Over the past few years of J2EE development I have tacked the same problems over and over. One such problem is retrieving data and displaying it in an html table. I have taken what I have learned and threw it in a project on sourceforge: http://valuelist.sourceforge.net. I am looking for some constructive criticism from all you J2EE experts out there.

Here are a few points to start the conversation.

1) Would you use this implementation of the ValueList pattern, over implementing your own for a given project?

2) I would like to have the ValueList project focus on just the backend services, but I cannot find any good set of custom tags to use for the view. So I wrote my own:( Does anyone know of a good library out there?

I check VLH all this afternoon. Its pretty cool. GOOD JOB....
Now, thought I am working on Hibernate, I am using DefaultDynAdapter to display my asset list. Do you have any example of how to feed this DynaBean to Display tag ??


I am working on a prototype and need to be done by this week. I will update you regarding VLH, after the design review next week.


-ravi

I check VLH all this afternoon. Its pretty cool. GOOD JOB....Now, thought I am working on Hibernate, I am using DefaultDynAdapter to display my asset list. Do you have any example of how to feed this DynaBean to Display tag ??I am working on a prototype and need to be done by this week. I will update you regarding VLH, after the design review next week.

-ravi

The valuelist.war has plenty of examples using the DefaultDynAdapter with my custom taglibs.

Here is one example:
  ...
  <% Calls the service. %>
  <vlh:retrieve name="nbaPlayers" value="list" />
  ...
  <% Displays the results. %>
  <table width="450" class="simple" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
    <vlh:row value="list" url="?" bean="player">
      <vlh:column title="playerid" property="playerid" sortable="desc" />
      <vlh:column title="teamname" property="teamname" sortable="desc" />
      <vlh:column title="firstname" property="firstname" sortable="desc" />
      <vlh:column title="lastname" property="lastname" sortable="desc" />
      <vlh:column title="status" property="status" sortable="desc" />
      <vlh:column title="pos" property="pos" sortable="desc" />
    </vlh:row>
  </table>
  ...
See cvs for all the examples.

I did not relize I had no jsp example posted. I'll get one posted this evening.

-Matthew

:(

I posted VLH link on www.javablogs.com

also please check http://jroller.com/page/m_ravi/20040607#matthew_wilson_s_value_list1


cheers
ravi

I posted VLH link on www.javablogs.comalso please check http://jroller.com/page/m_ravi/20040607#matthew_wilson_s_value_list1cheersravi

Thanks for the good post:) How did you use the ValueListHandler, and did it meet all your needs?

I would consider such a tag library being much more useful if it generated valid XHML. http://validator.w3.org/

I get the following errors:

Line 45, column 43: general entity "pagingPage" not defined and no default entity.

Do you need to write urls like this?
nextPage.jsp?name=matt&amp;age=54

Line 45, column 152: there is no attribute "border"

There is no attribute "border" for image? How do you prevent IE from puting a border around your images?

Line 45, column 155: required attribute "alt" not specified

I will fix this. The img tag is missing the alt property.

Line 46, column 15: "nowrap" is not a member of a group specified for any attribute

Line 46, column 146: end tag for "img" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified

This I will fix. I have <img src="">, instead of <img src=""/>


Would this really be "much more useful" if the above where fixed? I usually code to html4,

Looking for feedback,
Matt

Hello

I'd like to use your Value List Handler, but apparently, I have to configure my datasource in a specific config file.
What about if my datasource is configured by the admin appserver ?
Is it possible to tell to the VLH only the jndi name of my datasource ?

Thanks by advance for your answer

HelloI'd like to use your Value List Handler, but apparently, I have to configure my datasource in a specific config file. What about if my datasource is configured by the admin appserver ?Is it possible to tell to the VLH only the jndi name of my datasource ?Thanks by advance for your answer

Spring is used to bind the DataSource to the adapter. You could extend the adapter and then pull the dataqsource from the jndi tree. Or maybe Sring can access the jndi tree, that would be a question for the dpring team.

