1 Reply Latest reply on Mar 5, 2009 7:05 PM by jguglielmin

Problem with inter portlet communication and seam

sey Mar 5, 2009 6:40 PM

Hi

We are trying to develop a simple scenario with two portlets which communicate with each other. In the first portlet there is a list with customers. If a customer gets selected (over ice:rowSelector), the second portlet should display detailed information about this customer.

We are using the latest version of JBoss Seam and tried ICEfaces 1.7.2 as well as 1.8.0RC1. As portal we are using the JBoss Portal 2.7.1 (running on JBoss AS 4.2.3).

Each portlet is backed by a Seam Bean. The first portlet by CustomerListAction and the second portlet by CustomerDetailsAction.

[b]CustomerListAction[/b]
[quote]
@Stateful
@Scope(org.jboss.seam.ScopeType.SESSION)
@Name("customerList")
public class CustomerListAction implements CustomerList {
     @PersistenceContext
     private EntityManager em;

     @DataModel("customers")
     private List<Customer> customers;

     @Out(required=false)
     private Customer selectedCustomer;

     @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
     @Factory("customers")
     public void getCustomers() {
          System.out.print("CustomerListAction / getCustomers = getCustomers called");
          System.out.println("CustomerListAction / getCustomers = sessionId: " + ((InterceptingPortletSession) FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getSession(true)).getId());

          customers = (List<Customer>) em.createQuery("from Customer").getResultList();
     }

     public void select(Customer c) {
          System.out.print("CustomerListAction / getCustomers = select called (customer name -> " + c.getName() + ")");
          selectedCustomer = c;

          System.out.println("CustomerListAction / getCustomers = sessionId: " + ((InterceptingPortletSession) FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getSession(true)).getId());

          Context ctx = Contexts.getSessionContext();
          ctx.set("customer", c);

          Events.instance().raiseEvent("showCustomerDetails");
     }

     @Remove
     public void remove() {}
}
[/quote]

[b]CustomerDetailsAction[/b]
[quote]
@Stateful
@Scope(ScopeType.SESSION)
@Name("customerDetails")
public class CustomerDetailsAction implements CustomerDetails {
     @Out
     private int tempInt;

     @Out(required = false)
     private Customer customerToDisplay;

     @Factory("tempInt")
     public void initTempInt() {
          tempInt = 1000;

          System.out.println("CustomerDetailsAction / initTempInt = tempIntInit called");
          System.out.println("CustomerDetailsAction / initTempInt = instance: " + this.hashCode());
          System.out.println("CustomerDetailsAction / initTempInt = sessionId: " + ((InterceptingPortletSession) FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getSession(true)).getId());
     }

     @Observer("showCustomerDetails")
     public void getCustomer() {
          System.out.println("CustomerDetailsAction / getCustomer = getCustomer called");

          customerToDisplay = (Customer) Contexts.getSessionContext().get("customer");

          tempInt++;
          System.out.println("CustomerDetailsAction / getCustomer = tmpInt: " + tempInt);
          System.out.println("CustomerDetailsAction / getCustomer = instance: " + this.hashCode());
          System.out.println("CustomerDetailsAction / getCustomer = sessionId: " + ((InterceptingPortletSession) FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getSession(true)).getId());

          if(customerToDisplay != null)
               System.out.println("CustomerDetailsAction / getCustomer = customerToDisplay.name: " + customerToDisplay.getName());

          // Didn't change anything
          //SessionRenderer.addCurrentSession("test");
          //SessionRenderer.render("test");
     }

     @Remove
     public void remove() {}
}
[/quote]

The xhtml files:

[b]customerList.xhtml[/b]
[quote]
<f:view xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
          xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
          xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
          xmlns:ice="http://www.icesoft.com/icefaces/component">

     <ice:outputDeclaration doctypeRoot="HTML"
                                 doctypePublic="-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
                                 doctypeSystem="http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/transitional.dtd"/>

     <ice:portlet styleClass="componentBoxPortlet">
          <ice:outputStyle href="/xmlhttp/css/rime/rime-portlet.css"/>

          <ice:form>
          <ice:dataTable var="cust" value="#{customers}" rows="15" columnClasses="tableCol">
               <ice:column>
                    <ice:rowSelector value="#{cust.selected}"
                                         selectedClass="tableRowSelected" mouseOverClass="tableRowMouseOver"
                                         selectionAction="#{customerList.select(cust)}"
                              />

                    <f:facet name="header">Customer</f:facet>
                    <ice:outputText value="#{cust.name}"/>
               </ice:column>
               <ice:column>
                    <f:facet name="header">City</f:facet>
                    <ice:outputText value="#{cust.city}" />
               </ice:column>
          </ice:dataTable>
          </ice:form>

          <ice:panelGrid columns="2"
                            styleClass="exampleBox buttonsAndLinksContainer"
                            rowClasses="textFieldNameRow">

               <ice:outputLabel for="txtCustomerName">Name</ice:outputLabel>
               <ice:outputText id="txtCustomerName" value="#{selectedCustomer.name}" />

          </ice:panelGrid>

     </ice:portlet>
</f:view>
[/quote]

