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This tutorial is designed for beginners with little or no OFBiz experience. It covers the fundamentals of the OFBiz application development process. The goal is to make a developer conversant with best practices, coding conventions, basic control flow, and all other aspects which that a developer needs for OFBiz customization.

This tutorial will help you in building your first "Demo Application" in OFBiz.

Overview (Overview (Introduction to OFBiz)

Open For Business (OFBiz) is a suite of enterprise applications built on a common architecture using common data, logic and process components. The loosely coupled nature of the applications makes these components easy to understand, extend and customize.

...

The architecture alone makes it easier for you to customize the applications to your needs, but many of the best flexibility points in the system would be meaningless and even impossible if the system was not distributed as open-source software. OFBiz is licensed under the Apache License Version 2.0 (ASL2) which grants you the right to customize, extend, modify, repackage, resell, and many other potential uses of the system.

No restrictions are placed on these activities because we feel that they are necessary for the effective use of this type of software. Unlike other open-source licenses, such as the GPL, your changes do not have to be released as open-source. There are obvious benefits to contributing certain improvements, fixes, and additions back to the core project, but some changes will involve proprietary or confidential information that must not be released to the public. For this reason, OFBiz uses the ASL2 which does not require this. The only required thing is to not remove the "copyright, patent, trademark, and attribution notices" you find in files. For more information on open source licenses see the Open Source Initiative (OSI) website at www.opensource.org.

Another benefit of this open-source model is that we receive constant feedback from those who are using the software. We have received countless bug fixes, improvement suggestions, and best-practice business advice from users and potential users of OFBiz. Many of the greatest features in the project were inspired by some comment comments or suggestion suggestions sent to the mailing lists associated with the project. With dozens of organizations using the software and probably hundreds of deployed sites using one piece or another of the project we generally get 20-30 emails each day about the project.

To make sure our functionality is timely and useful we always start by researching public standards and common usage for any component we are working on. This helps us support and use common vocabularies and gives us an instant breadth of options and features that can only be achieved through standards processes and other group efforts. It also opens doors in the future for flexible communication with other systems that are built around the same standards, both inside your organization and in the partner or other organizations.

The applications and application components that come with the system provide you with a broad and flexible basis that can be used as-is with the best-practices-based designs or customized to your own special needs. The applications facilitate the management of everything from parties and products to accounting, customer service, and internal resource and asset management.

...

If you haven't already checkout Apache OFBiz Framework on your machine, let's do it. Anyone can checkout or browse the source code in the OFBiz public Subversion (SVN) GIT repository. If you don't have SubversionGit, to install it you can go here for instructions.

To checkout the To clone the source code, simply use the following command (if you are using a GUI client, configure it appropriately):

• trunk framework: $ svn co http $ git clone https://svngitbox.apache.org/repos/asf/ofbiz-framework.git ofbiz-framework
  or https://github.com/apache/ofbiz-framework/trunk.git ofbiz-framework

Since the trunk was split into ofbiz-framework and ofbiz-plugins, the specialpurpose and hot-deploy directories have disappeared.
New components must be put in a plugins directory which works as was the hot-deploy directory.

For OFBiz existing components, check them out using the Gradle tasks below. or the GIT command

1.Checkout via Gradle tasks

To get all components use pullAllPluginsSource(This command should be run from ofbiz-framework home). Beware this deletes a previously existing plugins directory.

For Linux/Mac: $ ./gradlew pullAllPluginsSource
For Windows: > gradlew pullAllPluginsSource

...

.

For Linux/Mac: $ ./gradlew pullAllPluginsSource
For Windows: > gradlew pullAllPluginsSource

2.Checkout via GIT command(Following commands should be run from ofbiz-framework home)

• ofbiz-plugins: $ git clone https://github.com/apache/ofbiz-plugins.git plugins

For more details refer Apache OFBiz Source Repository page.

...

• Using the command line, build and start OFBiz (with demo data), use command:
  

For Linux/Mac: $ ./gradlew cleanAll loadAll ofbiz
For Windows: > gradlew cleanAll loadAll ofbiz

...

• framework components: These are lower level components that provides the technical layer and tools to the application components; the features provided by these components are typically the ones provided by any other development framework (data layer, business logic layer, transaction handling, data source pools, etc…)
• application components: These are generic business components required for ERP applications that can be extended/customized (product, order, party, manufacturing, accounting etc…); application components have access to the services and tools provided by the framework components and to the services published by other application componentcomponents.
• plugins components: These components are similar as applications to application components but meant for special purpose applications like ecommerce, google base integration, eBay integration etc.
  

