Using Webflow and Pipeline

 

Welcome to the Guide to Managing Presentation and Business Logic: Using Webflow and Pipeline! Webflow and Pipeline are flexible mechanisms designed to help you separate and manage the presentation and business logic that comprise your applications, without the need for advanced programming skills. All business logic is handled within Pipelines, while page flow is controlled by the Webflow mechanism. The Webflow and Pipeline mechanisms are packaged with the BEA WebLogic Portal product suite and are used in many of the product's sample applications. This topic describes the Webflow and Pipeline mechanisms, and provides information about how you can use Webflows and Pipelines in your applications.

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Overview of Webflow

Introduction to Webflow

High-Level Architecture

Webflow Architecture

The Internals of the Webflow Mechanism

Understanding Webflow as a State Machine

Webflow and the MVC Design Pattern

The Relationship Between Webflows and Applications

Benefits of the Webflow Mechanism

The Webflow Configuration Files

What Files Will I Be Working With?

How Are These Files Different from the Webflow and Pipeline Properties Files?

Location of Webflow Configuration Files in the Directory Structure

Creating and Modifying Webflow Files

Who Should Create and Modify the Webflow Files?

How Do I Create and Modify Webflow Files?

Getting Started with Webflow

Understanding How Webflow Is Invoked from a URL

Setting Up Your Web Application's web.xml File

Specifying Webflow Context Parameters

Registering the WebflowServlet Servlet

Defining Your Web Application's Welcome File

Configuring Your Web Application to Use Webflow

Next Steps

 

Webflow Components and Concepts

Introduction to Webflow Components

Presentation and Processor Nodes

Input Processors and Pipelines

The Pipeline Session

Events

Namespaces

Special Webflow Components

The Begin Node

The Root Component Node

The Wildcard Nodes

The Configuration Error Page

Chaining and Branching with Processor Nodes

Using Webflow Components in Your Web Pages

Using Webflow Components with Portals

Webflow Execution Order

Presentation Nodes

Processor Nodes

 

Using the Webflow and Pipeline Editors

Introduction

Starting the Webflow and Pipeline Editors

Important Notes About Using the Webflow and Pipeline Editors

Next Steps

Learning to Use the Webflow and Pipeline Editors

Webflow and Pipeline Editor Essentials

Webflow Namespaces

Pipelines Versus Pipeline Namespaces

Information Displayed in the Editors' Title Bars

Webflow and Pipeline Files in Your Content Management System

Webflow Component Representations

Understanding the Webflow and Pipeline Editor Palettes

Tools in the Webflow Editor Palette

Tools in the Pipeline Editor Palette

Understanding the Webflow and Pipeline Editor Toolbars

Display and Behavior Buttons

Command Buttons

Organizing Webflow Components in an Editor Canvas

How to Select Webflow Components

How to Add Webflow Components

How to Edit a Webflow Component's Name (Label)

How to Designate or Remove a Begin (Root) Node

How to Move a Webflow Component

How to Connect Nodes with Event or Exception Transitions

How to Reposition Connection Ports on a Node

How to Work with Elbows in Transitions

How to Move an Existing Elbow

How to Create a New Elbow

How to Delete a Elbow

Using the Webflow and Pipeline Editor Toolbars

How to Print a Webflow Namespace or Pipeline

How to Delete Webflow Components

How to Use the Zoomed Overview

How to Show/Hide the Grid

How to Snap Objects to the Grid

How to Enable and Disable Link Optimization

How to Show and Hide Exception Transitions

How to Validate the Selected Node

How to Validate All Nodes

How to Set the Configuration Error Page Name

How to Use the Pipeline Component Editor

How To View Pipeline Component Details

How to Add Pipeline Components

How to Edit Pipeline Components

How to Delete Pipeline Components

How to Make the Pipeline Transactional

How to Include the Pipeline Session in a Transaction

Using the Properties Editors

Viewing Component Properties

Description of Webflow Component Properties

Modifying Component Property Values

Migrating An Existing Webflow

Creating or Modifying a Webflow: Breadth-First Versus Depth-First

About the Webflow and Pipeline Editors' Validation Features

Validation Error Messages in a Properties Editor

What Do the Editors Validate?

Saving Invalid Webflows

Synchronizing Webflow Data for Your Application

 

Customizing and Extending Webflow

Pipeline Session Internals

Managing the Pipeline Session

Accessing the PipelineSession Interface

Setting and Getting Pipeline Session Properties

Using the Support Classes to Capture Exception Messages

Property Scoping

Request-Scoped Pipeline Session Properties

Pipeline Session-Scoped Pipeline Session Properties

Serializing Pipeline Session Properties

Error Handling

Non-Runtime and Runtime Processor Exceptions

Input Processor and Pipeline Component Exception Handling

Input Processor Exceptions

Pipeline Component Exceptions

JavaServer Page (JSP) Exception Handling

Accessing Exceptions and Exception Messages

Creating New Input Processor or Pipeline Component Exceptions

Configuring Pipeline Component Exception Fatality

Creating a New Input Processor

How to Create a New Input Processor

Input Processor Naming Conventions

Input Processors and Statelessness

Other Development Guidelines for Input Processors

Webflow Validators and Input Processors

The ValidatedValues Interface

Validation Example

Special Validation Exceptions

Creating a Custom Validator

Example of a Custom Validator

Creating a New Pipeline Component

How to Create a New Pipeline Component

Pipeline Component Naming Conventions

Implementation of Pipeline Components as Stateless Session EJBs or Java Objects

Stateful Versus Stateless Pipeline Components

Transactional Versus Nontransactional Pipelines

Including Pipeline Sessions in Transactions

Other Development Guidelines for Pipeline Components

Extending Webflow by Creating Extension Presentation and Processor Nodes

How to Create an Extension Presentation Node

How to Create an Extension Processor Node

Making Your Extension Presentation and Processor Nodes Available in the Webflow and Pipeline Editors

How To Register an Extension Presentation Node

How To Register an Extension Processor Node

Webflow Internationalization

 

Webflow JSP Tag Library Reference

Importing the Webflow Tag Library

URL Creation Tags

<webflow:createWebflowURL>

Example

<webflow:createResourceURL>

Example

Form Tags

<webflow:form>

Example

Validated Form Tags

<webflow:validatedForm>

<webflow:text>

<webflow:password>

<webflow:radio>

<webflow:checkbox>

<webflow:textarea>

<webflow:select>

<webflow:option>

Example

Pipeline Session Tags

<webflow:setProperty>

Example

<webflow:getProperty>

Example 1

Example 2

<webflow:setValidatedValue>

Example

<webflow:getValidatedValue>

Example 1

Example 2

<webflow:getException>

Example

 

An Example of Webflow: The Pet Flow Application

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