--- /dev/null
+[[creating-a-customfield-for-editing-the-address-of-a-person]]
+Creating a CustomField for editing the address of a person
+----------------------------------------------------------
+
+A normal use case is that you want to create a form out a bean that the
+user can edit. Often these beans contain references to other beans as
+well, and you have to create a separate editor for those. This tutorial
+goes through on how to edit an `Address` bean which is inside a `Person`
+bean with the use of `CustomField` and `FieldGroup`.
+
+Here are the `Person` and `Address` beans
+
+[source,java]
+....
+public class Person {
+ private String firstName;
+ private String lastName;
+ private Address address;
+ private String phoneNumber;
+ private String email;
+ private Date dateOfBirth;
+ private String comments;
+
+ //Getters and setters
+}
+....
+
+[source,java]
+....
+public class Address {
+ private String street;
+ private String zip;
+ private String city;
+ private String country;
+
+ // Getters and setters
+}
+....
+
+[[creating-a-new-field]]
+Creating a new field
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The first step is to create a new field which represents the editor for
+the address. In this case the field itself will be a button. The button
+will open a window where you have all the address fields. The address
+will be stored back when the user closes the window.
+
+[source,java]
+....
+public class AddressPopup extends CustomField<Address> {
+ @Override
+ protected Component initContent() {
+ return null;
+ }
+
+ @Override
+ public Class<Address> getType() {
+ return Address.class;
+ }
+}
+....
+
+CustomField requires that you implement two methods, `initContent()` and
+`getType()`. `initContent()` creates the actual visual representation of
+your field. `getType()` tells the field which type of data will be handled
+by the field. In our case it is an `Address` object so we return
+`Address.class` in the method.
+
+[[creating-the-content]]
+Creating the content
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Next up we create the actual button that will be visible in the person
+editor when the CustomField is rendered. This button should open up a
+new window where the user can edit the address.
+
+[source,java]
+....
+@Override
+protected Component initContent() {
+ final Window window = new Window("Edit address");
+ final Button button = new Button("Open address editor", new ClickListener() {
+ public void buttonClick(ClickEvent event) {
+ getUI().addWindow(window);
+ }
+ });
+ return button;
+}
+....
+
+This is enough to attach the field to the person editor, but the window
+will be empty and it won't modify the data in any way.
+
+[[creating-the-editable-fields]]
+Creating the editable fields
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The address object contains four strings - street, zip, city and
+country. For the three latter a `TextField` is good for editing, but the
+street address can contain multiple row so a `TextArea` is better here.
+All the fields have to be put into a layout and the layout has to be set
+as the content of the window. `FormLayout` is a good choice here to nicely
+align up the captions and fields of the window.
+
+[source,java]
+....
+FormLayout layout = new FormLayout();
+TextArea street = new TextArea("Street address:");
+TextField zip = new TextField("Zip code:");
+TextField city = new TextField("City:");
+TextField country = new TextField("Country:");
+layout.addComponent(street);
+layout.addComponent(zip);
+layout.addComponent(city);
+layout.addComponent(country);
+window.setContent(layout);
+....
+
+The field is now visually ready but it doesn't contain or affect any
+data. You want to also modify the sizes as well to make it look a bit
+nicer:
+
+[source,java]
+....
+window.center();
+window.setWidth(null);
+layout.setWidth(null);
+layout.setMargin(true);
+....
+
+[[binding-the-address-to-the-field]]
+Binding the address to the field
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+A FieldGroup can be used to bind the data of an Address bean into the
+fields. We create a member variable for a FieldGroup and initialize it
+within the createContent() -method:
+
+[source,java]
+....
+fieldGroup = new BeanFieldGroup<Address>(Address.class);
+fieldGroup.bind(street, "street");
+fieldGroup.bind(zip, "zip");
+fieldGroup.bind(city, "city");
+fieldGroup.bind(country, "country");
+....
+
+The `FieldGroup` of the person editor will call
+`AddressPopup.setValue(person.getAddress())` when we start to edit our
+person. We need to override `setInternalValue(Address)` to get the `Address`
+object and pass it to the `FieldGroup` of the address editor.
+
+[source,java]
+....
+@Override
+protected void setInternalValue(Address address) {
+ super.setInternalValue(address);
+ fieldGroup.setItemDataSource(new BeanItem<Address>(address));
+}
+....
+
+The last thing that has to be done is save the modifications made by the
+user back into the `Address` bean. This is done with a `commit()` call to
+the `FieldGroup`, which can be made for example when the window is closed:
+
+[source,java]
+....
+window.addCloseListener(new CloseListener() {
+ public void windowClose(CloseEvent e) {
+ try {
+ fieldGroup.commit();
+ } catch (CommitException ex) {
+ ex.printStackTrace();
+ }
+ }
+});
+....
+
+Now you need to attach the `AddressPopup` custom field into the person
+editor through it's `FieldGroup` and you have a working editor.
+
+[[complete-code]]
+Complete code
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+[source,java]
+....
+package com.example.addressforms.fields;
+
+import com.example.addressforms.data.Address;
+import com.vaadin.data.fieldgroup.BeanFieldGroup;
+import com.vaadin.data.fieldgroup.FieldGroup;
+import com.vaadin.data.fieldgroup.FieldGroup.CommitException;
+import com.vaadin.data.util.BeanItem;
+import com.vaadin.ui.Button;
+import com.vaadin.ui.Button.ClickEvent;
+import com.vaadin.ui.Button.ClickListener;
+import com.vaadin.ui.Component;
+import com.vaadin.ui.CustomField;
+import com.vaadin.ui.FormLayout;
+import com.vaadin.ui.TextArea;
+import com.vaadin.ui.TextField;
+import com.vaadin.ui.Window;
+import com.vaadin.ui.Window.CloseEvent;
+import com.vaadin.ui.Window.CloseListener;
+
+public class AddressPopup extends CustomField<Address> {
+ private FieldGroup fieldGroup;
+
+ @Override
+ protected Component initContent() {
+ FormLayout layout = new FormLayout();
+ final Window window = new Window("Edit address", layout);
+ TextArea street = new TextArea("Street address:");
+ TextField zip = new TextField("Zip code:");
+ TextField city = new TextField("City:");
+ TextField country = new TextField("Country:");
+ layout.addComponent(street);
+ layout.addComponent(zip);
+ layout.addComponent(city);
+ layout.addComponent(country);
+
+ fieldGroup = new BeanFieldGroup<Address>(Address.class);
+ fieldGroup.bind(street, "street");
+ fieldGroup.bind(zip, "zip");
+ fieldGroup.bind(city, "city");
+ fieldGroup.bind(country, "country");
+ Button button = new Button("Open address editor", new ClickListener() {
+ public void buttonClick(ClickEvent event) {
+ getUI().addWindow(window);
+ }
+ });
+ window.addCloseListener(new CloseListener() {
+ public void windowClose(CloseEvent e) {
+ try {
+ fieldGroup.commit();
+ } catch (CommitException ex) {
+ ex.printStackTrace();
+ }
+ }
+ });
+
+ window.center();
+ window.setWidth(null);
+ layout.setWidth(null);
+ layout.setMargin(true);
+ return button;
+ }
+
+ @Override
+ public Class<Address> getType() {
+ return Address.class;
+ }
+
+ @Override
+ protected void setInternalValue(Address address) {
+ super.setInternalValue(address);
+ fieldGroup.setItemDataSource(new BeanItem<Address>(address));
+ }
+}
+....
+
+image:img/person%20editor.png[Address editor]
+
+image:img/address%20editor.png[Address editor window]
projects / vaadin-framework.git / commitdiff
