org.springframework.webflow.executor.mvc
Class PortletFlowController

java.lang.Object
  org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport
      org.springframework.web.portlet.context.PortletApplicationObjectSupport
          org.springframework.web.portlet.handler.PortletContentGenerator
              org.springframework.web.portlet.mvc.AbstractController
                  org.springframework.webflow.executor.mvc.PortletFlowController

All Implemented Interfaces:

org.springframework.beans.factory.InitializingBean, org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextAware, org.springframework.web.portlet.context.PortletContextAware, org.springframework.web.portlet.mvc.Controller

public class PortletFlowController
extends org.springframework.web.portlet.mvc.AbstractController
implements org.springframework.beans.factory.InitializingBean

Point of integration between Spring Portlet MVC and Spring Web Flow: a Controller that routes incoming portlet requests to one or more managed flow executions.

Requests into the web flow system are handled by a FlowExecutor, which this class delegates to. Consult the JavaDoc of that class for more information on how requests are processed.

Note: a single PortletFlowController may execute all flows within your application. See the phonebook-portlet sample application for examples of the various strategies for launching and resuming flow executions in a Portlet environment.

It is also possible to customize the FlowExecutorArgumentHandler strategy to allow for different types of controller parameterization, for example perhaps in conjunction with a REST-style request mapper.

Integrating Spring Web Flow into a Portlet environment puts some minor contraints on your flows. These constraints result from technical limitations in the Portlet API, for instance the fact that a render request cannot issue a redirect. Keep the following in mind when developing Portlets using Spring Web Flow:

• Using the well known POST-REDIRECT-GET idiom, for instance using alwaysRedirectOnPause or the "redirect:" view prefix, does not make sense in a Portlet environment where the Portlet container handles this using a seperate render phase. In other words, a FlowExecutionRedirect is not supportd.
• This controller will launch a new flow execution every time it handles a render request without having previously handled an action request (for the same session) or the render request containing a flow execution key.
• Launching new flow executions is done in the render phase. As a result the first view selection your flow makes cannot be a FlowDefinitionRedirect or an ExternalRedirect.

Author:

Keith Donald, Erwin Vervaet

See Also:

FlowExecutor, FlowExecutorArgumentHandler

Field Summary

Fields inherited from class org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport

logger

Constructor Summary

PortletFlowController()
Create a new portlet flow controller.

Method Summary

void	afterPropertiesSet()
protected java.lang.String	convertToString(java.lang.Object object) Converts the object to a string.
FlowExecutorArgumentHandler	getArgumentHandler() Returns the flow executor argument handler used by this controller.
FlowExecutor	getFlowExecutor() Returns the flow executor used by this controller.
protected void	handleActionRequestInternal(javax.portlet.ActionRequest request, javax.portlet.ActionResponse response)
protected org.springframework.web.portlet.ModelAndView	handleRenderRequestInternal(javax.portlet.RenderRequest request, javax.portlet.RenderResponse response)
void	setArgumentHandler(FlowExecutorArgumentHandler argumentHandler) Sets the flow executor argument handler to use.
void	setDefaultFlowId(java.lang.String defaultFlowId) Sets the identifier of the default flow to launch if no flowId argument can be extracted by the configured FlowExecutorArgumentHandler during render request processing.
void	setFlowExecutor(FlowExecutor flowExecutor) Configures the flow executor implementation to use.
protected org.springframework.web.portlet.ModelAndView	toModelAndView(ResponseInstruction responseInstruction) Convert given response instruction into a Spring Portlet MVC model and view.

Methods inherited from class org.springframework.web.portlet.mvc.AbstractController

handleActionRequest, handleRenderRequest, isRenderWhenMinimized, isSynchronizeOnSession, setRenderWhenMinimized, setSynchronizeOnSession

Methods inherited from class org.springframework.web.portlet.handler.PortletContentGenerator

applyCacheSeconds, cacheForSeconds, check, checkAndPrepare, checkAndPrepare, getCacheSeconds, isRequireSession, preventCaching, setCacheSeconds, setRequireSession

Methods inherited from class org.springframework.web.portlet.context.PortletApplicationObjectSupport

getPortletContext, getTempDir, isContextRequired, setPortletContext

Methods inherited from class org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationObjectSupport

getApplicationContext, getMessageSourceAccessor, initApplicationContext, requiredContextClass, setApplicationContext

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

PortletFlowController

public PortletFlowController()

Create a new portlet flow controller. Allows for bean style usage.

See Also:

setFlowExecutor(FlowExecutor), setArgumentHandler(FlowExecutorArgumentHandler)

Method Detail

getFlowExecutor

public FlowExecutor getFlowExecutor()

Returns the flow executor used by this controller.

Returns:

the flow executor

setFlowExecutor

public void setFlowExecutor(FlowExecutor flowExecutor)

Configures the flow executor implementation to use. Required.

Parameters:

flowExecutor - the fully configured flow executor

getArgumentHandler

public FlowExecutorArgumentHandler getArgumentHandler()

Returns the flow executor argument handler used by this controller.

Returns:

the argument handler

setArgumentHandler

public void setArgumentHandler(FlowExecutorArgumentHandler argumentHandler)

Sets the flow executor argument handler to use.

Parameters:

argumentHandler - the fully configured argument handler

setDefaultFlowId

public void setDefaultFlowId(java.lang.String defaultFlowId)

Sets the identifier of the default flow to launch if no flowId argument can be extracted by the configured FlowExecutorArgumentHandler during render request processing.

This is a convenience method that sets the default flow id of the controller's argument handler. Don't use this when using setArgumentHandler(FlowExecutorArgumentHandler).

afterPropertiesSet

public void afterPropertiesSet()

Specified by:

afterPropertiesSet in interface org.springframework.beans.factory.InitializingBean

handleRenderRequestInternal

protected org.springframework.web.portlet.ModelAndView handleRenderRequestInternal(javax.portlet.RenderRequest request,
                                                                                   javax.portlet.RenderResponse response)
                                                                            throws java.lang.Exception

Overrides:

handleRenderRequestInternal in class org.springframework.web.portlet.mvc.AbstractController

Throws:

java.lang.Exception

handleActionRequestInternal

protected void handleActionRequestInternal(javax.portlet.ActionRequest request,
                                           javax.portlet.ActionResponse response)
                                    throws java.lang.Exception

Overrides:

handleActionRequestInternal in class org.springframework.web.portlet.mvc.AbstractController

Throws:

java.lang.Exception

convertToString

protected java.lang.String convertToString(java.lang.Object object)

Converts the object to a string. Simply returns String.valueOf(Object) by default.

Parameters:

object - the object

Returns:

the string-form of the object

toModelAndView

protected org.springframework.web.portlet.ModelAndView toModelAndView(ResponseInstruction responseInstruction)

Convert given response instruction into a Spring Portlet MVC model and view. Will only be called during the render phase.