xpages set value to field before action=newDocument

Question

I have a simple button with the eventHandler:

<xp:eventHandler event="onclick" submit="true" refreshMode="complete">
        <xp:this.action>
            <xp:openPage target="newDocument" name="/doc.xsp"></xp:openPage>
        </xp:this.action>
</xp:eventHandler>

In lotusScript I would add a value to a field, before composing the form, using:

Call doc_new.ReplaceItemValue("txt_codformularmain","01")
....
....
Set uidoc = w.EditDocument ( True, doc_new )

I tried in the postNewDocument event of the doc.xsp

<xp:this.data>
    <xp:dominoDocument var="Contr" formName="(fmFormularCIP)">
        <xp:this.postNewDocument><![CDATA[#{javascript:Contr.replaceItemValue("txt_codformularmain", "01")}]]></xp:this.postNewDocument></xp:dominoDocument>
</xp:this.data>

I don't want every time the doc is created that value to be, let say, 01, BUT only when the doc. is composed by a specific button. Some other button will have the chance to add the 02 value for that field, and so on.

How can I achieve this in xpages development? Thanks for your time.

Serdar Basegmez Serdar Basegmez · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-04T07:51:25

This is a little bit tricky in Web application development, because what you did in classical Notes development cannot be applied here. I had a lot of issues in this.

The classical scenario is that you have a Page X with some value (say txt_codformularmain will be 01). How do you decide this value "01"?

In some cases, this value is something you have in the page X. So you want to pass a specific value to the target page. One option could be using a query parameter (doc.xsp?myValue=01) and consume it on doc.xsp with param.myValue. Or, you might put a sessionScope variable before going to the target page and consume it by sessionScope.myValue.

It depends on what you need. Query parameter is somewhat safer, because the user might use the same button twice and sessionScope variable causes inconsistent behaviour. On the other hand, query parameter can be changed by the user, so you might have a breach in your application.

Some cases, you want to populate some values at the second page. Simple values (e.g. creation date, user names, etc.) can be populated with forms (i.e. compute value on load). Sometimes it would be more complicated (e.g. the department of the user where you have to lookup some views). For such cases, you need to use postNewDocument event at the target page.

After you have passed the value to the doc.xsp page, you will consume in the way you need. If it's not going to be edited on the page, you may again use postNewDocument event and set value by dataSourceName.replaceItemValue('itemName', param.myValue). If the value can be edited, you would use it as a default value on your field component.

One problem I have experienced: Once you set a value in postNewDocument, you may have problems to change it later, until the document data source saved. This is happening on specific cases. If you experience such a problem, you might use some editable field with readonly attribute. Just keep in mind :)

xpages set value to field before action=newDocument

1 Answers