org.jboss.errai.ui.shared.TemplateUtil has a BIG restriction.

Errai let's you create your own custom widgets and "paint" them with a template.

We are creating a "item" tipe widget to paint all the items of a ListWidget. As we'd like to paint each item with a "<tr>......</tr>" like template we are limited with the TemplateUtil.java's restriction (what I see also as a error or bug):

public static Element getRootTemplateElement(String templateContents, final String templateFileName, final String rootField) {
    String key = templateFileName + "#" + rootField;
    if (templateRoots.containsKey(key)) {
      return cloneWithEmptyParent(templateRoots.get(key));
    }

    Element parserDiv = DOM.createDiv();
    parserDiv.setInnerHTML(templateContents);
    if (rootField != null && !rootField.trim().isEmpty()) {
      logger.finer("Locating root element: " + rootField);
      VisitContext<TaggedElement> context = Visit.depthFirst(parserDiv, new Visitor<TaggedElement>() {
        @Override
        public boolean visit(VisitContextMutable<TaggedElement> context, Element element) {
          for (AttributeType attrType : AttributeType.values()) {
            String attrName = attrType.getAttributeName();
            TaggedElement existingCandidate = context.getResult();
            if (element.hasAttribute(attrName) && element.getAttribute(attrName).equals(rootField)
                && (existingCandidate == null || existingCandidate.getAttributeType().ordinal() < attrType.ordinal())) {
              context.setResult(new TaggedElement(attrType, element));
            }
          }
          return true;
        }
      });


      if (context.getResult() != null) {
        parserDiv = DOM.createDiv();
        parserDiv.appendChild(context.getResult().getElement());
      }
      else {
        throw new IllegalStateException("Could not locate Element in template with data-field, id or class = [" + rootField + "]\n"
                + parserDiv.getInnerHTML());
      }
    }


    logger.finest(parserDiv.getInnerHTML().trim());


    final Element templateRoot = firstNonMetaElement(parserDiv);
    if (templateRoot == null) {
      throw new IllegalStateException("Could not find template root for this template: " + templateContents);
    }
    else {
      templateRoots.put(key, templateRoot);
      return cloneWithEmptyParent(templateRoot);
    }
  }

The part I've painted in RED is not correct as it restricts the use of "not DIV like" @Templated annotated widgets.

Errai creates a DIV like content and then sets the innerHtml, this way your Html is restricted and changed.

Example:

templateContents = "<tr class="odd">

                                        <td class="limiter chkbox"><div id="check"></div></td>

                                        <td class="limiter" data-label="Codigo"><div id="codigo"></div></td>

                                        <td data-label="Artículo"><div id="articulo"></div></td>

                                </tr>"

.......................pases from here...........................

Element parserDiv = DOM.createDiv();

parserDiv.setInnerHTML(templateContents);

.........................................................................

parserDiv = "<div>

                          <div id="check"></div>

                          <div id="codigo"></div>

                          <div id="articulo"></div>

                  <div>"

This way you cant generete "NON DIV LIKE" widget's. What restricts for example the use of ListWidget.java class where each one of the items is a "TR like" html widget.

csa mbarkley ¿Could it be that this is not a expected use of Errai? ¿Or something fixable in next versions? I've come out with a fix... but I don't know what to do.

Willing to listen what people thinks or says about this.

Thanks to everyone!!