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Unable to dynamically populate combo box

mgbala

Hi,

Environment:
WorksiteMP 4.1 is hosted on an Intel Xeon Server
oracle database 8.0.5.

The technical bottleneck facing is described below:

For dynamically populating the second combo box, I need to submit back to the same page and retain the value of the first combo for showing it as selected. As of now there is no support from worksitemp tag library for passing the selected status for an option tag as an attribute but I can pass the value through the value attribute. So, I can't use the selectInputField tag.

If I choose to use the standard HTML SELECT tag, I can pass the select status but can't pass the value for the option, as EL expression cannot be used for setting the value attribute. Since EL expressions needs to be used in conjunction with <c Smiley Surprised

ut value="${expr}"/> tags, I can't use it for generating value for the value attribute because of the inherent limitation of XML technology.

Background of application:

Need to dynamically populate certain combo boxes and textboxes by accessing database directly and set a few extended properties for the "project" object while creating every new project. I've already extended the object model and created a few properties such as "Name_of_Company", "Proposal_no" etc. All these properties are only "varchar" in the object model as they need to be dynamically populated by reading a view from oracle database. Therefore I can't use a "Metadata Table" data type for storing these values through the library manager by which only a static list of values can be stored.
The workflow is such that, the add project page will display a dynamically generated list of company names in the company name combo box, and on selecting the company name the proposal no combo box should also get dynamically populated. The other properties are only textboxes and radio buttons which will also get their corresponding values dynamically from the database on selecting the proposal no combo box.

Hence, technically getting stuck for any further development.

I’ll really appreciate any feasible inputs for sorting this out.

Thanks

Bala

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Comments

dbguy

My suggestion is to try to leverage the MP features. If the data in your views is not updated very often, you could create metadata tables in MP and then write a program to synchronize the views with the metadata tables. In this case you could also create a metadata relationship to enforce the second box valid entries.

Not sure if this will work, it all depends on how often your views are updated.

Migrateduser

Hi,

Generation of the proper select html tag in output can be handled easily. A couple of points:

1. You do not always need to re-submit the page inorder to populate a value in select drop down. Use some background processing mechanism.
2. If you specify the value attribute on the w:selectInputField tag, the corresponding option will be selected in the generated select box.
3. In simple html select, you can still use the JSTL expressions to populate the options. Please remember that in simple html you need to give the selected=true attribute on the selected <option> element (you cannot give value here). You might have to use a <c:if> tag to set this properly.

With that said, I would encourage to you continue to work with IWOV sales/support channels and make sure that the approach you have taken (to populate the project metadata from external database) is approved by MP Product Management.

-bijoy

mgbala

DevNet Team,,

I'm facing a bottleneck with the product. I really appreciate a feasible solution.

Really I appreciate the the solution approaches provided by you based on
• synchronizing the databases,but there is hindrance from client side as they don’t want to store the data at two databases.
• Metadata approach.

Hence the problem persists as it is.Requesting feasible solution from all quarters.

Environment:
WorksiteMP 4.1 is hosted on an Intel Xeon Server
oracle database 8.0.5.

Problem:

Need to populate two combo boxes dynamically by reading a database(Oracle) outside of WorksiteMP. The Add Project page will display a dynamically generated list of company names in the Company Name combo, and on selecting the company name the Proposal Number combo should also get dynamically populated.

Product Bottleneck:

WorksiteMP had defined a custom tag library file called "wsmp.tld" which has a wrapper tag defined for most of the common HTML tags.
• For dynamically populating the second combo, I need to submit back to the same page and retain the value of the first combo for showing it as selected. As of now there is no support from worksitemp tag library for setting the selected status for an <w Smiley Surprised

ption> tag as an attribute but I can pass the value through the value attribute. So, I can't use the selectInputField tag.
• If I choose to use the standard HTML SELECT tag, I can set the selected status by using "selected=true" but can't pass the value for the option tag, as Expression Language expression in JSTL cannot be used for setting the value attribute. Since "EL expressions in JSP 1.2 specification" needs to be used in conjunction with <c Smiley Surprised

ut value="${expr}"/> tags, I can't use it for generating value for the value attribute because of the inherent limitation of XML technology. Every XML document must be well-formed and we can't have overlapping tags as in HTML. The document will not compile then. I can't use like this <option value="<c Smiley Surprised

ut value='${expr}'/>">some variable</option>. If I don't pass any value explicitly then null is passed. Even, I can't pass the value using a javascript method because of the same reason.
Practically I’m not able to do any customization of WorksiteMP.

Thanks & Regards

Migrateduser

Hi,

None of these seems to be a WorkSite MP product issue. To me the issue is related to dynamically populating a select box on client side with data retrieved from an external database. It could be done using plain html techniques.

I am repeating my previous answers here.

1. You do not always need to re-submit the page in order to populate a value in select drop down. Use some background processing mechanism.
2. If you specify the value attribute on the w:selectInputField tag, the corresponding option will be selected in the generated select box.
3. In simple html select, you can still use the JSTL expressions to populate the options. Please remember that in simple html you need to give the selected=true attribute on the selected <option> element (you cannot give value here). You might have to use a <c:if> tag to set this properly.

Now, let me try to explain

>> For dynamically populating the second combo, I need to submit back to the same page and
>> retain the value of the first combo for showing it as selected.

Please do not re-submit the same page in order to populate a select field; it will cause an annoying flicker and it is very unnecessary. Please use a background javacscript based request to get your data and fill them in the select box.

>> As of now there is no support from worksitemp tag library for setting the selected status for an
>> <w Smiley Surprised

ption> tag as an attribute but I can pass the value through the value attribute.
>> So, I can't use the selectInputField tag.

That may not be true. Please see my second answer above.

>> If I choose to use the standard HTML SELECT tag, ........
>> .... Every XML document must be well-formed and we can't have overlapping tags as in HTML. ...

JSP Document (xml) specification allows you to use <jsp:scriptlet> tag to insert non-xml raw html. Please use that.

The issues #2 and #3 do not occur if you choose the javascript based approach to fill the select field.

-bijoy

vijayfromindia

It seems to me that you have either not understood my problem or require an update on the jurassic HTML technology or simply lying.

Regarding your first answer about using background processing, I agree to it and it can be done only by using AJAX technology. But, Interwoven doesn't recommend going that way and also don't support to use it. How much it can help me I'm not sure. I'm exploring its usefulness in my situation.

Regarding your second answer about <w:selectInputField> tag, you are simply lying. It's a WorksiteMP product issue which you don't want to accept.

Regarding your third answer about SELECT tag, you really need to update your HTML skills immediately. If you don't pass any value while populating the options then null will be passed for all values which makes no sense. Here XML technology is posing limitation to me which you are not trying to understand.

We cannot generate raw HTML using <jsp:scriptlet>. It can only have pure java code. Even, HTML code within out.println(); is not working.
My requirement is not to generate HTML but to pass value for the <option> tag.

Anyway, thanks for replying.

-Vijay.

Migrateduser

Take it easy Vijay :-)

I cannot answer here all your concerns in the last post. If you need additional help, please call your IWOV sales/tech support contact and ask for an audio conference with me. If they hesitate, please point them to this thread or ask them to talk to me.

Thanks,
Bijoy

vijayfromindia

Hi Bijoy,

I didn't mean anything buddy. It was only out of frustration since I'm facing the brunt of the client and the problem is not leading towards any solution. I'll get in touch with you asap.

Thanks,

-Vijay.