RichFaces - Output Components
In the previous chapter, we have learned about different input fields or tags that help the user provide the inputs through the browser. In this chapter, we will learn about different output components provided by RichFaces.
<rich:Panel>
In some of our previous examples, we have already come across the panel tag. <rich:panel> creates a rectangular area inside the webpage, which may contain any information. You can include other panels, images, and any other rich components inside one panel.
In the following example, we will create a custom panel according to choice and we will provide a header to our panel using the “header” attribute. Please create a xhtml file and name it as “richPanelExamlple.xhtml”. Place the following code inside it.
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:ui = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:a4j = "http://richfaces.org/a4j"
xmlns:rich = "http://richfaces.org/rich">
<h:head>
<title>Panel Example</title>
</h:head>
<h:body>
<rich:panel header = "RichFace Tutorials " style = "font-size: 500px;
align-items:center; background-color: activecaption">
RichFace Tutorials Presented by Howcodex.com.
</rich:panel>
</h:body>
</html>
The above piece of code will yield the following output in the browser.
<rich:simpleTogglePanel>
The simpleTogglePanel provides an opportunity to the developers to change the contains of the panel in a dynamic way. However, in RichFaces 4, this tag has been suppressed. JBoss has introduced advanced tags such as <rich:togglePanel>, <rich:tab>, and <rich:tabPanel>. It is recommended to use the updated version of RichFaces tags for more features and functionalities. If you are still using RichFaces 3, then you can use the following tag.
<ui:composition xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:ui = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:a4j = "http://richfaces.org/a4j"
xmlns:rich = "http://richfaces.org/rich">
<rich:simpleTogglePanel switchType = "client" label = "SimpleToggle">
The simple example of SimpleToggle tag
</rich:simpleTogglePanel>
</ui:composition>
<rich:tabPanel>
This tag helps the developers create different tabs inside a panel. We have used this tag in our skin chapter, where we have created two separate tags inside another panel. Following code will describe how we use <rich:tabPanel>.
<?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'UTF-8' ?>
<ui:composition xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:ui = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:a4j = "http://richfaces.org/a4j"
xmlns:rich = "http://richfaces.org/rich">
<f:view>
<h:head>
<title>Rich Faces Tab Example</title>
</h:head>
<h:body>
<h:form>
<rich:panel style = "width:60%">
<rich:tabPanel switchType = "AJAX">
<rich:tab header = "Name">
Howcodex----This is Tab Number 1
</rich:tab>
<rich:tab header = "Features">
Best Place to learn -------This is Tab Number 2
</rich:tab>
</rich:tabPanel>
</rich:panel>
</h:form>
</h:body>
</f:view>
</ui:composition>
In this example, we have created two tabs with different headers called “Name” and “Features”. These two tags will be created inside the <rich:panel>. The above code will yield the following output.
<rich:panelBar>
Like simpleToggleBar, it allows the developers to implement vertical toggling depending on some JS event. This tag is also suppressed in RichFaces 4. However, you can use it as shown below if you are using RichFaces 3.0. .
<ui:composition xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:ui = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:a4j = "http://richfaces.org/a4j"
xmlns:rich = "http://richfaces.org/rich">
<rich:panelBar height = "400" width = "500">
<rich:panelBarItem label = "Toggle1”>
First vertical toggle
</rich:panelBarItem>
<rich:panelBarItem label = ”Toggle2”>
Second Vertical Toggle
</rich:panelBarItem>
</rich:panelBar >
</ ui:composition >
In RichFaces 4, the same functionality has been implemented using <rich:PanelMenu> tag.
<rich:tab>
We are already familiar with this tag. In the example of <rich:tabPanel>, we have created different tabs with this tag. In the following example, we have created two tags.
