How to populate a Datum of type String through Generator and pojo?

I'm trying to populate a Component Datum through a POJO-call for a String Datum - have anyone managed to do that?

Populating a drop-down works fine (type: selectSingle) but when it comes to a simple text-box I can not find out how the Document returned from the POJO-call is supposed to look like.

The calling code in component-Content XML as below:

< Datum ID="m_from-date" Name="currentDate" Type="String">
< Generator Method="getCurrentDate" Object="no.teamsite.sitepublisher.external.Page"/>
< /Datum>

The method getCurrentDate returns a Document - I have tried several different formats such as:
< value>mycurrentdate< /value>
< string>mycurrentdate< /string>

but can not make it work (I have assured that the method is called by following the log files).

Any suggestions/comment are greatly appreciated

Kind regards
Martin

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Comments

AlexC

What version of LiveSite?
Can you post your Java code?
Have you looked at a sample generators in impl.zip?

Migrateduser

Alex, thank you for your reply.

We are running Sitepub version 6.7.2.0.69626

Thank you for the tip on impl.zip examples, however I couldn't find a Generator that just returns a String value.

The javacode that returns the Document is as follows:

public org.dom4j.Document getCurrentDate com.interwoven.livesite.runtime.RequestContext pctxt) {
LOGGER.debug("here i am");
Document doc = Dom4jUtils.newDocument();
doc.addElement("Text").addText("Example result");
LOGGER.debug(doc.asXML());
return doc;
}

As you can see I just try to return a String value to the Datum explained in my initial post.

Perhaps I have misunderstood the whole concept here - but looking at the examples when returning dropdown-lists (Datum type=selectSingle) I think it is possible to do what I'm trying to do... however I might be wrong...

Thank you!

/ Martin

AlexC

You can't just add a string, it has to be in a format that the calling AJAX function can use to populate the control.

From Debugging class in impl.zip:

 
  /**
   * Sample option list of N items
   * xpath: /Options
   *
   * @param context PropertyContext
   * @return dom4j document
   */
  public Document getDebugOptions(PropertyContext context)
  {
 if (LOGGER.isDebugEnabled())
 {
   LOGGER.debug("Executing Debugging.getDebugOptions");
 }
 Document doc = Dom4jUtils.newDocument();
 Element optionsBase = doc.addElement("Options");

 //a_Process parameters
 String str = (String)context.getParameters().get("basename");
 String basename = (null == str ? "DebugItem" : str);
 str = (String)context.getParameters().get("start");
 int startN = (null != str ? Integer.parseInt(str) : 3);
 str = (String)context.getParameters().get("count");
 int countN = (null != str ? Integer.parseInt(str) : 3);

 //a_Add N options
 for (int i=startN; i < startN+countN; ++i)
 {
   GeneratorUtils.addOption(optionsBase, basename+i, basename+"_"+i);
 }
 return doc;
  }

Code above adds random # of items.

GeneratorUtils.addOption is what adds the correctly formatted option:


public final class GeneratorUtils
{
/**
* Option tag
*/
public static final String OPTION = "Option";
/**
* Option display
*/
public static final String OPTION_DISPLAY = "Display";
/**
* Option value
*/
public static final String OPTION_VALUE = "Value";
/** No default ctor */
private GeneratorUtils() {}

/**
* Adds an to when creating output for Generator 
* 
* @param optionsBase base element
* @param display Option's display string
* @param value Option's value string
* @return element just added
*/
public static Element addOption(Element optionsBase, String display, String value)
{
 Element option = optionsBase.addElement(OPTION);
 option.addElement(OPTION_DISPLAY).addText(display);
 option.addElement(OPTION_VALUE).addText(value);

 return null;
}
}

Migrateduser

Once again thank you Alex.

Does this mean that it isn't possible to set the value to this Datum:

< Datum ID="m_from-date" Name="currentDate" Type="String">
< /Datum>

dynamically by making some sort of server call?
Say for example I would like to make the Datum appear as below but don't want to hardcode it into the component (i.e. to return the current date whenever the component is executed):

< Datum ID="m_from-date" Name="currentDate" Type="String">01/01/2009< /Datum>

?

Kind regards
Martin

AlexC

You can only have generators attached to single and multi select inputs.

Migrateduser

Sorry, been away for a few days...

Thank you, that explains why I don't succeed using Generators...

Are there any other ways to accomplish this that you (or anyone else) know of?

Kind regards
Martin

AlexC

How is this value used?
Do you need the datum value to change at design time or at preview/runtime?

