Choosing builders that add navigation and page actions

Portlet Factory, Version 6.1.2

Choosing builders that add navigation and page actions

The builders described in this topic add navigation and page actions to an application.

Table 1. Builders to add navigation and page actions
Task Builder you should use
Add an action control to a page, such as a Button, Link or a clickable image. Button, Image, Image Button, and Link builders.
These builders can be used to add action controls to a specified page location. The action can be a model action or an external URL. Note that if the action is part of a form, you should select Submit form and invoke action as the Action Type.
Specify a form action to run whenever a form is submitted. The Form Submit Action builder attaches an action to an HTML form. Specify the form location as the Page Location input. When you use View & Form builder to create a form, the Form Submit Action builder is used automatically.
Run an action when a user clicks or types in the application.
For example, when a user selects a customer from a select list, you want to run an action (for example, search a database and return a table of orders that belong to the selected customer).
The HTML Event Action builder allows you to associate a function with an HTML behavioral attribute. The HTML behavioral attributes are those that correspond to HTML events, such as OnClick or OnChange for INPUT tags. The HTML Event Action builder can only define actions for the events that a particular tag supports. To build the example described in the task on the left use the following builders:
Use the Service Consumer, View & Form, Data Field Modifier, Lookup Table, Select and Variable builders to build the select list and page.
Use the HTML Event Action builder to call an action (created by an Action List builder) on the onChange event. This action would get the appropriate orders from the database and return the page.
Generate a pop-up menu with options when a user clicks in a certain part of the page. The Contextual Menu builder adds a pop-up menu and its menu items pop up when users click a specific link, button, or icon.
Provide a link or button for downloading or launching a file. The Content Launch Action builder adds a button or link to a page that opens a file or resource that might require an additional plug-in to view or handle the content. For example, to launch a spreadsheet or video file from a page.
Create a link in my application that links to a different page.
For portlets, use the WebSphere Portal Link builder to link to another portlet or page in a WebSphere Portal server. The object you link to is referenced with a WebSphere Portal resource identifier.
For widgets, use Lotus® Mashups wiring to link to another widget or page.
Create an application that includes tabs to navigate between the various pages in my application. The Page Tabs builder adds tab navigation to a set of pages in a model. The tabs are added to all the specified pages.
Add paging controls to an application, for paging through a large result data set. Some of the higher-level builders like View & Form include built-in support for paging. If you are not using one of these builders, then the best approach for adding paging is to use the Data Field Modifier or Data Column Modifier builder. Each of these builders have inputs specific to paging.
Note that the Paging Assistant builder operates at a low level (and is actually called by the Data Field Modifier and Column Modifier builders). When invoked directly, the Paging Assistant may not correctly handle paging in all possible configurations of Data Page.
You have created a form that accepts user input. When the user clicks submit, you want to display the results, but the results page does not seem to display – even though you are linking to the right action. Make sure to use "submit form" actions when updating server state and "link" events for navigation. For instance, if you add a page action builder (Button, Link, Image Button, and so on) as the method of navigating to the results page after an input form is submitted, make sure you set the Action Type as Submit form and invoke action or Submit form and invoke URL.
For page-to-page navigation set the action type to be Link to Action or Link to URL.

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Task	Builder you should use
Add an action control to a page, such as a Button, Link or a clickable image.	Button, Image, Image Button, and Link builders. These builders can be used to add action controls to a specified page location. The action can be a model action or an external URL. Note that if the action is part of a form, you should select Submit form and invoke action as the Action Type.
Specify a form action to run whenever a form is submitted.	The Form Submit Action builder attaches an action to an HTML form. Specify the form location as the Page Location input. When you use View & Form builder to create a form, the Form Submit Action builder is used automatically.
Run an action when a user clicks or types in the application. For example, when a user selects a customer from a select list, you want to run an action (for example, search a database and return a table of orders that belong to the selected customer).	The HTML Event Action builder allows you to associate a function with an HTML behavioral attribute. The HTML behavioral attributes are those that correspond to HTML events, such as OnClick or OnChange for INPUT tags. The HTML Event Action builder can only define actions for the events that a particular tag supports. To build the example described in the task on the left use the following builders: Use the Service Consumer, View & Form, Data Field Modifier, Lookup Table, Select and Variable builders to build the select list and page. Use the HTML Event Action builder to call an action (created by an Action List builder) on the onChange event. This action would get the appropriate orders from the database and return the page.
Generate a pop-up menu with options when a user clicks in a certain part of the page.	The Contextual Menu builder adds a pop-up menu and its menu items pop up when users click a specific link, button, or icon.
Provide a link or button for downloading or launching a file.	The Content Launch Action builder adds a button or link to a page that opens a file or resource that might require an additional plug-in to view or handle the content. For example, to launch a spreadsheet or video file from a page.
Create a link in my application that links to a different page.	For portlets, use the WebSphere Portal Link builder to link to another portlet or page in a WebSphere Portal server. The object you link to is referenced with a WebSphere Portal resource identifier. For widgets, use Lotus® Mashups wiring to link to another widget or page.
Create an application that includes tabs to navigate between the various pages in my application.	The Page Tabs builder adds tab navigation to a set of pages in a model. The tabs are added to all the specified pages.
Add paging controls to an application, for paging through a large result data set.	Some of the higher-level builders like View & Form include built-in support for paging. If you are not using one of these builders, then the best approach for adding paging is to use the Data Field Modifier or Data Column Modifier builder. Each of these builders have inputs specific to paging. Note that the Paging Assistant builder operates at a low level (and is actually called by the Data Field Modifier and Column Modifier builders). When invoked directly, the Paging Assistant may not correctly handle paging in all possible configurations of Data Page.
You have created a form that accepts user input. When the user clicks submit, you want to display the results, but the results page does not seem to display – even though you are linking to the right action.	Make sure to use "submit form" actions when updating server state and "link" events for navigation. For instance, if you add a page action builder (Button, Link, Image Button, and so on) as the method of navigating to the results page after an input form is submitted, make sure you set the Action Type as Submit form and invoke action or Submit form and invoke URL. For page-to-page navigation set the action type to be Link to Action or Link to URL.