<?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'UTF-8' ?>
<ui:composition xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:ui = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:a4j = "http://richfaces.org/a4j"
xmlns:rich = "http://richfaces.org/rich">
<f:view>
<h:head>
<title>Rich Faces Tab Example</title>
</h:head>
<h:body>
<h:form>
<rich:panel style = "width:60%">
<rich:tabPanel switchType = "AJAX">
<rich:tab header = "Name">
Howcodex----This is Tab Number 1
</rich:tab>
<rich:tab header = "Features">
Best Place to learn -------This is Tab Number 2
</rich:tab>
</rich:tabPanel>
</rich:panel>
</h:form>
</h:body>
</f:view>
</ui:composition>
The above piece of code will generate the following output in the browser.
<rich:panelMenu>
Panel Menu helps the developers create a vertical dropdown toggle inside a panel area. The following example will help us understand this tag better. Create the “richPanelMenu.xhtml” file and place the following piece of code inside it.
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:ui = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:a4j = "http://richfaces.org/a4j"
xmlns:rich = "http://richfaces.org/rich">
<h:head>
<title>Panel Menu example</title>
</h:head>
<h:body>
<h:form id = "form">
<h:panelGrid columns = "2" columnClasses = "cols,cols" width = "400">
<rich:panelMenu style = "width:200px">
<rich:panelMenuGroup label = "Group 1">
<rich:panelMenuItem label = "Database" action = "#{managedBean.subjectList}">
<f:param name = "current" value = "DB"/>
</rich:panelMenuItem>
<rich:panelMenuItem label = "Oracle" action = "#{managedBean.subjectList}">
<f:param name = "current" value = "Oracle"/>
</rich:panelMenuItem>
<rich:panelMenuItem label = "JAVA" action = "#{managedBean.subjectList}">
<f:param name = "current" value = "JAVA"/>
</rich:panelMenuItem>
</rich:panelMenuGroup>
</rich:panelMenu>
</h:panelGrid>
</h:form>
</h:body>
</html>
As seen in the above example, panelMenu comes with some other associated tags which helps in a different manner. <panelGrid> helps create a grid inside the panel. <panelMenuGroup> helps group the different components that we are going to populate .<panelMenuItem> is the actual item that will be rendered to the browser. Using the “action” attribute, you can call different action methods depending on the item selected. The “label” attribute is used to populate the value in the front-end and the rendered value will be processed to the back-end once the specified action class is called.
The above piece of code will yield the following output in the browser.
<rich:TogglePanel>
This tag is used to render different outputs that can be switched or toggled using the Toggle control method. This toggle control method can be implemented or customized. In the following example, we will implement this method.
Create an xhtml file and name it as “richTogglePanel.xhtml”. Place the following code inside it.
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:ui = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:a4j = "http://richfaces.org/a4j"
xmlns:rich = "http://richfaces.org/rich">
<h:head>
<title>Rich Toggle Panel Example</title>
<meta name = "viewport" content = "width = device-width, initial-scale = 1.0"/>
</h:head>
<h:body>
<h:form id = "form">
<rich:togglePanel id = "panel1" activeItem = "item1"
itemChangeListener = "#{panelMenuBean.updateCurrent}">
<rich:togglePanelItem name = "item1">
<p>Content of the toggle 1</p>
</rich0:togglePanelItem>
<rich:togglePanelItem name = "item2">
<p>Content of the toggle 2</p>
</rich:togglePanelItem>
</rich:togglePanel>
<a4j:outputPanel id = "tabs" layout = "block">
<a4j:outputPanel layout = "block" styleClass = "tabDiv">
<rich:toggleControl event = "click" targetPanel = "panel1" targetItem = "item1" />
<a4j:commandButton value = "Toggle1"/>
</a4j:outputPanel>
<a4j:outputPanel layout = "block" styleClass = "tabDiv">
<rich:toggleControl event = "click" targetPanel = "panel1" targetItem = "item2" />
<a4j:commandButton value = "Toggle2"/>
</a4j:outputPanel>
</a4j:outputPanel>
</h:form>
</h:body>
</html>
We also need to create a bean class to control the transition of the website. Create “MenuBean.java” class like the following.