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It's very easy to setup a new custom component in OFBiz in plugins directory. Using the command line you just need run the following command.

...

$ ./gradlew createPlugin -PpluginId=ofbizDemo

Image Added

Image Removed

Running your first application

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1. Simply open $OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/widget/OfbizDemoScreens.xml file from ofbizDemo plugin (you just created)

    

   
   

   Code Block
   language xml
   <?xmlversionxml 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="OfbizDemoCommonDecorator" location="${parameters.mainDecoratorLocation}"> <decorator-section name="body"> <label text="Hello World!! :)"/> </decorator-section> </decorator-screen> </widgets> </section> </screen> </screens>

   We have only added the <label text="Hello World!! :)" />

2. Now you will need to restart OFBiz by reloading data(./gradlew loadAll ofbiz). It's required as you have created a new component with some security data for you component (Setup by default in your component data directory as OfbizDemoSecurityGroupDemoData.xml) and as you will restart it, ofbizdemo component will also be loaded.

3. As OFBiz restarted direct your browser to your application here https://localhost:8443/ofbizDemo
4. You will be asked to login. Login with user: admin password: ofbiz.
5. As you login, you will see ofbizdemo application up with the hello world message you have put in screen as shown in below given image.
   
   Image Added
   
   That's it, congratulations your first component is setup and running.!!

Creating First Database Entity (Table) 

...

To create custom Entities/Tables in database, you simply need to provide entity definition in  $OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/entitydef/entitymodel.xml file of your ofbizdemo application. This file structure is already setup when you used the Gradle task to setup your component. You simply need to go in and provide entity definition as shown below. Here we are going to add two new entities for ofbizdemo application.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 
<entitymodel xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/entitymodel.xsd">
 
    <title>Entity of an Open For Business Project Component</title>
    <description>None</description>
    <version>1.0</version>
 
    <entity entity-name="OfbizDemoType" package-name="org.apache.ofbiz.ofbizdemo" title="OfbizDemo Type Entity">
        <field name="ofbizDemoTypeId" type="id"><description>primary sequenced ID</description></field>
        <field name="description" type="description"></field>
        <prim-key field="ofbizDemoTypeId"/>
    </entity>
 
    <entity entity-name="OfbizDemo" package-name="org.apache.ofbiz.ofbizdemo" title="OfbizDemo Entity">
        <field name="ofbizDemoId" type="id"><description>primary sequenced ID</description></field>
        <field name="ofbizDemoTypeId" type="id"></field>
        <field name="firstName" type="name"></field>
        <field name="lastName" type="name"></field>
        <field name="comments" type="comment"></field>
        <prim-key field="ofbizDemoId"/>
        <relation type="one" fk-name="ODEM_OD_TYPE_ID" rel-entity-name="OfbizDemoType">
            <key-map field-name="ofbizDemoTypeId"/>
        </relation>
    </entity>
 
</entitymodel>

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

 <?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>

<?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>

<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"/>

Form and Services

<?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>

<!-- service resources: model(s), eca(s) and group definitions -->
<service-resource type="model" loader="main" location="servicedef/services.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>

<?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>

 <?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>

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

 <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>

 <!-- 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>

<!-- 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"/>

<?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>

 <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>

 <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>

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;
    }
}

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

[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 name="createOfbizDemoByGroovyService" default-entity-name="OfbizDemo" engine="groovy"
        location="component://ofbizDemo/scriptgroovyScripts/com/companyname/ofbizdemo/OfbizDemoServices.groovy" invoke="createOfbizDemo" auth="true">
    <description>Create an Ofbiz Demo record using a service in Groovy</description>
    <auto-attributes include="pk" mode="OUT" optional="false"/>
    <auto-attributes include="nonpk" mode="IN" optional="false"/>
    <override name="comments" optional="true"/>
</service>

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;
}

<request-map uri="createOfbizDemo">

    <security https="true" auth="true"/>

    <event type="service" invoke="createOfbizDemoByGroovyService"/>

    <response name="success" type="view" value="main"/>

</request-

map>

[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: .....

...

