Editable DataTable again - inserting row

[petercr4]

I would like to make a simple editable datatable with Update, Delete and Insert operations. I had no problem with Update and Delete parts.

For updating I just turned OutputText into InputText, for deleting I have a button which calls delete method on server.

What would be the right approach for inserting? I would like first to insert record only on the client side in datatable, let the user complete data, and then save it back. The problem is I don't know how to insert an empty row into DataTable.

Thanks for answer.

session bean part
...

@DataModel
 private List<SmOrganizations> organizations;

 @Factory("organizations")
 public void getOrganizations() {
 organizations = em.createQuery("select o from SmOrganizations o order by idOrganization desc").getResultList();
 }

 public void delete() {
 System.out.println("deleting...");
 SmOrganizations toDelete = em.merge(selectedOrganization);
 em.remove(toDelete);
 getOrganizations();
 }

// this is not good, shouldn't be on database immediatelly
 public void addOrganization(ActionEvent event) {
 System.out.println("addOrg called");

 newOrganization = new SmOrganizations();
 organizations.add(newOrganization);

 //em.persist(newOrganization);
 //getOrganizations();
 }

xhtml part
...

<a4j:form styleClass="richInput">
 <h:commandLink action="#{organizationManager.putInto}" value="Save" />
 <h:commandLink actionListener="#{organizationManager.addOrganization}" value="New..." />

 <rich:spacer height="30" />
 <rich:datascroller align="left" for="organizations" maxPages="20" />
 <rich:spacer height="30" />

 <rich:dataTable width="483" id="organizations" columnClasses="col"
 rows="10" value="#{organizations}" var="org" styleClass="richInput">

 <f:facet name="header">
 <rich:columnGroup>
 <h:column>
 <h:outputText styleClass="headerText" value="Id" />
 </h:column>

 <h:column>
 <h:outputText styleClass="richColumn" value="Name1" />
 </h:column>

 <h:column>
 <h:outputText styleClass="headerText" value="Address1" />
 </h:column>
 </rich:columnGroup>
 </f:facet>

 <h:column>
 <h:outputText value="#{org.idOrganization}" styleClass="richInput" width="100%" />
 </h:column>

 <h:column>
 <h:inputText value="#{org.name1}" styleClass="richInput" width="100%" />
 </h:column>

 <h:column>
 <h:inputText value="#{org.address1}" styleClass="richInput" />
 </h:column>

 <h:column>
 <h:commandButton value="Delete..." reRender="organizations" action="#{organizationManager.delete}"/>
 </h:column>

 </rich:dataTable>

 </a4j:form>

[sandman202]

I was able to do what you are wanting from help on another forum. There is probably another way to do this, but they advised creating a RowBean class to maintain the information. Here is what my RowBean class looked like:

public class RowBean
{
 private Object object;
 private Object objectBackup;
 private boolean selected = false;
 private boolean editable = false;
 private boolean adding = false;

 public RowBean(Object object)
 {
 this.object = object;
 this.objectBackup = object;
 }

 public boolean isSelected()
 {
 return selected;
 }

 public void setSelected(boolean selected)
 {
 this.selected = selected;
 }

 public boolean isEditable()
 {
 return editable;
 }

 public void setEditable(boolean editable)
 {
 this.editable = editable;
 }

 public boolean isAdding()
 {
 return adding;
 }

 public void setAdding(boolean adding)
 {
 this.adding = adding;
 }

 public Object getObject()
 {
 return object;
 }

 public void setObject(Object object)
 {
 this.object = object;
 this.objectBackup = object;
 }

 public Object getObjectBackup()
 {
 return objectBackup;
 }

 public void setObjectBackup(Object object)
 {
 this.objectBackup = object;
 }

 public void editRow(ActionEvent event)
 {
 //System.out.println("edit() called for row: " + this.id );
 editable = true;
 }
 public void saveRow(ActionEvent event)
 {
 //System.out.println("save() called for row: " + this.id );
 editable = false;
 adding = false;
 }
}

I used mine for multiple addresses. On my backing bean I used something like this to add a row:

 public void addRow(ActionEvent event)
 {
 List <RowBean> list = (List <RowBean>)dataModel.getWrappedData();
 if (list.size() == newAddress.MAX_ALLOWED)
 {
 confirmingMaxAllowed = true;
 }
 else
 {
 log.info("Adding new address.");
 newCityStateZip = new CityStateZip();
 newAddress = new Address();
 newAddress.setCityStateZip(newCityStateZip);
 newRowBean = new RowBean(newAddress);
 newRowBean.setEditable(true);
 newRowBean.setAdding(true);
 list.add(0, newRowBean);
 }
 }

This will always place the new row as the first row on your table. Validation is another story.

The only problem with using this is there is a lot of maintenance code needed. For me, I wanted to maintain the information in memory and one save it to the database when the user pressed "save" and discard the information if they pressed "cancel". This added a lot of extra coding. If you stored it directly to the database, it would be a lot easier.

I hope this helps. By the way, I am using ICEFaces and their forum is where I received the help.

[petercr4]

Thank you sandman202. I'll try with your approach and check ICEFaces too.