3 Component Support

This chapter describes the ADF Components that are supported by ADF Mobile. This chapter includes the following topics:

3.1 Introduction to Apache My Faces Trinidad Components

ADF Mobile supports more than 60 of Apache My Faces Trinidad components, enabling you to build applications with a rich component set that renders appropriately to the screens of mobile devices. For more information, refer to the Apache My Faces Trinidad site ( http://myfaces.apache.org/trinidad/).

3.1.1 Supported Features

ADF Mobile supports the following renderer-specific features for the supported browsers:

3.1.2 Partial Page Rendering for Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer

The high latency and low bandwidth of networks in mobile environments diminish application responsiveness for mobile users. Screens refresh slowly, lessening the mobile user experience. ADF Mobile's support of Partial Page Rendering (PPR) compensates for the negative impact that slow connections have on screen updates by minimizing the amount of data requested from the server; using PPR, mobile device screen updates do not require a full refresh. ADF Mobile supports PPR for Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer. For this browser, PPR support is limited to the showDetail and outputText components as partial targets (that is, these components specify a partialTriggers attribute) and for the table component for internal changes, such as sorting.

Note:

BlackBerry Browser 4.x does not support PPR. Specifying the autosubmit attribute on certain form components results in the submission of the page once the user exits the field. A full, not partial, refresh of the page then follows.

3.1.3 Dialogs

ADF Mobile supports dialogs, pages used by applications to obtain user input. Because mobile browsers cannot open a new window that contains a dialog (a pop-up window), dialogs appear as new pages within the main browser window after automatically preserving the state of the current page.

3.1.4 Rendering Specific to the BlackBerry Browser 4.x

On the BlackBerry Browser 4.x, the bullets in a list sublevel (such as those from a tr:panelList) appear large and are not indented. The BlackBerry browser's table handling may affect complex layouts; the BlackBerry Browser does not allow horizontal scrolling. Instead, it wraps a table row onto multiple display lines, which may disturb the layout.

3.2 Input Components

This section describes the ADF Faces core components that support user input. This section includes the following topics:

3.2.1 Creating Input Text Fields

You can create input fields using the following components:

  • tr:inputColor

    Note:

    Mobile browsers do not support an inline chooseColor or a color dialog.

  • tr:inputDate

  • tr:inputHidden

  • tr:inputText

3.2.2 Creating Lists

You can create lists using the following components:

  • tr:panelChoice

  • tr:panelList

  • tr:selectBooleanCheckBox

  • tr:selectBooleanRadio

  • tr:selectItem

    Note:

    Mobile browsers do not support the disabled attribute.

  • tr:selectManyCheckBox

  • tr:selectManyListBox

  • tr:selectOneChoice

  • tr:selectOneListBox

  • tr:selectOneRadio

  • tr:resetButton

3.3 Output Components

This section describes the Apache MyFacesTrinidad core components that support output on mobile device applications. This section includes the following topics:

3.3.1 Displaying Text

The following components enable you to display text:

  • tr:iterator

  • tr:message

  • tr:messages

    Note:

    When using the tr:message and tr:messages components, the component-specific messages do not pop up as they do in a desktop browser. Instead, they display in the region where the message component is placed on the Web page.

  • tr:outputDocument

  • tr:outputForwarded

  • tr:outputLabel

  • tr:outputText

3.3.2 Displaying Images

The following components enable you to display images:

  • tr:icon

  • tr:image

  • tr:panelTip

3.3.3 Showing (or Hiding) Components

The following components enable showing or hiding items:

  • tr:panelAccordian

    Note:

    Mobile browsers only support a full-page update; they do not support the partialTriggers attribute of the tr:panelAccordion.

  • tr:panelTabbed

  • tr:showDetail

    Note:

    The disclosure arrow does not display; instead [+] and [-] display.

  • tr:showDetailHeader

    Note:

    The disclosure arrow does not appear on mobile browsers.

  • tr:showDetailItem

    Note:

    The disclosure arrow does not appear on mobile browsers and flex is not supported.

3.4 Layout Components

The following section describes the layout components supported by ADF Mobile:

3.4.1 Using Page Templates

ADF Mobile supports the tr:pageTemplate component.

3.4.2 Managing the Page

The following components enable you to manage the page:

  • tr:document

  • tr:form

    Note:

    Mobile browsers do not support the defaultCommand attribute.

  • tr:page

3.4.3 Laying Out Sections of the Page

The following ADF Faces core tags support page layout for mobile device applications:

  • tr:group

  • tr:panelBorderLayout

    Note:

    Mobile browsers do not support the following facets:

    • left

    • right

    • start

    • end

    • innerLeft

    • innerRight

    • innerStart

    • innerEnd

  • tr:panelBox

  • tr:panelFormLayout

  • tr:panelGroupLayout

  • tr:panelHeader

  • tr:panelHorizontalLayout

  • tr:panelLabelAndMessage

  • tr:panelPage

  • tr:panelPageHeader

  • tr:panelRadio

3.4.4 Inserting Spaces

The following components control the space allocation on pages:

  • tr:separator

  • tr:spacer

  • tr:subform

3.5 Navigation Components

The following sections describe the components that enable users to navigate to other pages of the application or to external locations.

3.5.1 Creating Buttons

ADF Mobile supports the following button types:

  • tr:commandButton

    Note:

    Because the text attribute cannot display if the icon attribute has been set, buttons on mobile devices can have either text or an image, but not both. If you set the disabled attribute to true, then the commandButton component with an icon attribute renders as a static image with no links.

  • tr:goButton

3.5.2 Creating Links

ADF Mobile supports the following components for creating hyper-links:

  • tr:commandLink

  • tr:goLink

3.5.3 Navigation Components

ADF mobile supports the following navigation components:

  • tr:breadcrumbs

  • tr:commandNavigationItem

    Note:

    tr:commandNavigationItem -- The component does not render when you set the disabled attribute to true for the following components:

    • tr:selectOneListBox

    • tr:selectOneChoice

    • tr:processChoiceBar

    • tr:navigationPane with hint, "choice"

    • tr:selectRangeChoiceBar

  • tr:navigationPane

  • tr:train

Note:

Appears as x of y instead of listing each item.

3.6 Tables and Trees

This section includes the following topics:

3.6.1 Creating Tables

ADF Mobile supports tables comprised of the following components:

  • tr:table

  • tr:column

3.6.2 Creating Trees

ADF mobile supports the tr:tree component.

3.7 Unsupported Components and Attributes

This section lists the components and attributes that ADF Mobile 11g does not support and includes the following sections:

3.7.1 Unsupported Components

ADF Mobile 11g does not support the following:

  • tr:chart

  • tr:chooseColor

  • tr:chooseDate

  • tr:inputFile

  • tr:inputListOFVariables

  • tr:inputNumberSpinbox

  • tr:legend

  • tr:media

  • tr:navigationTree

  • tr:panelButtonBar

  • tr:panelPopup

  • tr:panelSideBar

  • tr:poll

  • tr:progressIndicator

  • tr:selectManyShuttle

  • tr:selectOrderShuttle

  • tr:singleStepButtonBar

  • tr:statusIndicator

  • tr:switcher

  • tr:treeTable

3.7.2 Unsupported Attributes

ADF Mobile 11g does not support the following component attributes on any component.

  • accessKey

  • shortDesc (tooltip)

  • onXXX script handlers