actions on items from (framework) entity-query ?

[bengt_mansson]

Hi
I have an entity bean but I try to do without a session bean to manage it. Instead I use the framework to define an entity-query that I use in a table. Getting and displaying the members works fine, but I cannot call the methods.

<ui:repeat value="#{myquery.resultList}" var="a">
 <tr>
 <td><h:outputText value="#{a.number}" /></td>
 <td>
 <s:link action="#{a.show}" value="show" rendered="#{!a.visible}" />
 <s:link action="#{a.hide}" value="hide" rendered="#{a.visible}" />
 </td>
 </tr>
</ui:repeat>

The link will get the correct text (show or hide) depending on the value of the member visible but the actions will not work.

I guess this is not the proper way to do this, but I'm sure you understand what I try to do.
Can anyone tell me a better approach?
/Bengt

[norman.richards]

Think of "a" as a local variable. The action happens in another scope where "a" has no meaning.

[bengt_mansson]

OK, I understand that is why it is not working.
I know I can make it work with a session bean, like the clickable list in the documentation.
Is there a better way (without the session bean) where I can utilize the framework instead?
(I have tried the home object .instance but the same thing happened.)

[kukeltje]

why is using a sessionbean bad in your opinion?

[bengt_mansson]

1: The count of documents increase if I have to write a bean class and a local interface for every table where I need this feature.
This is not a big deal since these are almost trivial to write (and maybe the document count is not increased if I can do without some xml files).
2: I don't like to write trivial things.

I thought my need was common and I sort of expected that there already was a standard solution in the framework.
I can live with session beans, if that is the standard solution.

[norman.richards]

To use the framework classes, pass the id of the entity back as a parameter and map that parameter on the EntityHome. Then you can work from the instance is loaded by the home.

[kukeltje]

Oh, I agree on not having to write trivial things.... I (personally) hope that seam-gen will, in the future, generate apps with sessionbeans (like the issues example) instead of just (mainly) entitybeans. I'm currently looking into giving the web-pages generated by seam-gen a more professional look and after that I want to spent some time looking into how it generates the java code, since the webapps we have look alot like the issues example and I like the approach taken there with the selector, finder and editor beans.

[gavin.king]

I would *love* to get any improvements to the default look of the seam-gen pages. Better CSS is very welcome!

[kukeltje]

I made a jira issue for this and assigned it to myself.

http://jira.jboss.org/jira/browse/JBSEAM-642