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Diffstat (limited to 'documentation/datamodel/datamodel-overview.asciidoc')
| -rw-r--r-- | documentation/datamodel/datamodel-overview.asciidoc | 37 |
1 files changed, 19 insertions, 18 deletions
diff --git a/documentation/datamodel/datamodel-overview.asciidoc b/documentation/datamodel/datamodel-overview.asciidoc index a98762fd23..7e9afeb3b6 100644 --- a/documentation/datamodel/datamodel-overview.asciidoc +++ b/documentation/datamodel/datamodel-overview.asciidoc @@ -7,25 +7,26 @@ layout: page [[datamodel.overview]] = Overview -//// -TODO - - * Item: typically a Java Bean, but can also be any other Java type - * Individual values in an item: callback or bean property name - * Collections of items: In-memory list or explicitly fetched on demand from a backend -//// - The Vaadin Data Model is one of the core concepts of the library. -To allow the view (user interface components) to access the data model of an application directly, we have introduced a standard data interface. +There is a standard data interface that all UI components use to access and modify the application's data. + +The most basic UI component for handling data is a field component that lets the user define a single value, for instance a text field for writing the name of a product or a dropdown menu for selecting which department an employee belongs to. +See link:datamodel-fields.asciidoc[Editing Values in Fields] to learn how these components can be used on their own. -The model allows binding user interface components directly to data that can be viewed and possibly also edited. +In most applications, there are business classes that represent real-world objects like a single employee or a product in an inventory. +The user interface is structured as a form that lets the user edit all the different properties of a single business object instance. +Vaadin Framework makes it easy to create forms for editing these sorts. +You have full control over how you configure and lay out the individual input fields making up a form, and then you can use `Binder` to hook up those fields to a business object instance. +link:datamodel-forms.asciidoc[Binding Data to Forms] shows how to bind data to fields. -Notice that the Data Model does not define data representation, but only how components access the data. -This leaves the representation fully to the implementation of the containers. -The representation can be almost anything, such as a plain old Java object (POJO) structure, a filesystem, or a database query. +There are UI components in the framework that lists multiple similar objects and lets the user view, select and in some cases even edit those objects. +A listing component can get its data from an in-memory collection or lazily fetch it from some backend. +In either case, there are options available for defining how the data is sorted and filtered before being displayed to the user. +Read more about how to provide lists of data to these components in link:datamodel-providers.asciidoc[Showing Many Items in a Listing]. +Using a listing component as an input field to select one or many of the listed items is described in link:datamodel-selection.asciidoc[Selecting items]. -Many data model implementations, such as data sources, are available as add-ons, either from the Vaadin Directory or from independent sources. -Installation of add-ons is described in -<<dummy/../../../framework/addons/addons-overview.asciidoc#addons.overview,"Using -Vaadin Add-ons">>. -Notice that unlike with most regular add-on components, you do not need to compile a widget set for add-ons that include just data model implementations. +Vaadin Data Model topic references:: +* link:datamodel-fields.asciidoc[Editing Values in Fields] +* link:datamodel-forms.asciidoc[Binding Data to Forms] +* link:datamodel-providers.asciidoc[Showing Many Items in a Listing] +* link:datamodel-selection.asciidoc[Selecting items] |