14

Handling Application Events

Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to do

the following:
• Define the types of JavaServer Faces (JSF) events
• Create event listeners for a JSF application
• Describe how the JSF life cycle handles validation
• List the types of validation provided by JSF and
Application Development Framework (ADF) Faces

14-2 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 JSF Event Model

• The JSF Event Model is based on the event model

defined by the JavaBeans specification where the
event is represented by a specific class.
• An event source object fires an event by calling an
event notification method on event listener objects
registered to receive the event, passing a
reference to the event object as a notification
method argument.
• Developers can write their own event listener
implementations, or reference a backing bean
method using Expression Language (EL).

14-3 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Types of Events

JSF supports:
• Action events
– Occur when a command component is activated.
For example, when a user clicks a button or a link.
– Return a navigation case
• Value change events
– Occur when the local value of an input component
changes. For example, when a user selects a check
box.
– Are used for managing UI elements
• Phase events
– Execute as part of the JSF life cycle
– Can be used to augment standard behavior

14-4 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Action Events

• Command components raise action events.

• Code can be in the backing bean or external class.
• Stub code is generated by JDeveloper on demand.
• The action is registered in the page source.
• Action events are called in the application phase
of the life cycle.
• Action events are the last to fire after other
listeners (for example, value change events).

14-5 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Creating Action Events

• Two ways:
– Double-click a command component in the Visual
Editor.
– Enter a method name, including (), in the Action
property of the component.
• JDeveloper:
– Creates a method in the backing bean
– Adds the method to the Action property in the page
source
• Add your custom code.
• Action methods return a string outcome.

14-6 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Value Change Events

• Input components raise value change events.

• Code can be in the backing bean or external class.
• Stub code is generated by JDeveloper.
• The value change event is registered in the page
source.
• Value change events are called in the application
phase of the life cycle.
• Value change events fire before action events.

14-7 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Creating Value Change Events

• Select the input component in the Visual Editor.

• Set the valueChangeListener property to a
method name that includes ().
• JDeveloper:
– Creates the method in the backing bean
– Adds the method to the valueChangeListener
property in the page source
• Add your custom code.

14-8 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Event Listener Classes

• Action listener:
– Is a class that wants to be notified when a
command component fires an action event
– Implements
javax.faces.event.ActionListener
• Value change listener:
– Is a class that wants to be notified when an input
component fires a value change event
– Implements
javax.faces.event.ValueChangeListener

14-9 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Handling Action Events

• To listen for an action event, you need to:

– Create a class that implements a
javax.faces.event.ActionListener interface.
– Register the action listener instance on the
component’s actionListener attribute.
• To register the action listener, drag an action
listener from JSF > Core to the component.
• You can create multiple listeners on each
component.

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 Handling Value Change Events

• To handle a value change event for an input

component, you need to:
– Implement the ValueChangeListener interface
– Register the value change listener instance on the
component (using the f:valueChangeListener tag)
• To register the action listener, drag a value change
listener from JSF > Core to the component.
• You can create multiple value change listeners per
component.

14-11 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Event and Listener Execution Order

The order in which the events and listeners fire is:

• Validators
• Value change listeners
• Action listeners
• Action events

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 Validation in the JSF Life Cycle

1 4
Apply request values Update model values

2 5
Process validations: Validate model updates:
ADF Faces validation ADF validation rules
Are there ADF Yes
validation are executed
rules?

3 6 No
Yes
Successful?
Invoke application
Yes
Successful?
7
No 8 Render response: 8 No
Display either new page,
or same page with errors

14-13 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

14-14 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.
 Entity Validation in the Commit Cycle

Start posting Post entity objects

Start validating
Any entity Yes
objects invalid?

