Menus in the Example application

[Jacopo Cappellato-4]

Hi all,

due to recent work on the Portal now the Example application is  
rendering the top menu using an ftl template and not as a Menu widget  
definition (as it was previously, if I am not wrong).
Is there a reason for the switch (sorry but I still don't know much  
about the Portal framework)?
I think the Example application should demonstrate all our best  
practices, and using menu widget is one of them.

Jacopo

[Bruno Busco]

Hi Jacopo,
I agree with you, the Example (and all application) should follow the common
pattern to implement the AppBarMenu (with menu widget).
The reason the example component has been reverted to use a .ftl AppBar was
to have a dynamic AppBar.
Actually the menu-items that are displayed in the Example AppBar are
retrieved from a dynamic list (read from the DB) so that all available
portal pages are displayed in the bar.

I think that this could be solved if we improve the Menu widget so that it
could accept a map containing the menu-items to display.
I have proposed this on the ML but no comments yet. May be this time I will
get better luck! ;-)

-Bruno

2009/2/4 Jacopo Cappellato <[hidden email]>

> Hi all,
>
> due to recent work on the Portal now the Example application is rendering
> the top menu using an ftl template and not as a Menu widget definition (as
> it was previously, if I am not wrong).
> Is there a reason for the switch (sorry but I still don't know much about
> the Portal framework)?
> I think the Example application should demonstrate all our best practices,
> and using menu widget is one of them.
>
> Jacopo
>
>

[Hans Bakker]

Hi Jacopo.

I completely agree with you and perhaps you can help here? The thing we
can do in ftl and not in a menu is the processing of a list of buttons.

If there could be a iterate function in a menu (similar to a <#list in
ftl) to list the buttons from a list, then sure we can use a menu
again.....

Regards,
Hans


On Wed, 2009-02-04 at 12:36 +0100, Jacopo Cappellato wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> due to recent work on the Portal now the Example application is  
> rendering the top menu using an ftl template and not as a Menu widget  
> definition (as it was previously, if I am not wrong).
> Is there a reason for the switch (sorry but I still don't know much  
> about the Portal framework)?
> I think the Example application should demonstrate all our best  
> practices, and using menu widget is one of them.
>
> Jacopo

--
http://www.antwebsystems.com :
Quality OFBiz support for competitive rates....

[Jacopo Cappellato-4]

Bruno, Hans,

thanks for the info and insight... well I see two different  
interesting items in this:

a) enhancing the Menu Widget to support dynamically retrieved menu  
items (as you propose)
b) having the Example application document the most common best  
practices

What I am suggesting is to:

1) move the example of a dynamic menu of the Example application to a  
specific screen (out of the decorator)
2) take some time to study and design the proper extensions for the  
menu widget and then convert the ftl file

The reason for #1 is that, even if having an example of a dynamic menu  
is great, it is not still the most common way of rendering menus in  
OFBiz, and this could cause some confusion to new developers that are  
exploring the Example application.

Does it make sense?

Jacopo


On Feb 4, 2009, at 2:15 PM, Hans Bakker wrote:

> Hi Jacopo.
>
> I completely agree with you and perhaps you can help here? The thing  
> we
> can do in ftl and not in a menu is the processing of a list of  
> buttons.
>
> If there could be a iterate function in a menu (similar to a <#list in
> ftl) to list the buttons from a list, then sure we can use a menu
> again.....
>
> Regards,
> Hans
>
>
> On Wed, 2009-02-04 at 12:36 +0100, Jacopo Cappellato wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> due to recent work on the Portal now the Example application is
>> rendering the top menu using an ftl template and not as a Menu widget
>> definition (as it was previously, if I am not wrong).
>> Is there a reason for the switch (sorry but I still don't know much
>> about the Portal framework)?
>> I think the Example application should demonstrate all our best
>> practices, and using menu widget is one of them.
>>
>> Jacopo
>
> --
> http://www.antwebsystems.com :
> Quality OFBiz support for competitive rates....
>

[Bruno Busco]

I agree,
this will let the Example application to be a demonstration for both the
menu widget based AppBar and the dynamic portal pages.