1.) Add a new events directory to package and a new Events class file as mentioned here:

...

package com.companyname.ofbizdemo.events;

 
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

 
import org.apache.ofbiz.base.util.Debug;

import org.apache.ofbiz.base.util.UtilMisc;

import org.apache.ofbiz.base.util.UtilValidate;

import org.apache.ofbiz.entity.Delegator;

import org.apache.ofbiz.entity.GenericValue;

import org.apache.ofbiz.service.GenericServiceException;

import org.apache.ofbiz.service.LocalDispatcher;

 
public class OfbizDemoEvents {
 
 public static final String module = OfbizDemoEvents.class.getName();

 
    public static String createOfbizDemoEvent(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)

 {
        Delegator delegator = (Delegator) request.getAttribute("delegator");

        LocalDispatcher dispatcher = (LocalDispatcher) request.getAttribute("dispatcher");

        GenericValue userLogin = (GenericValue) request.getSession().getAttribute("userLogin");

 
        String ofbizDemoTypeId = request.getParameter("ofbizDemoTypeId");

        String firstName = request.getParameter("firstName");

        String lastName = request.getParameter("lastName");

 
        if (UtilValidate.isEmpty(firstName) || UtilValidate.isEmpty(lastName))

 {
            String errMsg = "First Name and Last Name are required fields on the form and can't be empty.";
            request.setAttribute("_ERROR_MESSAGE_", errMsg);

            return "error";

        }
        String comments = request.getParameter("comments");

 
        try {
            Debug.logInfo("=======Creating OfbizDemo record in event using service createOfbizDemoByGroovyService=========", module);

            dispatcher.runSync("createOfbizDemoByGroovyService", UtilMisc.toMap("ofbizDemoTypeId", ofbizDemoTypeId,

                    "firstName", firstName, "lastName", lastName, "comments", comments, "userLogin", userLogin));

        } catch (GenericServiceException e)

 {
            String errMsg = "Unable to create new records in OfbizDemo entity: " + e.toString();

            request.setAttribute("_ERROR_MESSAGE_", errMsg);

            return "error";

        }
        request.setAttribute("_EVENT_MESSAGE_", "OFBiz Demo created succesfully.");

        return "success";

    }
}

2.) Add controller request of calling this event as:

<request-map uri="createOfbizDemoEvent">

    <security https="true" auth="true"/>

    <event type="java" path="com.companyname.ofbizdemo.events.OfbizDemoEvents" invoke="createOfbizDemoEvent"/>

    <response name="success" type="view" value="main"/>

    <response name="error" type="view" value="main"/>

</request-

...

map>

3.) Stop and start server by rebuilding it as we need to compile Java event class that we have added in #1.

...

1.) Add two Freemarker files at location $ OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/webapp/ofbizDemo/crud/AddOfbizDemo.ftl and ListOfbizDemo.ftl, as shown below:below:

...

<div class="screenlet-body">

...

  <form id="createOfbizDemoEvent" method="post" action="<@ofbizUrl>createOfbizDemoEvent</@ofbizUrl>">

...

    <input type="hidden" name="addOfbizDemoFromFtl" value="Y"/>

...

...

    <fieldset>
      <div>
        <span class="label">${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoType}</

...

span>
        <select name="ofbizDemoTypeId" class='required'>

...

...

          <#list ofbizDemoTypes as demoType>
            <option value='${demoType.ofbizDemoTypeId}'>${demoType.description}</option>
          </

...

...

#list>
        </select>*
      </div>
      <div>
        <span class="label">${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoFirstName}</

...

span>
        <input type="text" name="firstName" id="firstName" class='required' maxlength="20" />*

...

...

      </div>
      <div>
        <span class="label">${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoLastName}<

...

/span>
        <input type="text" name="lastName" id="lastName" class='required' maxlength="20" />*

...

...

      </div>
      <div>
        <span class="label">${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoComment}</

...

span>
        <input type="text" name="comments" id="comments" class='inputBox' size="60" maxlength="255" />

...

...

      </div>
    </fieldset>
    <input type="submit" value="${uiLabelMap.CommonAdd}" />

...

  </

...

form>
</

...

div>

...