Hi Wilson,

(1) How do you implement editable grids?And save the records using hibernate in one batch

Regards
KumarV

Can you provide the latest source code zip for download

its in cvs at valuelist.sourceforge.net

Dear Matthew:

I deployed valuelist.war in Tomcat-4.1.29, and when browsing to index.jsp, I've got the following error. Do you mind giving me pointers on how to resolve it? The JDK is 1.4.2

Thank you.

wiwit



SEVERE: Context initialization failed
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Error registerin
g bean with name '(inner bean definition)' defined in resource [/WEB-INF/classes
/applicationContext.xml] of ServletContext: Bean class [net.mlw.vlh.adapter.file
.FileSystemAdapter] not found; nested exception is java.lang.ClassNotFoundExcept
ion: net.mlw.vlh.adapter.file.FileSystemAdapter
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: net.mlw.vlh.adapter.file.FileSystemAdapter
        at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoa
der.java:1443)
        at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoa
der.java:1289)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:302)
        at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
        at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:219)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.
parseBeanDefinition(DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.java:245)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.
parsePropertySubelement(DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.java:423)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.
getMap(DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.java:507)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.
parsePropertySubelement(DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.java:458)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.
getPropertyValue(DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.java:414)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.
parsePropertyElement(DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.java:386)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.
getPropertyValueSubElements(DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.java:334)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.
parseBeanDefinition(DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.java:238)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.
loadBeanDefinition(DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.java:200)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.
registerBeanDefinitions(DefaultXmlBeanDefinitionParser.java:152)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.registe
rBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:161)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBea
nDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:127)
        at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractXmlApplicationContext.loa
dBeanDefinitions(AbstractXmlApplicationContext.java:123)
        at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractXmlApplicationContext.ref
reshBeanFactory(AbstractXmlApplicationContext.java:65)
        at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refres
h(AbstractApplicationContext.java:232)
        at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.refr
esh(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:131)
        at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationCon
text(ContextLoader.java:154)
        at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationConte
xt(ContextLoader.java:95)
        at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitiali
zed(ContextLoaderListener.java:48)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContex
t.java:3271)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:3
613)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase
.java:821)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:80
7)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:595)

        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostDeployer.install(StandardHostDep
loyer.java:307)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.install(StandardHost.java:788)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWARs(HostConfig.java:492
)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:400
)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.run(HostConfig.java:851)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534)

I have a bug in my maven build process. Give it another try.

I tried to look for decent docs on the site but couldn't find them, the tutorial also seems incomplete. Did i somehow miss them?. if i wanted to start where exactly would be the best place to start?

thanx.

Start with the Overview.

Then take a look at the samples.

The tutorial is a work in progress...

Start with the Overview.Then take a look at the samples.The tutorial is a work in progress...

Ok the overview looks interesting not forgetting the project itself. Thanks for the pointers.

how about to add ibatisApater?

ibatis can easily create dynamic SQL querys to replace the sql in applicationContext,so i can just use it with something like this:

 <entry key="nbaTeams">
          <bean class="net.mlw.vlh.adapter.ibatis.ibatisAdapter">
            <property name="dataSource"><ref bean="myDataSource"/></property>
            <property name="useName"><value>false</value></property>
            <property name="sqlMap">
              <value>
                       dynamicSql <!----which is just a string
              </value>
            </property>
          </bean>
        </entry>

so I can just easy test accoding db and vls!
I am just getting start to do this job,hope i can do this quickly!

by the way: I can't find the changelog in the web :(

sorry for my pool english!

I am VERY intersted in getting an ibatis adapter in! Let me know how I can contact you to get net.mlw.vlh.adapter.ibatis.ibatisAdapter included.

Hi, I have some question
1) Why no source code/ integration with controller layer?
I think that is a matter of controller interact with valuelist Pattern
2) why tag library included?
Is not possible to use yet another tag library?. I think that a jsp
have to work without knowledge of other layer so a collection in enough.
Regars
Marco

1) Why no source code/ integration with controller layer? I think that is a matter of controller interact with valuelist Pattern

There is a sample controller for Spring. But generally this is so simple i decided not to attempt to cover all the MVCs out there. Look at the User Guide for an example of the controller code. Or look at the Struts example in the sample.war.

Pattern2) why tag library included?Is not possible to use yet another tag library?. I think that a jsp have to work without knowledge of other layer so a
collection in enough.RegarsMarco

A Collection is not enough because you need to know the paging and sorting information as well (if you want to do sorting and paging outside the web tier). The ValueList interface contains a List and a PagingInfo bean. All the other "table tags" do sorting and paging in the web tier:( It was not my intent to spend so much time on the taglibs! I just could not find an existing set of taglibs that worked!