[b]customerDetails.xhtml[/b]
[quote]
<f:view xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
          xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
          xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
          xmlns:ice="http://www.icesoft.com/icefaces/component">

     <ice:outputDeclaration doctypeRoot="HTML"
                                 doctypePublic="-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
                                 doctypeSystem="http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/transitional.dtd"/>

     <ice:portlet styleClass="componentBoxPortlet">
          <ice:outputStyle href="/xmlhttp/css/rime/rime-portlet.css"/>

          <ice:messages/>

          <ice:outputText value="#{tempInt}" />

          <ice:form>
          <ice:panelGrid columns="2"
                            styleClass="exampleBox buttonsAndLinksContainer"
                            rowClasses="textFieldNameRow">

               <ice:outputLabel for="txtCustomerName1">Int</ice:outputLabel>
               <ice:outputText id="txtCustomerName1" value="#{tempInt}" />

               <ice:outputLabel for="txtCustomerName">Name</ice:outputLabel>
               <ice:outputText id="txtCustomerName" value="#{customerToDisplay.name}" />

               <ice:outputLabel for="txtCustomerStreet">Street</ice:outputLabel>
               <ice:outputText id="txtCustomerStreet" value="#{customerToDisplay.street}" />

               <ice:outputLabel for="txtCustomerCity">City</ice:outputLabel>
               <ice:outputText id="txtCustomerCity" value="#{customerToDisplay.city}" />

               <ice:outputLabel for="txtCustomerZip">Zip</ice:outputLabel>
               <ice:outputText id="txtCustomerZip" value="#{customerToDisplay.zip}" />

               <ice:outputLabel for="txtCustomerContactPerson">Contact Person</ice:outputLabel>
               <ice:outputText id="txtCustomerContactPerson" value="#{customerToDisplay.contactPerson}" />

               <ice:outputLabel for="txtCustomerPhone">Phone</ice:outputLabel>
               <ice:outputText id="txtCustomerPhone" value="#{customerToDisplay.phone}" />

               <ice:outputLabel for="txtCustomerWebsite">Website</ice:outputLabel>
               <ice:outputText id="txtCustomerWebsite" value="#{customerToDisplay.website}" />
          </ice:panelGrid>
          </ice:form>

     </ice:portlet>
</f:view>
[/quote]

The problem is that the second portlet doesn't update its content over the Ajax Push mechanism provided by ICEfaces. We added for debuging purposes the "tempInt" value. If the example gets executed the following console output appears:

[quote]
18:19:44,533 INFO [STDOUT] CustomerListAction / getCustomers = getCustomers called
18:19:44,533 INFO [STDOUT] CustomerListAction / getCustomers = sessionId: AB17EE2E6060B1373B969F0A6FB7959E
18:19:44,533 INFO [STDOUT] Hibernate: select customer0_.id as id390_, customer0_.name as name390_, customer0_.street as street390_, customer0_.city a
s city390_, customer0_.zip as zip390_, customer0_.contactPerson as contactP6_390_, customer0_.phone as phone390_, customer0_.website as website390_ fr
om Customer customer0_
18:19:44,626 INFO [STDOUT] CustomerDetailsAction / initTempInt = tempIntInit called
18:19:44,642 INFO [STDOUT] CustomerDetailsAction / initTempInt = instance: 24848986
18:19:44,642 INFO [STDOUT] CustomerDetailsAction / initTempInt = sessionId: AB17EE2E6060B1373B969F0A6FB7959E
18:19:49,501 INFO [STDOUT] CustomerListAction / getCustomers = select called (customer name -> coresystems1)
18:19:49,501 INFO [STDOUT] CustomerListAction / getCustomers = sessionId: AB17EE2E6060B1373B969F0A6FB7959E
18:19:49,501 INFO [STDOUT] CustomerDetailsAction / getCustomer = getCustomer called
18:19:49,501 INFO [STDOUT] CustomerDetailsAction / getCustomer = tmpInt: 1
18:19:49,501 INFO [STDOUT] CustomerDetailsAction / getCustomer = instance: 25697662
18:19:49,501 INFO [STDOUT] CustomerDetailsAction / getCustomer = sessionId: AB17EE2E6060B1373B969F0A6FB7959E
18:19:49,501 INFO [STDOUT] CustomerDetailsAction / getCustomer = customerToDisplay.name: coresystems1
[/quote]

This indicates the problem: The first time the second portlet loads its xhtml, Seam associates a different CustomerDetailsAction-Bean to the portlet than in the following requests. The tempInt variable gets initialized over the factory method with the value 1000. When now a customer gets selected in the first portlet, the event gets to the CustomerDetailsAction-Bean but on a different instance than it is associated with the portlet.

1. Re: Problem with inter portlet communication and seam

jguglielmin Mar 5, 2009 7:05 PM (in response to sey)

ICEfaces has it's own portlet bridge so does not require the jboss portlet bridge. Have you reviewed the portlet examples (showing IPC) within the ICEfaces distribution package?
There is a seam portlet example in seam-comp-showcase (with the targets for various portlet deployments) available in the ICEfaces download page This last example should show the configuration of seam with portlet development.

If you haven't already seen this, please take a look at them and visit the ICEfaces forums (there are sections for jboss seam integration as well as Portals and Portlets
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