import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.bean.ViewScoped;
import org.richfaces.event.ItemChangeEvent;
@ManagedBean
@ViewScoped
public class MenuBean {
private String current;
private boolean singleMode;
public boolean isSingleMode() {
return singleMode;
}
public void setSingleMode(boolean singleMode) {
this.singleMode = singleMode;
}
public String getCurrent() {
return this.current;
}
public void setCurrent(String current) {
this.current = current;
}
public void updateCurrent(ItemChangeEvent event) {
setCurrent(event.getNewItemName());
}
}
The above code will yield the following output in the browser.
In the above example, the content of the webpage will be changed depending on the button clicked by the user. “updateCurrent()” is the method which handles the JS event content and sets the website content on the go.
<rich:toolBar>
toolBar is used to create a horizontal bar in the panel. It is used to create top level menu in the webpage. In the following example, we will learn how to use this tag in the webpage. Create a “xhtml” file and name it as “toolbar.xhml”. Place the following code in it.
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:ui = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:a4j = "http://richfaces.org/a4j"
xmlns:rich = "http://richfaces.org/rich">
<h:head>
<title>ToolBar Example</title>
</h:head>
<h:body>
<rich:panel>
<rich:toolbar height = "26" itemSeparator = "grid">
<rich:toolbarGroup location = "left">
<h:commandButton styleClass = "barsearchbutton"
onclick = "return false;" value = "TAB" />
</rich:toolbarGroup>
<rich:toolbarGroup location = "left">
<h:commandButton styleClass = "barsearchbutton"
onclick = "return false;" value = "TAB2" />
</rich:toolbarGroup>
<rich:toolbarGroup location = "left">
<h:commandButton styleClass = "barsearchbutton"
onclick = "return false;" value = "TAB3" />
</rich:toolbarGroup>
</rich:toolbar>
</rich:panel>
</h:body>
</html>
The above code will yield the following output in the browser.
In the above example, <toolbarGroup> tag is used to group different same types of tool. Any number of groups can be created. Location provides the position of the webpage, where the button will be placed.
<rich:separator>
As the name suggests, it is used to separate different components on the webpage. This tag has been suppressed in RichFaces 4, however, if you are still using RichFaces 3, then you can use the following tag.
<rich:separator lineType = "beveled" height = "8" width = "75%" align = "center"/>
<p>Here is more examples of different line types:</p>
<rich:separator height = "2" lineType = "dotted"/><br/>
<rich:separator height = "2" lineType = "dashed"/><br/>
<rich:separator height = "4" lineType = "double"/><br/>
<rich:separator height = "2" lineType = "solid"/><br/>
In the above example, LineType is the attribute that helps us determine the type of separator we want to use. All of these separator names are pretty much self-descriptive in nature.
<rich:Spacer>
Spacer is a self-described tag that helps the developer provide a space between two components. This tag is also suppressed in RichFaces4 along with other tags, however, you can use the following code if you are using RichFaces 3.
<rich:spacer width = "1" height = "5" title = "Here is a spacer..."/>
<rich:modalPanel>
Modal Panel is used to show a pop-up on the go. In RichFaces 4, the modal panel tag has been changed to popupPanel. In the following example, we will see how it works. Create a xhtml file and name it as “PopingUp.xhtml”. Place the following code into it.
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:ui = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:a4j = "http://richfaces.org/a4j"
xmlns:rich = "http://richfaces.org/rich">
<h:head>
<title>ModalPanel and popupPanel</title>
</h:head>
<h:body>
<h:form>
<h:commandButton value = "Click ME">
<rich:componentControl target = "popup" operation = "show" />
</h:commandButton>
<rich:popupPanel id = "popup" modal = "true" autosized = "false"
resizeable = "false">
Hey !!!
How are you?
</rich:popupPanel>
</h:form>
</h:body>
</html>
The above example will generate the following output when the “ClickMe” button is clicked.
