapp/ofbizDemo/WEB-INF/controller.xml file for the target service which will called when form is submitted. You can do it as shown below under Request Mappings in your ofbizdemo apps controller file:

 

Code Block
languagexml
<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

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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

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Code Block
languagexml
titleOfbizDemoUiLabels.xml
 <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 ofbizdemo application (https://localhost:8443/ofbizDemo/control/main) you will see the Find menu option.

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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
languagexml
titleservices.xml
 <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

 

package com.companyname.ofbizdemo.services;
import java.util.Map;
 
import org.apache.ofbiz.base.util.Debug;
import org.apache.ofbiz.entity.Delegator;
import org.apache.ofbiz.entity.GenericEntityException;
import org.apache.ofbiz.entity.GenericValue;
import org.apache.ofbiz.service.DispatchContext;
import org.apache.ofbiz.service.ServiceUtil;
 
public class OfbizDemoServices {
 
    public static final String module = OfbizDemoServices.class.getName();
 
    public static Map<String, Object> createOfbizDemo(DispatchContext dctx, Map<String, ? extends Object> context) {
        Map<String, Object> result = ServiceUtil.returnSuccess();
        Delegator delegator = dctx.getDelegator();
        try {
            GenericValue 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.put("ofbizDemoId", ofbizDemo.getString("ofbizDemoId"));
            Debug.log("==========This is my first Java Service implementation in Apache OFBiz. OfbizDemo record created successfully with ofbizDemoId: "+ofbizDemo.getString("ofbizDemoId"));
        } catch (GenericEntityException e) {
            Debug.logError(e, module);
            return ServiceUtil.returnError("Error in creating record in OfbizDemo entity ........" +module);
        }
        return result;
    }

 

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.

 

<request-map uri="createOfbizDemo">
    <security https="true" auth="true"/>
    <event type="service" invoke="createOfbizDemoByJavaService"/>
    <response name="success" type="view" value="main"/>
</request-map>

 

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

 

[java] 2014-06-24 12:11:37,282 (http-bio-0.0.0.0-8443-exec-2) [  OfbizDemoServices.java:28 :INFO ] ==========This is my first Java Service implementation in Apache OFBiz. OfbizDemo record created successfully with ofbizDemoId: ......

 

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

 

<service name="createOfbizDemoByGroovyService" default-entity-name="OfbizDemo" engine="groovy"
        location="component://ofbizDemo/script/com/companyname/ofbizdemo/OfbizDemoServices.groovy" 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>

 

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;

def
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

 

<request-map uri="createOfbizDemo">
    <security https="true" auth="true"/>
    <event type="service" invoke="createOfbizDemoByGroovyService"/>
    <response name="success" type="view" value="main"/>
</request-map>

 

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.

 

[java] 2014-06-24 12:11:37,282 (http-bio-0.0.0.0-8443-exec-2) [  OfbizDemoServices.java:28 :INFO ] ==========This is my first Groovy Service implementation in Apache OFBiz. OfbizDemo record created successfully with ofbizDemoId: .....

 

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.

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6.) Run your ofbiz demo application and go to the new tab you just added. You should have view as:

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Creating Custom Decorator

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10. Now restart OFBiz as you have made entries to allowedPaths in web.xml. As it reloads hit https://localhost:8443/ofbizDemo/control/AddOfbizDemoFtl you should see page with custom styles that you have used instead of using default OFBiz theme. It should look like:

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Here you can now play with it as you want. Try changing header or having new one, adding footer, putting in validations etc. So this way you can customize UI layer of OFBiz with Freemarker templates, CSS and JS.

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