All entity Yes No

objects valid?
Commit changes

No

14-15 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Handling Validation Exceptions

• Default behavior:
– Exceptions are bundled and returned to client.
– If posted, transactions are rolled back.
– Error message(s) are displayed on the JSF page.
• You can change default behavior by:
– Creating custom exception handler
– Changing how life cycle reports exceptions
– Customizing page exception handling

14-16 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Creating Custom Exception Handlers

To create a custom error handler:

1. Create a class that extends
DCErrorHandlerImpl.
• In the new class, override the
reportException() method.
• Globally override the default error handler by
creating a custom page life cycle class that
extends FacesPageLifecycle.

14-17 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

14-18 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.
 Changing Life Cycle Exception Reporting

To customize how the life cycle reports errors:

1. Create a custom page life cycle class that extends
FacesPageLifecycle.
2. Override the reportErrors() method.
3. Create a new phase listener that returns the
custom life cycle:
a. Extend the ADFPhaseListener class.
b. Override the createPageLifecycle() method to
return the new custom life cycle.
c. Register the phase listener in faces-config.xml
(Overview tab > Life Cycle > New).

14-19 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Customizing Page Exception Handling

To override exception handling for a single page:

1. Create a custom page life cycle class that extends
FacesPageLifecycle.
2. Override the reportErrors() method.
3. Open the page definition for the page.
4. In the Structure window, select the PageDef node.
5. In the Property
Inspector, set the
ControllerClass
property to the new
class.

14-20 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 JavaServer Faces Validators

Validation can be performed through:

• Separate validator components (classes), which
provide a high degree of reusability
• Backing bean code
– Simpler to understand because code is co-located
with the subject
– Not reusable
• JSF Reference Implementation (RI). It provides
default validator components.
– No client-side validation code, such as JavaScript,
generated
– Multiple validators can be used on one input item.

14-21 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 ADF Binding Validation

• ADF Model validation

– Validator is declaratively added to the ADF attribute.
– Validation rule is enforced on the server.
• ADF Faces validation
– Validator is declared in the view layer.
– Validation rules can be enforced on the client and
the server.

14-22 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Additional ADF Faces Validators

• ADF Faces provides additional validators:

– DateRangeValidator
– RegExpValidator:
Example: [^0-9]{1,10}
– ByteLengthValidator
• ADF Faces validators support
client-side validation through JavaScript.
<af:inputText
value="#{bindings.DepartmentName.inputValue}“ ...>
<af:validateRegExp
noMatchMessageDetail="Value not allowed"
pattern="[^0-9]{1,10}"/>
</af:inputText>

14-23 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Creating Backing Bean Validation
in JDeveloper

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 Backing Bean Validator: Code Example

public void validateDepartmentId(FacesContext

facesContext, UIComponent uiComponent,Object object)
{
String expr = "[^0-9]{1,10}";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile(expr);
Matcher m = p.matcher((String)object);
//write message if input is invalid
if (!m.find()){
facesContext.addMessage("RegExError",new
FacesMessage(
FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR, "InvalidValue Provided
for Deptno",null));
facesContext.getApplication().getViewHandler().
restoreView(facesContext,"/Dept.jsp");
}
}

14-25 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Input Validation

• Use input validation to:

– Avoid “garbage in, garbage out” applications
– Block bad user input
– Avoid attacks
– Avoid misuse of form fields
• JavaServer Faces and ADF provide the following
options for validation:
– ADF binding validation
– JSF validator components
– Backing bean “coded” validation

14-26 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Summary

In this lesson, you should have learned how to:

• Describe how the JSF event model enables
developers to write their own event listener
implementations
• Use action events to fire when a component is
activated and value change events when the local
value of an input component has changed
• Use managed beans as the state holder of user
input and the component’s data
• Describe how the JSF life cycle handles validation
• Implement the types of validation provided by JSF
and ADF Faces to create robust applications

14-27 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Practice Overview:
Wiring the Application Together

This practice covers the following topics:

• Modifying the Search page to call the Edit page
• Adding code to set the context from the Search
page
• Modifying the Edit page to use the context from
the Search page
• Adding the Delete functionality to the application

14-28 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.