Conversation management in a desktop-like applikation

[jbuechel]

I'm developing an application which has a similar look and feel as a desktop app. So there is a dropdown menu.

What i've done to open the different modules from the menu is just like this:

old menuItem.xhtml

<rich:menuItem value="#{messages.menu_manage_persons}"
 action="/modules/manageCatalogs/persons/main.xhtml" />
.....

As i'm thinking of having a new long-running-conversation on each (more complex) module.
For ending the previous conversation for each menu item i ended up in writing a more complicated (more code) solution as following:

new menuItem.xhtml

<rich:menuItem value="#{messages.menu_manage_persons}"
 action="#{navigationManager.managePersons}" />

new NavigationManager class

@Scope(ScopeType.STATELESS)
@Name("navigationManager")
public class NavigationManager {

 public void queryOnlineDirectory() {

 }
 public void managePersons() {

 }
...

new entry in pages.xml

<page view-id="/*" login-required="true">

 <navigation from-action="#{navigationManager.queryOnlineDirectory}">
 <end-conversation />
 <redirect view-id="/modules/queryCatalog/catalog/main.xhtml" />
 </navigation>
 <navigation from-action="#{navigationManager.managePersons}">
 <end-conversation />
 <redirect view-id="/modules/manageCatalogs/persons/main.xhtml" />
 </navigation>
 ....
 </page>

I tried quite a lot ways to get around the NavigationManager class, but i couldn't figure out to achive this..

It would be greate if someone could give me a hint how to get around the use of the NavigationManager class (there are much more menu items of course and i don't like to implement this "needless" class)..

[swd847]

Seam contains el enhancements that allow you to pass parameters to action methods, so to make it a bit less verbose you could try:

@End
String navFunc(String param)
{
return param;
}

<rich:menuItem value="#{messages.menu_manage_persons}"
action="#{MyClass.navFunc('/modules/manageCatalogs/persons/main.xhtml')}" />

Although you still need a class to put the navFunc method on, so it does not help that much.

[pmuir]

Why not send logical outcomes from the action="" on the menu and then do a outcome based navigation in pages.xml

[jbuechel]

@swd847:
Thanks, anyway this sounds better than the current solution.

@Pete:
Thanks, that was exactly what i was looking for. I didn't even know that's possible!

For those who are interested and happy about a code snippet:
menuItems.xhtml

<rich:menuItem value="#{messages.menu_manage_persons}"
 action="manage_persons"
 rendered="#{s:hasRole('manage_persons')}" />

pages.xml

<page view-id="/*" login-required="true">
 <navigation>
...
 <rule if-outcome="manage_persons">
 <end-conversation />
 <redirect view-id="/modules/manageCatalogs/persons/main.xhtml" />
 </rule>
...
 </navigation>
</page>

[jbuechel]

I'm still fighting with the conversation management:
I'm trying to begin and end conversations through configuration within the pages.xml:

<page view-id="/*" login-required="true">
 <action execute="#{conversationTracker.logConversationState}" />

 <navigation>
 <rule if-outcome="query_online_directory">
 <end-conversation before-redirect="true" />
 <redirect view-id="/modules/queryCatalog/catalog/main.xhtml" />
 </rule>
 <rule if-outcome="manage_organigrams">
 <end-conversation before-redirect="true"/>
 <redirect view-id="/modules/manageCatalogs/organigram/selectMission.xhtml" />
 </rule>
 </navigation>
 </page>

 <page view-id="/modules/manageCatalogs/organigram/selectMission.xhtml">
 <navigation evaluate="#{conversation.longRunning}">
 <rule if-outcome="false">
 <begin-conversation join="false" flush-mode="manual" />
 </rule>
 </navigation>
 </page>

My intention is to end the previous long running conversation and begin an new one on the outcome "manage_organigrams".

It's almost working:
Case 1:
If the previous view-id was "/modules/queryCatalog/catalog/main.xhtml" i get the "The conversation ended, timed out or was processing another request" message after a few clicks within the view-id "/modules/manageCatalogs/organigram/selectMission.xhtml".

