Launching pages

 

Typically, users of the console launch pages using the links in the console navigation. However, portlets in a console module also launch pages directly using the Dynamic UI Manager API.

The DynamicUI Manager APIs are provided by 3 services: PropertyFactory, DynamicUIManagerFactoryService, and URLGeneratorFactoryService. To use these services the portlet must first perform a JNDI lookup to get the PortletServiceHome object which you then can use to get the actual service interface object. This is demonstrated in the GetApps portlet of the PortletContext sample.. The following code is placed in a try block of the portlet's init() method.

Context ctx = new InitialContext(com.ibm.portal.jndi.Constants.ENV);
// get propertyfactory service
propertyFactoryServiceHome = (PortletServiceHome)ctx.lookup("portletservice/com.ibm.portal.propertybroker.service.PropertyBrokerService");

if (propertyFactoryServiceHome == null)
   logger.log(Level.FINE, "no PropertyBrokerService propertyFactoryServiceHome");
else
   propertyFactoryService = 
      (PropertyFactory)propertyFactoryServiceHome.getPortletService(com.ibm.portal.propertybroker.service.PropertyBrokerService.class);
      
logger.log(Level.FINE, "propertyBrokerService="+propertyFactoryService);
// get dynamicUIManagerFactory service
dynamicUIManagerFactoryServiceHome = 
   (PortletServiceHome)ctx.lookup("portletservice/com.ibm.portal.portlet.service.DynamicUIManagerFactoryService");
if (dynamicUIManagerFactoryServiceHome == null)
   logger.log(Level.FINE, "no dynamicUIManagerFactoryService propertyFactoryServiceHome");
else
   dynamicUIManagerFactoryService = 
      (DynamicUIManagerFactoryService)dynamicUIManagerFactoryServiceHome.getPortletService(com.ibm.portal.portlet.service.DynamicUIManagerFactoryService.class);
      
logger.log(Level.FINE, "dynamicUIManagerFactoryService="+dynamicUIManagerFactoryService);
// get urlGeneratorFactory service
urlGeneratorFactoryServiceHome = 
   (PortletServiceHome)ctx.lookup("portletservice/com.ibm.portal.portlet.service.URLGeneratorFactoryService");
if (urlGeneratorFactoryServiceHome == null)
   logger.log(Level.FINE, "no urlGeneratorFactoryService propertyFactoryServiceHome");
else
   urlGeneratorFactoryService = 
      (URLGeneratorFactoryService) urlGeneratorFactoryServiceHome.getPortletService(com.ibm.portal.portlet.service.URLGeneratorFactoryService.class);
      
logger.log(Level.FINE, "urlGeneratorFactoryService="+urlGeneratorFactoryService);

A portlet can launch a new page using the dynamicUICtrl interface, passing the object ID of the page definition for the new page. The object ID is determined by performing a JNDI lookup on the unique name of the navigation element that launches the page. If you are planning to launch a navigation element, the navigation node must point to a layout element. In other words the navigation element must contain the layoutElementRef attribute. The addPage() method returns the object ID of the page instance, which should be saved by the portlet to create a URL and launch the page. The following excerpt from the PortletContext sample demonstrates how this works. The portlet GetApps.java includes a launchPage() method with this code.

Context ctx;
ObjectID pageDefinitionID = null;
String pagename="com.ibm.isclite.portletcontext.navigationElement.B";
logger.log(Level.FINE, "launch page=" + pagename);

PortletSession ps  = request.getPortletSession(false);
try {
    ctx = new InitialContext();
    pageDefinitionID =(ObjectID)ctx.lookup("portal:uniquename/"+pagename);
} catch (NamingException ne) {
    return;
}
try {
    PropertyController cproperty = propertyFactoryService.createProperty(myconfig);
    PropertyController cproperty2 = propertyFactoryService.createProperty(myconfig);
       
    cproperty.setType("String");
    cproperty.setName("servername");
    cproperty2.setType("String");
    cproperty2.setName("appDeployed");
    PropertyValue[] propertyValues = new PropertyValue[2];
    propertyValues[0] = 
        propertyFactoryService.createPropertyValue(request, cproperty, serverName);
    propertyValues[1] = 
        propertyFactoryService.createPropertyValue(request, cproperty2, appDeployed);
       
    DynamicUICtrl dmanagerCtrl = 
       dynamicUIManagerFactoryService.getDynamicUICtrl(request, response, "isc.tasklaunch");
       
    ObjectID newPageID = 
        dmanagerCtrl.addPage(pageDefinitionID, null, propertyValues);
    
    RedirectURLGenerator urlGenerator = 
        urlGeneratorFactoryService.getURLGenerator(request, response);
       
    EngineURL redirectURL = urlGenerator.createPageURL(newPageID);
       
    response.sendRedirect(redirectURL.toString()); 
} catch  ...

• The pagename String is created with the unique name of the navigation element (from the topology descriptor) that launches the page.

• The object ID is found by performing a JNDI lookup on this Context instance using this String:

  "portal:uniquename/"+pagename
  

  The String portal:uniquename/ is required to obtain the object ID for the navigation element.

• Properties are created to be passed to the portlets on the page. The property names are servername and appDeployed.

• In addition to the request and response, include the String isc.tasklaunch as the configuration name on the getDynamicUICtrl() method.

• Use the addPage() method of the new DynamicUICtrl instance to create and instance of the page. Any properties that need to be passed to portlets on the new page must be provided in this method. The addPage() method does not launch the page, but it returns the object ID of the page instance. The next two methods, getURLGenerator() and createPageURL(), are used to construct the URL that opens the page. The URL contains property names and values if they have been provided.

• The URL to open the page is provided on the sendRedirect() method of the response.

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Related information

Passing properties to other portlets
Application definition elements