Integrating OPS Into Existing JSF Application

Hi there,

I'm evaluating XForms, and Orbeon OPS (version 3.5) in special. And I'd like
to integrate it into an existing JSF application. Concerning this, I got
some questions left, after reading the documentation:

* I've followed the tutorial and successfully "implemented" the bookcast
example. Afterwards I copied that working example to the folder
"xforms-jsp", where also the other JSP examples are. After setting the
content type correctly, the JSP version of the bookcast worked. Only the
images were not loaded. I tried different ways to adapt/correct the images
paths, but did not succeed. Acutally I don't know how the Orbeon servler
filter handles paths within a JSP page. Furthermore the JSP version of the
bookcast still showed the Orbeon menu on the left etc. So I wonder if or how
it is possible to only have the bookcast application displayed in the
browser?

* Is Orbeon OPS also available as JAR file for easier integration with
existing JEE applications? Or can anybody tell which of the files (JARs,
XMLs, etc.) are required and need to be copied/integrated in/to the existing
application?

And by the way... has anybody successfully integrated Orbeon OPS into an JSF
application? On IBM developerWorks I found an article on "Using JSF
technology for XForms applications"
(http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/edu/j-dw-java-jsfx-i.html), and I ask
myself if it would be possible to realize the shopping cart example from
this article with Orbeon OPS, such that the application would run without
any browser plugins/extension? Would be nice to read about your experiences.

Cheers,
bitbyter






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Hi BitByter,

On 3/30/07, BitByter <[hidden email]> wrote: I am not sure what the problem is with the path to the images when
using JSP. Would you be able to share some files with us that we can
drop in the xforms-jsp directory to reproduce this?

To get rid of the left navigation bar, see:
http://www.orbeon.com/ops/doc/home-faq#remove-sidebar

> * Is Orbeon OPS also available as JAR file for easier integration with
> existing JEE applications? Or can anybody tell which of the files (JARs,
> XMLs, etc.) are required and need to be copied/integrated in/to the existing
> application?

Orbeon Forms depends on a number of libraries. Some of those libraries
are not used depending on what feature of Orbeon Forms you are using.
But matching feature with library to gain a few MB is tedious game.
One way to integrate Orbeon Forms with your application is to setup
Orbeon Forms as a servlet filter. And this is what you did. This
approach is documented here:

http://www.orbeon.com/ops/doc/integration-xforms-jsp

Another approach which we are working on right now is to allow your
application to be deployed separately, in a separate war, and to
delegate XForms handling to Orbeon Forms. This has a few benefits,
including the fact that you don't need to really worry about what jars
are used in the Orbeon Forms war file. Since they are deployed
separately, you don't have the risk of having any conflict.

Alex
--
Orbeon Forms - Web 2.0 Forms for the Enterprise
http://www.orbeon.com/



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Hi Alex,

thanks for your answer. It was a help for me.  :)


> I am not sure what the problem is with the path to the images when
> using JSP. Would you be able to share some files with us that we can
> drop in the xforms-jsp directory to reproduce this?

Well,  I  attached  the  example application as I got it in the "xforms-jsp"
folder.  Yet,  I did not understand how Orbeon OPS resolves path values. For
example, isn't it possible to use relativ paths for the XSD like this:

<xforms:model id="books-model" schema="oxf:./schema.xsd">  or

<xforms:label>
  <img src="./images/save.gif" alt="Save"/>Save
</xforms:label>


This first causes an exception with my example application.



> To get rid of the left navigation bar, see:
> http://www.orbeon.com/ops/doc/home-faq#remove-sidebar

Thanks, that worked fine.  :)


> Orbeon Forms depends on a number of libraries. Some of those libraries
> are not used depending on what feature of Orbeon Forms you are using.
> But matching feature with library to gain a few MB is tedious game.
> One way to integrate Orbeon Forms with your application is to setup
> Orbeon Forms as a servlet filter. And this is what you did. This
> approach is documented here:
> http://www.orbeon.com/ops/doc/integration-xforms-jsp

I'll see if some conflicts will arise, for example with conflicting versions
of Xerces, Xalan, etc.


> Another approach which we are working on right now is to allow your
> application to be deployed separately, in a separate war, and to
> delegate XForms handling to Orbeon Forms. This has a few benefits,
> including the fact that you don't need to really worry about what jars
> are used in the Orbeon Forms war file. Since they are deployed
> separately, you don't have the risk of having any conflict.

Any idea when this version might be available?


- bitbyter

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HI BitByter,

On 4/2/07, BitByter <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Well,  I  attached  the  example application as I got it in the "xforms-jsp"
> folder.

I will have a look at the you attached and follow-up in another
message in this thread.

>  Yet,  I did not understand how Orbeon OPS resolves path values. For
> example, isn't it possible to use relativ paths for the XSD like this:
>
> <xforms:model id="books-model" schema="oxf:./schema.xsd">  or

You can't use a relative path if the URL starts with a scheme (oxf:/).
But since oxf:/ points to your resources, usually the path is not very
long, so you're better off putting it in full
(oxf:/path/to/my/schema.xsd).

> <xforms:label>
>   <img src="./images/save.gif" alt="Save"/>Save
> </xforms:label>

For images the page will be relative to path used for the HTML. The
relative path you put there will be kept as-is in the HTML. Give it a
try and see.

> > To get rid of the left navigation bar, see:
> > http://www.orbeon.com/ops/doc/home-faq#remove-sidebar
>
> Thanks, that worked fine.  :)

Excellent.

> I'll see if some conflicts will arise, for example with conflicting versions
> of Xerces, Xalan, etc.

Exactly.

> > Another approach which we are working on right now is to allow your
> > application to be deployed separately, in a separate war, and to
> > delegate XForms handling to Orbeon Forms. This has a few benefits,
> > including the fact that you don't need to really worry about what jars
> > are used in the Orbeon Forms war file. Since they are deployed
> > separately, you don't have the risk of having any conflict.
>
> Any idea when this version might be available?

Erik has already written all the code. So in fact, this is already in
CVS. It now needs to be documented and requires some more testing. You
might even be able to start using this in the next few days.

Alex
--
Orbeon Forms - Web 2.0 Forms for the Enterprise
http://www.orbeon.com/



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On 4/2/07, BitByter <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Well,  I  attached  the  example application as I got it in the "xforms-jsp"
> folder.  Yet,  I did not understand how Orbeon OPS resolves path values. For
> example, isn't it possible to use relativ paths for the XSD like this:
>
> <xforms:model id="books-model" schema="oxf:./schema.xsd">  or
>
> <xforms:label>
>   <img src="./images/save.gif" alt="Save"/>Save
> </xforms:label>

I ran the application you attached and the images are broken because
they are loaded from /xforms-jsp/... The filter that processes the
output from what is under that directory does not expect binary
content. So you might want to move your images from
/xforms-jsp/mybooks/images to just /images and update the links in the
view.jsp accordingly. You'll let us know how this goes.

Alex
--
Orbeon Forms - Web 2.0 Forms for the Enterprise
http://www.orbeon.com/



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