XPages templating dialog boxes

1
votes

I am currently on a project redesigning an existing traditional domino web application to XPages. This application contains a web form with quite a lot of helper dialog boxes. Also notifications and validation and confirmation is done through dialogboxes.

I know I can create a custom control for each dialog box and add it to the Xpage and call the show. I even managed to load it dynamically using a dynamic content control with a facet for each dialog. Since the dialog cc contains a show() in the onClientLoad. It is easy to open a dialog by switching the content of the dynamic content control.

Still, adding all these custom controls to my XPages feels inefficient and really clutters the design tab. What's your take?

I would prefer setting the content of the dialog dynamically (Like in traditional domino you would define a form for each dialog). Is that possible? If not is it possible to load a custom control dynamically (Like using a computed subform)?

Also for confirmation boxes I need the OK button to execute different code for each confirm. What would be the best way to implement that? Add custom parameter "functionOnOk" to the "dlgConfirm" custom control and evaluate that in the submit button?

PS: I am still using panels with dojoType=dijit.DialogBox, but will change those to extlib dialog boxes. For the confirm and messageboxes I am now using client side dijit.Dialogs with mark-up in code, but I would like the markup in XPages as well.

1
xpagesxpages-extlib
Using the extlib Dialog control instead of dijit.dialog breaks the use of the dynamic content control as described above. But the preload option allows the content to be only loaded on show, so that eliminates the need. – BvG013

1 Answers

0
votes

I know there are issues with panels with dijit.Dialog, because Dojo moves the dialog in the DOM, which prevents any SSJS in the dialog running. I don't know if that's also an issue with dijit.DialogBox, but I suspect it could be. Jeremy Hodge did some code to workaround that.

However, I would strongly recommend using the Extension Library control. Client-side dijit.Dialogs are likely to be much more difficult to code and will not allow any SSJS interaction. I'm not aware of any Dojo properties not available in the Extension Library control, and the Extension Library control also allows you to open or close the dialog both in CSJS or SSJS. It also allows you to specify an area to refresh on close.

In terms of the properties, preload is there purely to speed up showing. Are you using the refreshOnShow property? This ensures the URL or content is refreshed each time the dialog is shown. The Extension Library chapter on dialogs has a table covering all the properties. You can set the URL to point to another XPage or another web page. This may allow you to use the Dynamic Content control to pass parameters to switch the content that should appear.

In terms of the code behind the OK button, if you use the Extension Library dialog, you have all the functionality you would have outside the dialog.