-Bruno

2009/2/4 Jacopo Cappellato <[hidden email]>

> Bruno, Hans,
>
> thanks for the info and insight... well I see two different interesting
> items in this:
>
> a) enhancing the Menu Widget to support dynamically retrieved menu items
> (as you propose)
> b) having the Example application document the most common best practices
>
> What I am suggesting is to:
>
> 1) move the example of a dynamic menu of the Example application to a
> specific screen (out of the decorator)
> 2) take some time to study and design the proper extensions for the menu
> widget and then convert the ftl file
>
> The reason for #1 is that, even if having an example of a dynamic menu is
> great, it is not still the most common way of rendering menus in OFBiz, and
> this could cause some confusion to new developers that are exploring the
> Example application.
>
> Does it make sense?
>
> Jacopo
>
>
>
> On Feb 4, 2009, at 2:15 PM, Hans Bakker wrote:
>
>  Hi Jacopo.
>>
>> I completely agree with you and perhaps you can help here? The thing we
>> can do in ftl and not in a menu is the processing of a list of buttons.
>>
>> If there could be a iterate function in a menu (similar to a <#list in
>> ftl) to list the buttons from a list, then sure we can use a menu
>> again.....
>>
>> Regards,
>> Hans
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 2009-02-04 at 12:36 +0100, Jacopo Cappellato wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> due to recent work on the Portal now the Example application is
>>> rendering the top menu using an ftl template and not as a Menu widget
>>> definition (as it was previously, if I am not wrong).
>>> Is there a reason for the switch (sorry but I still don't know much
>>> about the Portal framework)?
>>> I think the Example application should demonstrate all our best
>>> practices, and using menu widget is one of them.
>>>
>>> Jacopo
>>>
>>
>> --
>> http://www.antwebsystems.com :
>> Quality OFBiz support for competitive rates....
>>
>>
>

[Adrian Crum]

One of the things that would be worth looking into is using the tree
widget for menus. It already has the code for converting DB values to
links and of course it supports a nested structure.

-Adrian

Jacopo Cappellato wrote:

> Bruno, Hans,
>
> thanks for the info and insight... well I see two different interesting
> items in this:
>
> a) enhancing the Menu Widget to support dynamically retrieved menu items
> (as you propose)
> b) having the Example application document the most common best practices
>
> What I am suggesting is to:
>
> 1) move the example of a dynamic menu of the Example application to a
> specific screen (out of the decorator)
> 2) take some time to study and design the proper extensions for the menu
> widget and then convert the ftl file
>
> The reason for #1 is that, even if having an example of a dynamic menu
> is great, it is not still the most common way of rendering menus in
> OFBiz, and this could cause some confusion to new developers that are
> exploring the Example application.
>
> Does it make sense?
>
> Jacopo
>
>
> On Feb 4, 2009, at 2:15 PM, Hans Bakker wrote:
>
>> Hi Jacopo.
>>
>> I completely agree with you and perhaps you can help here? The thing we
>> can do in ftl and not in a menu is the processing of a list of buttons.
>>
>> If there could be a iterate function in a menu (similar to a <#list in
>> ftl) to list the buttons from a list, then sure we can use a menu
>> again.....
>>
>> Regards,
>> Hans
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 2009-02-04 at 12:36 +0100, Jacopo Cappellato wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> due to recent work on the Portal now the Example application is
>>> rendering the top menu using an ftl template and not as a Menu widget
>>> definition (as it was previously, if I am not wrong).
>>> Is there a reason for the switch (sorry but I still don't know much
>>> about the Portal framework)?
>>> I think the Example application should demonstrate all our best
>>> practices, and using menu widget is one of them.
>>>
>>> Jacopo
>>
>> --
>> http://www.antwebsystems.com :
>> Quality OFBiz support for competitive rates....
>>
>

[Jacques Le Roux]

+ 1 (good idea!)

