Example: Thin Bean State in a URL

BI Beans HTML-client architecture enables bookmark support by saving the entire state of an application in a URL. This example shows the state parameters of a crosstab and its associated data query, as these parameters appear in a URL.

In this example, an end user views a crosstab, drills in the crosstab, and then sets a bookmark to allow a return to the drilled state of the crosstab. Assume that crosstab1 and query1 are the variable names of the crosstab and its associated data query. After the event is handled, the servlet places the new state information in the URL. The complete URL for the page looks like this:

http://myServer/myServlet?query1="state string"&crosstab1="Row 40"&source="crosstab1&event=drill&edge=1&layer=0&slice=1

The following table displays each piece of the URL with a brief description.

Piece of the URL

Description

http://myServer/myServlet?

Context path and Servlet path to identify the server and servlet

query1="state string"

State of the Query object that is serving as the data source for the crosstab

crosstab1="Row 40"

State (that is, the current row) of the crosstab

source="crosstab1"

Beginning of event information -- Identifies the object that the event is associated with

event=drill

Continuation of event information -- Identifies the event type as drill

edge=1&layer=0&slice=1

Event parameters that specify the location of the drill in the Query object. The edge, layer, and slice refer to positions in the DataAccess object that provides the data for the Query.