Initiate a PageFlow via a URL which is not a page in the PageFlow

[rgustav]

I'm trying to figure out how to launch a pageflow using a URL which routes directly into the <start-state> of the pageflow?

Specifically, the pageflow does does not have a pre-determined initial view, and must make a decision to decide which page is appropriate.

What would the pages.xml entry look like? 

<page ??? >
   <begin-conversation pageflow="thepageflow"/>
</page>

Something that looks like /ThePageFlow (w/ or w/o .seam on end) would be ideal.  Something like /ImpossibleToDetermineApriori.xhtml is totally wrong.

The Seam examples use pageflows and <start-state>, but not in this fashion.

[rgustav]

Ok, I figured this out, hopefully someone else will find this useful.

I can access with /MyPageFlow.seam using something like:

<page view-id="/MyPageFlow.xhtml" action="#{MyPageFlowAction.init}">
     <begin-conversation pageflow="MyPageFlow"/>
</page>

Note: MyPageFlow.xhtml is a NON-EXISTANT file, this is what threw me for a loop, I hadn't realized this was even possible.

Given a PageFlowDefinition snippit like:

<start-state name="Start">
     <transition name="init1" to="Page1"/>
     <transition name="init2" to="Page2"/>
</start-state>

And an action class like:

@Name("MyPageFlowAction")
public class MyPageFlowAction{
     public String init() {
          if (condition1) {
               return "init1";
          } else {
               return "init2";
          }
     }
}

Figuring out 'condition' is up to you. :)  I still need to work on getting contextual parameters passed to the init() method, but that's a separate problem.

[gothmog]

Hi Ryan,

Interesting tip, I've book marked this for when I will need it!! Did you ever come across the need for page params in page flows and did you solve it or work around it?

Troy

[andre1001]

Ryan,

I've got the same behavior without your workaround.

This is the URL sent in e-mail:
     

http://localhost:8080/menu/registroUsuario/UsuarioEdit.seam?conversationPropagation=begin.newuser&codigo=#{codigoConfirmacao}&taskId=#{taskInstance.id}

This is the newuser.jpdl.xml code:

<pageflow-definition
     xmlns="http://jboss.com/products/seam/pageflow"
     xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation= "http://jboss.com/products/seam/pageflow http://jboss.com/products/seam/pageflow-2.1.xsd"
      name="newuser">
       
    <start-page name="usuario" view-id="/registroUsuario/UsuarioEdit.xhtml" redirect="true">
         <action expression="#{registroUsuario.confirmar}"></action>
         <transition name="inicio" to="inicio"></transition>
     </start-page>
    
    <page name="inicio" view-id="/outros/inicio.xhtml"></page>
   
</pageflow-definition>

There is no need for a UsuarioEdit.page.xml file.

Thasks. I've started with your tip.

[andre1001]

By the way. The only way to choose the first page to show in pageflow is as suggested by Ryan.

I was not able to use something like a direct method invocation.

[tazz786]

Hi Ryan

I am trying to create an application whereby , the user would enter the url, like
www.ab.com/xyz...where xyz can be anything...I would then have to get the value...i.e. xyz, and then do logic and forward to the necessary pages... I have seen you solution for the above..Would your solution work for my situation, and I am new to seam, so not sure where a pageflow definition would go..I only have a pages.xml and a web.xml