Is thv Value List Handler of the Sun´s site, a good alternative when you want to paginate your results? I´m asking this because, in the implementation of the VLH you load all your database data you want, and then you control the paginating page with a bean calling nextPage(), currentPage()...

Isn´t better to load from your database only page by page??

Tnx!

Is thv Value List Handler of the Sun´s site, a good alternative when you want to paginate your results? I´m asking this because, in the implementation of the VLH you load all your database data you want, and then you control the paginating page with a bean calling nextPage(), currentPage()...Isn´t better to load from your database only page by page??Tnx!

This is good for small datasets, but what if you have 1,000 rows, or 100,000 rows?

I have seen the page tutorial and this does not tell me too much. What do I need if want to implement this project without ibatis and spring and anyother framework.

Where do I have to start?. What do I have to config in order to get it working? is it compulsory to work under a database framework like ibatis or whatever it were?

(1) Does the value retrieve record page by page. The HibernateAdapter should be able to pull data from hibernate qry page by page as hibernate provides this feature?

I use displaytag in struts projects (with iBatis dao / sqlmaps) ; now i want to replace displaytag by valuelist and ibatis sqlmaps by hibernate

But i cannot find "real-life" examples on how i can use valuelist with struts without spring

Is somebody have examples like that ?

Thank you for answer and sorry for my poor english (i am french)

Did you ever figure out how to do it?

Take a look at the valuelist.war. It has a few struts examples. But remeber ValueList needs to have spring, but not nessesarly spring-web.

I've just came across valuelist. For the past two weeks I've been evaluating displaytag and I am concerned about its data handling. The one comment I would like to make about valuelist is that it is not as well documented as displaytag. In addition the links to the samples pages do not work. ValueList maybe a great product but without good documentation and samples it is worthless to me. I want to use a tag library to help me do my work faster but if it takes too long to figure out then I just write my own or use jsp. So please spend some time and provide detailed documentation and Samples.

The concept of valuelist is great. Some tutorials are made but the problem is that these tutorials give us solution when all parameters are set(bean, controller...). I think that for the developpers with an experience, there is no problems to understand the tag library, and configure files like applicationcontext.xml, web.xml. And examples like valuelist.war, report.war don't work...
I want to use this technologie with spring(without Struts) only. I thought it was simple, and i'm going to go on another techno if i can't use it.

My applicationcontext.xml(I work with tomcat 4.1):
...
&#60bean id="myDataSource" destroy-method="close" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource"&#62
&#60property name="driverClassName"&#62
&#60value&#62com.mysql.jdbc.Driver&#60/value&#62
&#60/property&#62
&#60property name="url"&#62
&#60value&#62jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/dbarticles&#60/value&#62
&#60/property&#62
&#60property name="username"&#62
&#60value&#62root&#60/value&#62
&#60/property&#62
&#60property name="password"&#62
&#60value&#62&#60/value&#62
&#60/property&#62
&#60/bean&#62
&#60bean id="valueListHandler" singleton="true" class="net.mlw.vlh.DefaultValueListHandlerImpl"&#62
&#60property name="config.adapters"&#62
&#60map&#62
&#60entry key="playerRank"&#62
&#60bean class="net.mlw.vlh.adapter.jdbc.dynabean.DefaultDynaBeanAdapter"&#62
&#60property name="dataSource"&#62
&#60ref bean="myDataSource"/&#62
&#60/property&#62
&#60property name="defaultNumberPerPage"&#62
&#60value&#621&#60/value&#62
&#60/property&#62
&#60property name="defaultSortColumn"&#62
&#60value&#62nom&#60/value&#62
&#60/property&#62
&#60property name="defaultSortDirection"&#62
&#60value&#62desc&#60/value&#62
&#60/property&#62
&#60property name="sql"&#62
&#60value&#62
SELECT NOM as nom, PRIX as prix, STOCKACTUEL as stock
FROM articles
/~sortColumn: ORDER BY [sortColumn] [sortDirection]~/
&#60/value&#62
&#60/property&#62
&#60/bean&#62
&#60/entry&#62
&#60/map&#62
&#60/property&#62
&#60/bean&#62
...

