Composer Pageflow Wizard

This chapter provides instructions for using the Composer Pageflow Wizard. It contains the following sections:

About the Composer Pageflow Wizard

exteNd Director provides the Composer Pageflow Wizard to help you create pageflows that execute exteNd Composer services.

After you use the wizard, you can run the generated pageflow right away. You can also use the Pageflow Modeler to make changes to the pageflow, just as you would with any other pageflow.

The Composer Pageflow Wizard generates a set of forms (XHTML pages that use XForms technology) as well as a pageflow process that ties the exteNd Composer service and the forms together into a simple application. This application provides a convenient and easy-to-use interface for invoking an exteNd Composer service.

Example The following example shows a typical exteNd Composer pageflow:

ComposerPageFlow2

At runtime this pageflow would display an input form that allows the user to pass parameters to the service:

ComposerPageFlowRuntime1

When the user submits the form, the service executes. When the service has finished processing, the pageflow displays an output form that shows the data returned by the service.

ComposerPageFlowRuntime2

This particular service uses a JDBC component to connect to a database and retrieve data from a table that contains a list of employees and phone numbers.

A typical exteNd Composer pageflow also includes a common help page, as well as an exception handler.

Adding an exteNd Composer project

Before you run the Composer Pageflow Wizard, you need to add an exteNd Composer subproject to your exteNd Director project. You can do this in either of two ways:

By creating a new exteNd Composer project
By adding an existing exteNd Composer project

For more information For details on adding exteNd Composer subprojects, see the chapter on working with exteNd Composer projects.

Deploying the project

Once you've added the exteNd Composer subproject to your exteNd Director project, you need to deploy your exteNd Director project at least once. If you do not deploy the project, the portlet running the pageflow will most likely display a java.lang.IllegalStateException that indicates that the service could not be initialized.

After deploying the project, you can begin to take advantage of the vulturing capabilities provided by the resource set, since the exteNd Composer subproject is added to the resource set. The resource set ensures that any change you make to an exteNd Composer project artifact is automatically picked up by the server and can be tested right away. This is also true of the pageflow, since pageflows are also stored in the resource set as well.

NOTE: The resource set that is being used by exteNd Composer must be the same as the one used by the pageflow. If they are not the same, the pageflow will not be able to find all of the resources associated with the service.

For more information For complete details on working with exteNd Composer services, see the exteNd Composer Help.

Using the Composer Pageflow Wizard

Procedure To create an exteNd Composer pageflow process:

With your project open in exteNd Director, select File>New.
Click the Portlet tab.
Select Composer Pageflow and click OK:
Type a base name for the pageflow in the Base name field. This name is used as a prefix for the files that will be generated.
In the Project dropdown, select the exteNd Composer project that contains the service you want to execute.
In the Service dropdown, select the service to execute:
Click Next.
Select the target resource set in the Select a resource set dropdown and click Next:
Specify how you want to format the controls on the generated forms as follows:
Click Finish.