Case 2:
If the previous view-id was "/modules/manageCatalogs/organigram/selectMission.xhtml" it's working correctly..

Some output from the conversation tracker:
Case 1:
Click on menu item which switchs from view-id "/modules/queryCatalog/catalog/main.xhtml" to view-id "/modules/manageCatalogs/organigram/selectMission.xhtml":

14:06:59,187 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] *********** Start log entry ***********
14:06:59,187 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] LONG RUNNING CONVERSATION: NO
14:06:59,187 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] NESTED CONVERSATION: NO
14:06:59,187 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] CONVERSATION ID: 59
14:06:59,187 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] CONVERSATION VIEW ID: null
14:06:59,187 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] CONVERSATION DESCRIPTION: null
14:06:59,187 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] ************ End log entry ************
14:06:59,187 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] BEGIN CONVERSATION: 59
14:06:59,328 DEBUG [MissionServiceImpl] initializeMissions() called
14:06:59,343 INFO [STDOUT] Hibernate: select mission0_.id as id4_, mission0_.name as name4_, mission0_.identifier as identifier4_, mission0_.enddate as enddate4_, mission0_.startdate as startdate4_, mission0_.active as active4_, mission0_.activationDate as activati7_4_, mission0_.deactivationDate as deactiva8_4_ from NMSWEBOWN.Mission mission0_ order by mission0_.name

Click 1 withing view-id "/modules/manageCatalogs/organigram/selectMission.xhtml":

14:07:05,515 INFO [MissionDataModelManager] select() called
14:07:05,531 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] *********** Start log entry ***********
14:07:05,531 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] LONG RUNNING CONVERSATION: YES
14:07:05,531 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] NESTED CONVERSATION: NO
14:07:05,531 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] CONVERSATION ID: 59
14:07:05,531 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] CONVERSATION VIEW ID: null
14:07:05,531 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] CONVERSATION DESCRIPTION: null
14:07:05,531 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] ************ End log entry ************

Click 2 withing view-id "/modules/manageCatalogs/organigram/selectMission.xhtml":

14:07:13,546 DEBUG [MissionServiceImpl] initializeMissions() called
14:07:13,546 INFO [STDOUT] Hibernate: select mission0_.id as id4_, mission0_.name as name4_, mission0_.identifier as identifier4_, mission0_.enddate as enddate4_, mission0_.startdate as startdate4_, mission0_.active as active4_, mission0_.activationDate as activati7_4_, mission0_.deactivationDate as deactiva8_4_ from NMSWEBOWN.Mission mission0_ order by mission0_.name
14:07:13,625 INFO [MissionDataModelManager] select() called
14:07:13,625 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] BEGIN CONVERSATION: 60
14:07:13,625 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] *********** Start log entry ***********
14:07:13,625 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] LONG RUNNING CONVERSATION: YES
14:07:13,625 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] NESTED CONVERSATION: NO
14:07:13,625 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] CONVERSATION ID: 60
14:07:13,625 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] CONVERSATION VIEW ID: null
14:07:13,625 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] CONVERSATION DESCRIPTION: null
14:07:13,625 DEBUG [ConversationTracker] ************ End log entry ************

After click 2 the conversation is lost somehow and the message "The conversation ended, timed out or was processing another request" is displayed.

Case 2:
Click on menu item which reloads view-id "/modules/manageCatalogs/organigram/selectMission.xhtml":
It works fine and i can do as many clicks withing view-id "/modules/manageCatalogs/organigram/selectMission.xhtml" as i want..

Help would be very appreciated cause i'm really running out of ideas..

[jbuechel]

I just figured out if i add the following to the pages.xml it works for this two view-ids..

<page view-id="/modules/queryCatalog/catalog/main.xhtml">
 <navigation evaluate="#{conversation.longRunning}">
 <rule if-outcome="false">
 <begin-conversation join="false" flush-mode="manual" />
 </rule>
 </navigation>
 </page>

So the shaky behavior seems to depend on wether the conversation of the previous view-id was long running or not.. !?