my web.xml :
...
&#60taglib&#62
     &#60taglib-uri&#62valuelist.tld&#60/taglib-uri&#62
     &#60taglib-location&#62/WEB-INF/tld/valuelist.tld&#60/taglib-location&#62
&#60/taglib&#62
&#60taglib&#62
     &#60taglib-uri&#62c.tld&#60/taglib-uri&#62
     &#60taglib-location&#62/WEB-INF/c.tld&#60/taglib-location&#62
&#60/taglib&#62
...

my jsp :
&#60%@ page language="java" %&#62
&#60%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %&#62
&#60%@ taglib prefix="vlh" uri="valuelist.tld" %&#62

&#60jsp:include page="entete.jsp"/&#62
&#60h2&#62Liste des articles&#60/h2&#62
&#60table border="1"&#62
&#60tr&#62
&#60th&#62NOM&#60/th&#62&#60th&#62PRIX&#60/th&#62
&#60/tr&#62
&#60c:forEach var="article" items="${listarticles}"&#62
&#60tr&#62
&#60td&#62&#60c:out value="${article.nom}"/&#62&#60/td&#62
&#60td&#62&#60c:out value="${article.prix}"/&#62&#60/td&#62
&#60td&#62&#60a href="&#60c:out value="infos.do?id=${article.id}"/&#62"&#62Infos&#60/a&#62&#60/td&#62
&#60/tr&#62
&#60/c:forEach&#62
&#60/table&#62
&#60p&#62
&#60c:out value="$null"/&#62
&#60p&#62
&#60vlh:root value="list" url="?" includeParameters=""&#62
&#60vlh:retrieve name="playerRank"/&#62
&#60table width="95%"&#62
&#60vlh:row bean="article"&#62
&#60vlh:column title="Nom" property="nom" sortable="desc"/&#62
&#60vlh:column title="Prix" property="prix" sortable="desc"/&#62
&#60vlh:column title="Stock" property="stock" sortable="desc"/&#62
&#60/vlh:row&#62
&#60/table&#62
&#60/vlh:root&#62
&#60/body&#62
&#60/html&#62

If someone can help, i'm really lost in my webapp...
I really like to use valuelist.
 thanks for the answer.

The concept of valuelist is great. Some tutorials are made but the problem is that these tutorials give us solution when all parameters are set(bean, controller...). I think that for the developpers with an experience, there is no problems to understand the tag library, and configure files like applicationcontext.xml, web.xml. And examples like valuelist.war, report.war don't work...
I want to use this technologie with spring(without Struts) only. I thought it was simple, and i'm going to go on another techno if i can't use it.

My applicationcontext.xml(I work with tomcat 4.1):
...
<bean id="myDataSource" destroy-method="close" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource">
<property name="driverClassName">
<value>com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</value>
</property>
<property name="url">
<value>jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/dbarticles</value>
</property>
<property name="username">
<value>root</value>
</property>
<property name="password">
<value></value>
</property>
</bean>
<bean id="valueListHandler" singleton="true" class="net.mlw.vlh.DefaultValueListHandlerImpl">
<property name="config.adapters">
<map>
<entry key="playerRank">
<bean class="net.mlw.vlh.adapter.jdbc.dynabean.DefaultDynaBeanAdapter">
<property name="dataSource">
<ref bean="myDataSource"/>
</property>
<property name="defaultNumberPerPage">
<value>1</value>
</property>
<property name="defaultSortColumn">
<value>nom</value>
</property>
<property name="defaultSortDirection">
<value>desc</value>
</property>
<property name="sql">
<value>
SELECT NOM as nom, PRIX as prix, STOCKACTUEL as stock
FROM articles
/~sortColumn: ORDER BY [sortColumn] [sortDirection]~/
</value>
</property>
</bean>
</entry>
</map>
</property>
</bean>
...

my web.xml :
...
<taglib>
     <taglib-uri>valuelist.tld</taglib-uri>
     <taglib-location>/WEB-INF/tld/valuelist.tld</taglib-location>
</taglib>
<taglib>
     <taglib-uri>c.tld</taglib-uri>
     <taglib-location>/WEB-INF/c.tld</taglib-location>
</taglib>
...