It may be possible to use a Prefix/External or Controller to change the datum during preview/runtime that will be dynamic, if that matches your use case.

Migrateduser

It is really a quite simple thing that I can't believe would be impossible to accomplish.

We have a metadata-component (Template-component) containing a date-field for when the article would be published and visible on the site.

What I want is that that field (Datum) would be pre-filled with the current date when user is creating a new page.

I will have another go and look at it with open eyes - perhaps I haven't seen the obvious.

Kind regards
Martin

AlexC

Have you tried a DCR Datum type? Create it from the help samples to see the format (Type="DCR" essentially) and then associate it to the DCR you want to use and it will be pulled in automatically.

Migrateduser

Thanks, I dont't think a DCR Datum will help - I just want a String Datum field pre-populated with the current date - possible for the user to change.

Kind regards
Martin

gosullivan

You can't just add a string, it has to be in a format that the calling AJAX function can use to populate the control.

From Debugging class in impl.zip:

 
  /**
   * Sample option list of N items
   * xpath: /Options
   *
   * @param context PropertyContext
   * @return dom4j document
   */
  public Document getDebugOptions(PropertyContext context)
  {
 if (LOGGER.isDebugEnabled())
 {
   LOGGER.debug("Executing Debugging.getDebugOptions");
 }
 Document doc = Dom4jUtils.newDocument();
 Element optionsBase = doc.addElement("Options");

 //a_Process parameters
 String str = (String)context.getParameters().get("basename");
 String basename = (null == str ? "DebugItem" : str);
 str = (String)context.getParameters().get("start");
 int startN = (null != str ? Integer.parseInt(str) : 3);
 str = (String)context.getParameters().get("count");
 int countN = (null != str ? Integer.parseInt(str) : 3);

 //a_Add N options
 for (int i=startN; i < startN+countN; ++i)
 {
   GeneratorUtils.addOption(optionsBase, basename+i, basename+"_"+i);
 }
 return doc;
  }

Code above adds random # of items.

GeneratorUtils.addOption is what adds the correctly formatted option:


public final class GeneratorUtils
{
/**
* Option tag
*/
public static final String OPTION = "Option";
/**
* Option display
*/
public static final String OPTION_DISPLAY = "Display";
/**
* Option value
*/
public static final String OPTION_VALUE = "Value";
/** No default ctor */
private GeneratorUtils() {}

/**
* Adds an to when creating output for Generator 
* 
* @param optionsBase base element
* @param display Option's display string
* @param value Option's value string
* @return element just added
*/
public static Element addOption(Element optionsBase, String display, String value)
{
 Element option = optionsBase.addElement(OPTION);
 option.addElement(OPTION_DISPLAY).addText(display);
 option.addElement(OPTION_VALUE).addText(value);

 return null;
}
}

@AlexC: I am also experiencing the same issues attempting to use Generators to write it's content to a MulitSelect Datum. The issue I have noticed is that in your example above (and the code I have written), the XML returns a <OPTIONS><OPTION/>...Nth</OPTIONS> using dom4j.

The problem is that according to the IWOV TeamSite documentation, a multi select DATUM only appears to allow the following format.

 

<DATUM>
<OPTION>
<OPTION>
.
.
.
</DATUM>

Note: In the code example immediately above, <DATUM> is the parent element enclosing the <OPTION> values (and not a parent element of <OPTIONS>).

The container element of <OPTIONS> does not appear to be valid within the MultiSelect datum.

Note: I was unable to preview a component that had a MultiSelect DATUM with a child element of <OPTIONS> that in turn had siblings of <OPTION>.

Hence, the XML from a call to a POJO method returning a dom4j document with <OPTIONS> as the parent element of <OPTION> will fail.

This appears to be a bug, unless someone can prove me wrong.

***** Error Message from Preview Component Link: *****

Component preview failed.

Could not load component data XML into XMLDOM.

com.interwoven.livesite.common.xml.ValidationError mColumn[10] mLine[10] mSystemID[null] mPublicID[null] mType[ERROR] mMessage[cvc-complex-type.2.4.a: Invalid content was found starting with element 'Options'. One of '{Font, Image, Date, Option, ContentRetriever, DCR, Site, Generator, PropertyPrefix}' is expected.]

AlexC

Options wrapping Option is a supported format (see the SampleGenerators or Debugging classs for more examples).

Only MultiSelect and SingleSelect Datums are able to use Generators.