An Example of Webflow: The Pet Flow Application

 

Pet Flow is a sample Web application that comes packaged with the WebLogic Portal product suite. The Pet Flow application has been designed to illustrate some of the features of the Webflow mechanism, which may clarify the concepts described in other topics of this Guide to Managing Presentation and Business Logic: Using Webflow and Pipeline documentation.

This topic includes the following sections:

• About the Pet Flow Sample Application

• What Webflow Features Does the Pet Flow Sample Application Illustrate?

• Accessing the Pet Flow Sample Application

  • Location of Pet Flow Files

  • Running Pet Flow in a Web Browser

  • Opening a Pet Flow Namespace in the Webflow Editor

 

---

About the Pet Flow Sample Application

As a developer, you are probably familiar with the Sun Microsystems Pet Store Demo, a comprehensive e-commerce application based on the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) specification. The Pet Store Demo showcases the main features of J2EE and can be used as a reference implementation. Because BEA recognizes this sample application as a great way to help you understand how to build Web applications using J2EE, we have modified it to use some features of our Webflow mechanism. The resulting sample application is called Pet Flow.

Note: For more information on the original Pet Store Demo, see the "Architecture Overview" at http://java.sun.com/j2ee/blueprints/jps11/archoverview.html.

 

---

What Webflow Features Does the Pet Flow Sample Application Illustrate?

Because it is only a sample application, the Pet Flow Web application does not show every feature available in the Webflow mechanism. However, it does illustrate the following:

• Link and button event transitions within the same namespace, when the following information is provided in the URL:

  • namespace, no origin, no event

  • namespace, origin, event

    Additionally, the Pet Flow application shows link and button event transitions across different namespaces when the URL provides the namespace, origin, and event to the Webflow mechanism.

• Exception transitions within the same namespace and across different namespaces.

• Wildcard presentation nodes (JavaServer Pages only) that work within the same namespace and across different namespaces.

• Handling of wildcard processor node exceptions (Input Processors and Pipelines).

• Input Processors used for conditional branching, and general handling of Input Processor exceptions.

• Form validation using Input Processors, as well as use of a custom validator.

• Pipelines that may produce fatal exceptions, and general handling of Pipeline exceptions.

• Pipelines that are transactional and Pipelines that are not transactional. Additionally, Pipeline Sessions that transactional, and Pipeline Sessions that are not transactional.

• Getting Pipeline Session properties via JavaServer Pages (JSPs), Input Processors, and Pipeline Components. Additionally, setting Pipeline Session properties via Input Processors and Pipeline Components.

• Use of an extension (custom) processor node.

• Frame-based and all-in-one configurations.

Use the Pet Flow examples to increase your understanding of Webflow's capabilities, but be sure to use your organization's established processes and your own best judgement in your implementations.

 

---

Accessing the Pet Flow Sample Application

If you have successfully installed the WebLogic Portal product suite, you can access the Pet Flow sample application. If you have not yet installed the product and would like instructions for performing the installation, see the Installation Guide.

Location of Pet Flow Files

The files comprising the Pet Flow sample Web application are located in the PORTAL_HOME\applications\petflowApp\petflow directory, where PORTAL_HOME is the directory in which you installed WebLogic Portal.

Running Pet Flow in a Web Browser

To run the Pet Flow application in a Web browser, follow the instructions for the petflowDomain in the Review the Reference Domains section in the Deployment Guide.

Opening a Pet Flow Namespace in the Webflow Editor

To open a Pet Flow namespace file in the Webflow Editor, follow these steps:

1. Start the E-Business Control Center (EBCC). For detailed instructions on starting the EBCC, see Starting the E-Business Control Center in the Guide to Using the E-Business Control Center documentation.

2. Open the Pet Flow application so you can view its Webflow. For instructions on opening an application, see Opening an Application in the Guide to Using the E-Business Control Center documentation.

3. Select the Site Infrastructure tab in the EBCC's Explorer window, then click the Webflows/Pipelines icon.

4. Click the Webapps and petflow objects in the Webflows/Pipelines list box to view the list of namespace files that comprise the Pet Flow application's Webflow.

5. Double click any of the Pet Flow application's <namespace>.wf files that are shown in the EBCC's Explorer list to view them in the Webflow Editor canvas.

6. From the Webflow Editor canvas, click on any Pipeline Node to view its Pipeline Components the Pipeline Editor. Or, you can expand the Pipelines shown under the Pipeline Namespaces object in the Webflows/Pipelines list box, then double click on the Pipeline name to open the Pipeline Editor.