my jsp :
<%@ page language="java" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
<%@ taglib prefix="vlh" uri="valuelist.tld" %>

<vlh:root value="list" url="?" includeParameters="">
<vlh:retrieve name="playerRank"/>

<vlh:row bean="article">
<vlh:column title="Nom" property="nom" sortable="desc"/>
<vlh:column title="Prix" property="prix" sortable="desc"/>
<vlh:column title="Stock" property="stock" sortable="desc"/>
</vlh:row>

</vlh:root>

If someone can help, i'm really lost in my webapp...
I really like to use valuelist.
 thanks for the answer.

I tried Value List Handler with WebLogic 8.1 and iBatis. I was looking for automatic pagination. At the beginning I was not able to run the example war file. I was getting null pointer exception. Fixed that by adding a check for null in ValueListSpaceTag. I was not getting images shown and the problem was with having a context prepended to them. I started with my query in iBatis but for some reason the iBatis adapter is not supporting pagination. Does any body have any idea on why I could not get pagination working? Am I supposed to take care of that in my query?

I am wondering whether this adapter executes query everytime or it executes once and cache the data and return to the client when the client requests?? do you keep the client state(page no) in web/data tier?? In case if you are executing the query everytime, the data might change when the user is going to next page after he executed the search, how do you take care of this?? Appreciate any help in this regard.

-Kotha.

All the included adapters go to the database every time. You could write an adapter that does cache if needed.

I am using display tag extensively and am quite impressed with it, it has pdf, excel, rtf exports, something to consider here. This requirement is definitely something I myself have seen many times in my 11 years in IT development, I wrote something similar 4 years ago with taglibs and pagination but displaytag is very good and takes away the software engineering work so I can focus on my customer's needs. "Question every line of code that does not make your company money" Ben Hale - Interface 21 Spring instructor Venu

I knew Display Tags for quite a while also because they are using Maven (and I came across it when researching some "Powered By" projects for a Maven presentation I did) Which they have in common with ValueList. Although DisplayTags are a bit more simple to use in your own web app, I came across 2 major issues. The first one seems acceptable, if the user's expectations cope with it. Which is, DisplayTags sorts data only within each page rather than the entire list, when paging of long lists is used. ValueList always seems to sort the entire list, even if it spreads across multiple pages. The second one is more severe, at least in applications with massive use of Spring (or similar MVC frameworks) or also within Portlets. If you use a JSP as a View for Spring pages (should be similar for Struts ".do" actions) and use DisplayTag's paging there, it composes a URL for navigation from the underlying JSP rather than the View/Action. So an MVC application, which uses something like "list.do" backed by a "list.jsp" file faces a navigation url pointing to "list.jsp", even if that JSP should be hidden in a folder like WEB-INF/... And this makes such an Action setup unusable! If there are fixes/updates for DisplayTag, I'd appreciate that. However, assuming that this is not the case for the current version, I had to investigate more into ValueList at the moment. Also because its examples for multiple editable elements in a page are unique and probably only otherwise available with some of Apache's TagLibs, or commercial offerings... The ValueList tutorial app is based on Spring (and Apache Tiles) itself, so that should answer the question, if this works for the ValueList tags ;-)

Hi All, I am trying to deploy the valuelist.war file in tomcat 5.5 server. I just dropped the v 0.1.8 war file in the webapps dir. After the server starts up, it tries to run the following scripts and keeps trying again and again... INFO: Running: /net/mlw/data/CreateTestTable.sql Dec 10, 2006 11:29:55 PM net.mlw.util.sql.ScriptRunner executeScript INFO: Running: /net/mlw/data/CreateTestData.sql and eventually gets an java.lang.outOfMemory Error. What seems to be the problem? . Is there some README.txt file that I forgot to read. Since there were no explicit setup instructions for this .war file I just dropped it in Webapps dir and assumed that it will work but it doesnt seem to be working in this case. a) do i need to have some database product *(mySql etc.) installed on my machine before I drop this .war file in the webApps dir. b) Is there some .xml file that has the setup information that I need to change to point to my local environment.. I am a Spring newbie so I might be missing something obvious, but some pointers would be most appreciated. thanks , robin