Re: Users - Guidance on Widgets vs FTLs

Posted by Vinay Agarwal on
URL: http://ofbiz.116.s1.nabble.com/Users-Guidance-on-Widgets-vs-FTLs-tp137583p137587.html

I have decided to go with form widgets. Which application should I use as
base of how to do things?

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]]
On Behalf Of David E. Jones
Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2006 10:15 AM
To: OFBiz Users / Usage Discussion
Subject: Re: [OFBiz] Users - Guidance on Widgets vs FTLs


This is a good general guideline. The only real exception is the  
ecommerce webapp which is meant to be more easily customize for a  
specific look and feel because it is customer facing where such  
things are more important. In general with the layout and such is  
critical, plain old HTML-based templates (in FTL files) are the way  
to go.

-David


On Feb 25, 2006, at 11:07 AM, Al Byers wrote:

> Vinay,
>
> Having coded a good bit of the widget functionality, I am partial  
> to it.
> I do believe that it is the way that OFBiz will be going. We are  
> trying
> to switch all screens to it. The goal is always to reduce code size
> while preserving flexibility. Since you can always call .ftl templates
> from within widget screens, there is not much reason not to use it.
>
> The multi-levels of the decorator screen includes makes it  
> practical to
> have a fairly complex UI framework. Trying to do the same thing  
> without
> using widget technology would get messy.
>
> Also, I believe that having your entire UI codebase in XML will  
> make for
> some powerful generation and maintenance scripts down the road.
>
> -Al
>
> Vinay Agarwal wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I used ecommerce as base for my application which uses FTLs for most
>> screens instead of form widgets. I have built about 20 or so screens
>> (about 10% of total task) using FTLs based on ecommerce css but  
>> having
>> increasing difficulty in making their output predictable. I am not
>> looking for any "slick" screens, just some clean and professional
>> looking interface. I am looking for guidance on the direction I  
>> should
>> take.
>>
>> Option 1. Switch to form widgets since 90% work remains.
>>
>> Option 2. Stay with FTL since they potentially allow ultimate
>> customization of screens.
>>
>> Other options?
>>
>> I would appreciate your suggestions.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Vinay Agarwal
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---
>>
>>
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>
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