Jacques

From: "Adrian Crum" <[hidden email]>

> One of the things that would be worth looking into is using the tree
> widget for menus. It already has the code for converting DB values to
> links and of course it supports a nested structure.
>
> -Adrian
>
> Jacopo Cappellato wrote:
>> Bruno, Hans,
>>
>> thanks for the info and insight... well I see two different interesting
>> items in this:
>>
>> a) enhancing the Menu Widget to support dynamically retrieved menu items
>> (as you propose)
>> b) having the Example application document the most common best practices
>>
>> What I am suggesting is to:
>>
>> 1) move the example of a dynamic menu of the Example application to a
>> specific screen (out of the decorator)
>> 2) take some time to study and design the proper extensions for the menu
>> widget and then convert the ftl file
>>
>> The reason for #1 is that, even if having an example of a dynamic menu
>> is great, it is not still the most common way of rendering menus in
>> OFBiz, and this could cause some confusion to new developers that are
>> exploring the Example application.
>>
>> Does it make sense?
>>
>> Jacopo
>>
>>
>> On Feb 4, 2009, at 2:15 PM, Hans Bakker wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Jacopo.
>>>
>>> I completely agree with you and perhaps you can help here? The thing we
>>> can do in ftl and not in a menu is the processing of a list of buttons.
>>>
>>> If there could be a iterate function in a menu (similar to a <#list in
>>> ftl) to list the buttons from a list, then sure we can use a menu
>>> again.....
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Hans
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, 2009-02-04 at 12:36 +0100, Jacopo Cappellato wrote:
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> due to recent work on the Portal now the Example application is
>>>> rendering the top menu using an ftl template and not as a Menu widget
>>>> definition (as it was previously, if I am not wrong).
>>>> Is there a reason for the switch (sorry but I still don't know much
>>>> about the Portal framework)?
>>>> I think the Example application should demonstrate all our best
>>>> practices, and using menu widget is one of them.
>>>>
>>>> Jacopo
>>>
>>> --
>>> http://www.antwebsystems.com :
>>> Quality OFBiz support for competitive rates....
>>>
>>
>

[David E Jones-3]

Do we want to move in a direction where every base application has  
dynamic links like these? IMO the answer is no.

In the MyPortal application it would make sense to do this, but in the  
Example app because of what it is meant for we should just use a  
static menu widget and not have a dynamic portal-style menu.

In other words, my vote is for reverting this and going back to the  
plain/normal menu widget. This dynamic app bar would be great for the  
MyPortal application (which I can't wait to see in the framework with  
a few role-specific default portal setups loaded in application and  
specialpurpose components or whatever).

-David


On Feb 4, 2009, at 6:12 AM, Bruno Busco wrote:

> Hi Jacopo,
> I agree with you, the Example (and all application) should follow  
> the common
> pattern to implement the AppBarMenu (with menu widget).
> The reason the example component has been reverted to use a .ftl  
> AppBar was
> to have a dynamic AppBar.
> Actually the menu-items that are displayed in the Example AppBar are
> retrieved from a dynamic list (read from the DB) so that all available
> portal pages are displayed in the bar.
>
> I think that this could be solved if we improve the Menu widget so  
> that it
> could accept a map containing the menu-items to display.
> I have proposed this on the ML but no comments yet. May be this time  
> I will
> get better luck! ;-)
>
> -Bruno
>
> 2009/2/4 Jacopo Cappellato <[hidden email]>
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> due to recent work on the Portal now the Example application is  
>> rendering
>> the top menu using an ftl template and not as a Menu widget  
>> definition (as
>> it was previously, if I am not wrong).
>> Is there a reason for the switch (sorry but I still don't know much  
>> about
>> the Portal framework)?
>> I think the Example application should demonstrate all our best  
>> practices,
>> and using menu widget is one of them.
>>
>> Jacopo
>>
>>