<div class="screenlet-body">

  <#if ofbizDemoList?has_content>

    <table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 border=0 class="basic-table">

      <thead><tr>
        <th>${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoId}</th>

        <th>${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoType}</th>

        <th>${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoFirstName}</th>

        <th>${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoLastName}</th>

        <th>${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoComment}</th>

      </tr></thead>

      <tbody>
        <#list ofbizDemoList as ofbizDemo>
          <tr>
            <td>${ofbizDemo.ofbizDemoId}</td>

            <td>${ofbizDemo.getRelatedOne("OfbizDemoType").get("description", locale)}</td>

            <td>${ofbizDemo.firstName?default("NA")}</td>

            <td>${ofbizDemo.lastName?default("NA")}</td>

            <td>${ofbizDemo.comments!}</td>

          </tr>

        </#list>

       </tbody>

    </table>

  </

#if>
</div>

2.) Add new Groovy file for data fetching logic at location $ OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/webapp/ofbizDemo/WEB-INFgroovyScripts/actions/crud/ListOfbizDemo.groovy and add code as shown to list out OfbizDemo records:

ofbizDemoTypes = delegator.findList("OfbizDemoType", null, null, null, null, false);

context.ofbizDemoTypes = ofbizDemoTypes;

ofbizDemoList = delegator.findList("OfbizDemo", null, null, null, null, false);

context.ofbizDemoList = ofbizDemoList;

3.) Add new screen file with Ofbiz default decorator to OfbizDemoScreens.xml with newly added freemarker and groovy files as:

...

<screen name="AddOfbizDemoFtl">

    <section>
        <actions>
            <set field="titleProperty" value="PageTitleAddOfbizDemos"/>

            <set field="headerItem" value="addOfbizDemoFtl"/>

            <script location="component://ofbizDemo/

groovyScripts/crud/ListOfbizDemo.groovy"

/>
        </actions>

        <widgets>
            <decorator-screen name="main-decorator" location="${parameters.mainDecoratorLocation}">

                <decorator-section name="body">

                    <screenlet title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoListOfbizDemos}">

                        <platform-specific>
                            <html><html-template location="component://ofbizDemo/webapp/ofbizDemo/crud/ListOfbizDemo.ftl"/></html>

                         </platform-specific>

                    </screenlet>
                    <screenlet title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoAddOfbizDemoServiceByFtl

}">
                        <platform-specific>
                            <html><html-template location="component://ofbizDemo/webapp/ofbizDemo/crud/AddOfbizDemo.ftl"/></html>

                        </platform-specific>

                    </screenlet>
                </decorator-section>

            </decorator-screen>

        </widgets>

    </section>

</screen>

...

<!--Request Mapping-->

<request-map uri="AddOfbizDemoFtl">

    <security https="true" auth="true"/>

    <response name="success" type="view" value="AddOfbizDemoFtl"/>

</request-

map>
 
<!--View Mapping-->

<view-map name="AddOfbizDemoFtl" type="screen" page="component://ofbizDemo/widget/OfbizDemoScreens.xml#AddOfbizDemoFtl"/>

<menu-item name="addOfbizDemoFtl" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoAddFtl}"

><link target="AddOfbizDemoFtl"/></menu-

item> 

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

...

We will be doing it by defining custom decorator for your application view. A decorator in OFBiz is nothing but a screen that you define and reuse afterwards by including in your other screens of application. You are already doing it with default decorator (main-decorator –> ApplicationDecorator) which comes with OFBiz. Just observe your screens you have prepared so far, you will find that, you were using this main decorator, please refer below line in OfbizDemoScreens.xml.

OfbizDemoScreens.xml

...

Now is the time to define your own decorator with custom styling. 

...

5.) Open $ OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/webapp/ofbizDemo/WEB-INF/web.xml and make entries for css and js directories in allowedPaths at the end as shown below:

web.xml

6.) Add new directory named "includes" at location $ OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/webapp/ofbizDemo/ and create two new files in this new directory you just added named PreBody.ftl and PostBody.ftl. We will be using(including) these two files in our decorator screen to build complete HTML page.

PreBody.ftl

...

PostBody.ftl

...

7.) Open Common Screens file of your component $ OFBIZ_HOME/plugins/ofbizDemo/widget/CommonScreens.xml, this is the file we will define our custom decorator.

8.) Update screen named "OfbizDemoCommonDecorator"(which will serve as custom decorator for your app) as shown below:

CommonScreens.xml

9.) Use this decorator in your Freemarker screen that you created in last part as:

OfbizDemoScreens.xml

10.) Update your FTL files to follow HTML web standards and apply CSS on it as:

AddOfbizDemo.ftl

...

ListOfbizDemo.ftl

...

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:

...

Now you are ready to dive in. Welcome to OFBiz world.