org.apache.turbine.services.pull.util
Class UIManager

java.lang.Object
  org.apache.turbine.services.pull.util.UIManager

All Implemented Interfaces:

ApplicationTool

public class UIManager

extends java.lang.Object

implements ApplicationTool

UIManager.java
Manages all UI elements for a Turbine Application. Any UI element can be accessed in any template using the $ui handle (assuming you use the default PullService configuration). So, for example, you could access the background colour for your pages by using $ui.bgcolor

Questions:

What is the best way to allow an application to be skinned. And how to allow the flexible altering of a particular UI element in certain parts of the template hierarchy. For example on one section of your site you might like a certain bgcolor, on another part of your site you might want another. How can be let the designer specify these properties and still use the single $app.ui.bgcolor in all the templates.

It would also be very cool to use some form of inheritence for UI elements. Say a $ui.bgcolor is used in a template where the bgcolor is not set for that part of hierarch, it would be cool if it could find the setting for the bgcolor in the parent directory. So you could override a UI element where you wanted and the system would fall back to the parent when necessary.

How to specify skins, how to deal with images, how could this be handled with a web app.

This is an application pull tool for the template system. You should not use it in a normal application!

Version:

$Id: UIManager.java 290076 2005-09-19 07:13:51Z henning $

Author:

Jason van Zyl, James Coltman, Henning P. Schmiedehausen, Thomas Vandahl

Constructor Summary

UIManager()

Method Summary

java.lang.String	get(java.lang.String key) Retrieve a property from the properties held within the properties file for this skin.
java.lang.String	getScript(java.lang.String filename) Retrieve the URL for a given script that is part of a skin.
java.lang.String	getScript(java.lang.String filename, RunData data) Retrieve the URL for a given script that is part of a skin.
java.lang.String	getSkin() Retrieve the skin name.
java.lang.String	getStylecss() Retrieve the URL for the style sheet that is part of a skin.
java.lang.String	getStylecss(RunData data) Retrieve the URL for the style sheet that is part of a skin.
java.lang.String	image(java.lang.String imageId) Retrieve the URL for an image that is part of a skin.
java.lang.String	image(java.lang.String imageId, RunData data) Retrieve the URL for an image that is part of a skin.
void	init(java.lang.Object data) Initialize the UIManager object.
void	refresh() This lets the tool know that it should be refreshed.
void	setSkin() Set the skin name to the skin from the TR.props file.
protected void	setSkin(RunData data) Set the skin name when the tool is configured to be loaded on a per-request basis.
void	setSkin(java.lang.String skinName) Set the skin name to the specified skin.
protected void	setSkin(User user) Set the skin name when the tool is configured to be loaded on a per-session basis.
static void	setSkin(User user, java.lang.String skin) Set the skin name user's temp hashmap for the current session.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

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

Constructor Detail

UIManager

public UIManager()

Method Detail

init

public void init(java.lang.Object data)

Initialize the UIManager object.

Specified by:

init in interface ApplicationTool

Parameters:

data - This is null, RunData or User depending upon specified tool scope.

refresh

public void refresh()

This lets the tool know that it should be refreshed. The tool can perform whatever actions are necessary to refresh itself. This is necessary for sane development where you probably want the tools to refresh themselves on every request.

Specified by:

refresh in interface ApplicationTool

get

public java.lang.String get(java.lang.String key)

Retrieve a property from the properties held within the properties file for this skin.

getSkin

public java.lang.String getSkin()

Retrieve the skin name.

image

public java.lang.String image(java.lang.String imageId,
                              RunData data)

Retrieve the URL for an image that is part of a skin. The images are stored in the WEBAPP/resources/ui/skins/<SKIN>/images directory. Use this if for some reason your server name, server scheme, or server port change on a per request basis. I'm not sure if this would happend in a load balanced situation. I think in most cases the image(String image) method would probably be enough, but I'm not absolutely positive.

image

public java.lang.String image(java.lang.String imageId)

Retrieve the URL for an image that is part of a skin. The images are stored in the WEBAPP/resources/ui/skins/<SKIN>/images directory.

getStylecss

public java.lang.String getStylecss(RunData data)

Retrieve the URL for the style sheet that is part of a skin. The style is stored in the WEBAPP/resources/ui/skins/<SKIN> directory with the filename skin.css Use this if for some reason your server name, server scheme, or server port change on a per request basis. I'm not sure if this would happend in a load balanced situation. I think in most cases the style() method would probably be enough, but I'm not absolutely positive.

getStylecss

public java.lang.String getStylecss()

Retrieve the URL for the style sheet that is part of a skin. The style is stored in the WEBAPP/resources/ui/skins/<SKIN> directory with the filename skin.css

getScript

public java.lang.String getScript(java.lang.String filename,
                                  RunData data)

Retrieve the URL for a given script that is part of a skin. The script is stored in the WEBAPP/resources/ui/skins/ directory

getScript

public java.lang.String getScript(java.lang.String filename)

Retrieve the URL for a given script that is part of a skin. The script is stored in the WEBAPP/resources/ui/skins/ directory

setSkin

public void setSkin()

Set the skin name to the skin from the TR.props file. If the property is not present use the default skin.

setSkin

public void setSkin(java.lang.String skinName)

Set the skin name to the specified skin.

Parameters:

skinName - the skin name to use.

setSkin

protected void setSkin(RunData data)

Set the skin name when the tool is configured to be loaded on a per-request basis. By default it calls getSkin to return the skin specified in TR.properties. Developers can write a subclass of UIManager that overrides this method to determine the skin to use based on information held in the request.

Parameters:

data - a RunData instance

setSkin

protected void setSkin(User user)

Set the skin name when the tool is configured to be loaded on a per-session basis. It the user's temp hashmap contains a value in the attribute specified by the String constant SKIN_ATTRIBUTE then that is returned. Otherwise it calls getSkin to return the skin specified in TR.properties.

Parameters:

user - a User instance

setSkin

public static void setSkin(User user,
                           java.lang.String skin)

Set the skin name user's temp hashmap for the current session.

Parameters:

user - a User instance

skin - the skin name for the session