Is managing conversations in *.page.xml files good practice?

[lawrieg]

Hi,

Seam-gen generates apps which have their conversational behaviour managed (i.e. have their conversations begun and ended) by settings in their *.page.xml files. However, the reference documentation doesn't mention this practice, and none of the Seam example apps appear to be coded this way.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach?

And, is this actually "best practice" that I should follow in my apps or not?

I'm also wondering whether this practice will hold up if my pages get more complicated (for example, a page with a list of Customers on the LHS and on the RHS allowing you to edit a selected that you have selected from the list)?

Thanks,

Lawrie

[pmuir]

It's pretty new (since 1.1.5 or 1.1.6) (hence no examples) but I have to say I find it wonderful (I use a mix of .page.xml and pages.xml - and there should be /path/to//view/pages.xml soon for a medium-granularity approach).

I find it fits *really* well with putting navigation in pages.xml - its all in one place. It certainly beats the propagation attribute on s:link (except for propagation="none") and means my backing beans are much cleaner and means that all the wiring is there.

Give it a go - the ref manual contains all you need to know IIRC.

[gavin.king]

I think its a good idea if you are trying to create more "reuseable" components, and separate orchestration out of the Java code.