Hi Eric,
To be honest, those docs are not exactly full-blown references; they're overviews.
The way I do it is I dig for the "documentation" in the Java codes (OFBiz framework). You can
shoot me a quick question about any Minilang or Widget XML features/functions, and I'll dig a few
minutes into codes to give you a quick answer.
Alert! Discombobulating example ahead.
Some things are not immediately apparent without comprehensive references. Eg, for the
<entity-one> function (in Screen Widgets), it's widely-known (among OFBiz veterans) that you need
to specify a variable with the primary key name plus the primary key value in the context: <set
field="workEffortId" from-field="parameters.workEffortId"/>. The <entity-one> function hunts for
such a variable, and uses the value in that variable in its SQL "WHERE" clause like so: "WHERE
workEffortId = <primaryKeyValue>".
In this example, we're trying to grab a single row in entity WorkEffort based on the primary key
workEffortId. Doing a "<set field.../>" like that will create a variable "workEffortId" in the
context (think of context as a logged-in session). You'll also notice that the context also
contains a variable "parameters", inside of which there is another similar value (think of
variable "parameters" as key-value map of values, a "context" inside a context).
What is not apparent (given some of the examples I've seen in OFBiz codes) is that the
<entity-one> function also hunts for the primary key value inside the variable "parameters".
Therefore, given that the primary key value is already passed in through the web request (above
example), there is really no need to explicitly create a variable "workEffortId" for <entity-one>
to work.
What is even less apparent is the precedence between these 2 methods: specifying primary key in
context, or in context variable "parameters". The former overrides the latter. So if you do an
explicit "<set field.../>", you might be intending for the entity engine to ignore the primary key
value in variable "parameters".
Phew. Maybe the above can be pasted verbatim into some work-in-progress reference manual. Anyway,
that was just to illustrate my point.
I used to complain that the OFBiz veterans don't write proper references for these things
(Minilang, but more Widget XMLs). Now that I myself am also too busy (and too lazy!) to sit down
and distill my knowledge into proper references, you can probably cry the same complaints to me. :P
I'm currently trying (yeah, that's the operative word, given time constraints) to come up with a
comprehensive "engineer's manual" of sorts. You can help me. :) I'll dig through the codes to
teach you all of OFBiz's framework; you can put it down in a manual.
Just FYI, the OFBiz framework is really easy to pick up. Took me a few hours to get the whole (map
of) OFBiz framework. Beyond that, the OFBiz framework codes themselves (Java) have become my
"comprehensive reference".
Enjoy OFBiz!
Jonathon
Anil Patel wrote:
> Eric,
> If I am not wrong you have the David's Adv Framework Video, The Ofbiz
> Framework Reference Book other then that Tutorials at
>
http://www.opensourcestrategies.com/ofbiz/tutorials.php>
> This should cover most of the questions you may have.
>
> Regards
> Anil Patel
>
>
>
>
> On 1/30/07, Eric Schwartz <
[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>> i have been working with a few of the forms.xml files like
>> partyclassificationforms.xml (modified for jira issue 670). there are a
>> lot
>> of tags used in these files like display-entity, sub-hyperlink, etc
>> that i
>> am having a hard time finding references for. so far i have been just
>> opening some other similar files in different applications to see the way
>> things are done and so far that has been sufficient. i cant help but feel
>> like there is a lot more to know. i checked out a bunch of the mini-lang
>> documentation but they really dont talk about all the tags used in the
>> forms.xml files. can anyone point me in the right direction to some
>> documentation that explains the tags related more to forms?
>>
>>
>> --
>> Eric Schwartz
>> Web Developer/IT Department
>> 800.544.8665 ext 273
>>
[hidden email]
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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