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!!! Porting the Shipping Rate SWF sample to RSF with SWF

This page documents my efforts to port the [Shipping Rate - An Ajax-enabled Spring Web Flow Sample|http://spring.ervacon.com/swf-shippingrate/] [Spring Web Flow (SWF)|SpringWebFlow] app to using the [RSF/SWF integration|RSFSpringWebFlow].\\

This conversion took approximately 6 hours to complete (including documenting the process). Breakdown is as follows: approximately 1 hour to make the original app work with Maven2, 1 hour to understand the structure of the sample app, 1 hour for initial structure setup and cleanup, 1 hour to convert the JSPs to html templates with rsf:ids, 1 hour to write the RSF producers, 1 hour to for miscellaneous changes (updates to .xml, .properties).\\

I would estimate that a real app conversion for an app this size would take only 3 hours since documenting the process and understanding the app would not be required. You could probably save almost another hour if the app was already using maven2.\\

Feel free to send me ([Aaron Zeckoski|People]) questions or comments (or using the [mailing list|EmailLists]).

|| __Sample Code (SVN):__ | [original code (with maven2 build)|https://saffron.caret.cam.ac.uk/svn/projects/RSFSamples/trunk/SWFShippingRate/orig] | [RSF SWF version|https://saffron.caret.cam.ac.uk/svn/projects/RSFSamples/trunk/SWFShippingRate/RSFSWF]

[Try out Shipping Rate RSF SWF on our server|http://ponder.org.uk/SWFShippingRate-RSFSWF/faces]

!! My development environment

* Java 1.5

* Tomcat 5.5.12

* Maven2

* Eclipse 3.2

* Windows XP ''(any OS should be fine)''

__NOTE:__ Want [instructions setting up a similar development environment|ContainerSetupGuide]?

!! Getting started

First thing I had to do was get the SWF sample code up and running on my machine.

# Went to the [Spring Download page|http://www.springframework.org/download] and grabbed version 1.0.4 of SWF (this just goes over to sourceforge for the [spring-webflow-1.0.4.zip|http://downloads.sourceforge.net/springframework/spring-webflow-1.0.4.zip?modtime=1182395228&big_mirror=0])

# Extracted the package and grabbed the shippingrate app (spring-webflow-1.0.4\projects\spring-webflow-samples\shippingrate) and copied it over to my desktop

# Imported the sample app in eclipse and added a maven2 [pom.xml file|https://saffron.caret.cam.ac.uk/svn/projects/RSFSamples/trunk/SWFShippingRate/orig/pom.xml] (also adjusted the [.classpath file|https://saffron.caret.cam.ac.uk/svn/projects/RSFSamples/trunk/SWFShippingRate/orig/.classpath] to all required jars to use M2_REPO variable).

#* __TIP:__ Look at the {{ivy.xml}} file to get the required dependency list and versions

#* __TIP:__ Don't forget to define a ''M2_REPO'' classpath variable in eclipse which points to your local maven2 repository

# Built the project using maven2 by running {{mvn install}}

# Started up tomcat and accessed the app at: ''[http://localhost:8080/SWFShippingRate-orig-1.0/]''

# Checked in the [code for the original version|https://saffron.caret.cam.ac.uk/svn/projects/RSFSamples/trunk/SWFShippingRate/orig] to the CARET SVN

!! Creating the RSF version

! Initial structure setup and cleanup

# Branched the [original code|https://saffron.caret.cam.ac.uk/svn/projects/RSFSamples/trunk/SWFShippingRate/orig] to create the [RSFSWF version|https://saffron.caret.cam.ac.uk/svn/projects/RSFSamples/trunk/SWFShippingRate/RSFSWF].

# Adjusted the maven2 {{pom.xml}} to remove unneeded dependencies (webmvc, web, etc.) and added in the rsf-util and spring-aop dependencies.

#* Also changed the Spring version to 2.0.4 to make it easier for maven2 to sync and require less specified dependencies in the {{pom.xml}}

# Added rsf-swf and rsfutil jars to the eclipse classpath (using the M2_REPO variable)

# Added in an RSF standard {{content}} directory under {{/src/main/webapp}}

# Added in RSF standard {{content/templates}}, {{content/css}}, and {{content/images}} directories

# Moved *.jsp files to {{content/templates}} and renamed all files to .html

#* Removed the old {{jsp}} directory

# Updated the headers of all .html files to remove taglibs and added in standard RSF headers (also removed meta tag)

# Moved *.jpg to {{content/images}} and removed old {{/src/main/webapp/images}} directory

# Copied in the rsf logo and fixed the relative path to all images in the templates

#* Added logos to the front page, they were not used in the original app

# Moved {{/src/main/webapp/style.css}} file to {{content/css}}

# Added the css to the index header

#* Adjusted css since body font size was too small to read on high definition screens

# Added {{/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/messages/messages_en.properties}} file for internationalized messages

# Created an {{rsf}} package in {{org.springframework.webflow.samples.shippingrate}}

# Added {{params}} and {{producers}} packages to the {{rsf}} package

! Actual real conversion work

# Updated the {{/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml}} file to include the RSF standard contexts and servlets

#* This basically means completely overwriting what is there except you can keep the {{classpath:org/springframework/webflow/samples/shippingrate/domain/services.xml}}

#* Here is a link to the [new web.xml file|https://saffron.caret.cam.ac.uk/svn/projects/RSFSamples/trunk/SWFShippingRate/RSFSWF/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml] for easy reference

# Create an {{applicationContext.xml}} and {{requestContext.xml}} file in {{/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF}}

#* Here are links to each for easy reference: [applicationContext.xml|https://saffron.caret.cam.ac.uk/svn/projects/RSFSamples/trunk/SWFShippingRate/RSFSWF/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xm], [requestContext.xml|https://saffron.caret.cam.ac.uk/svn/projects/RSFSamples/trunk/SWFShippingRate/RSFSWF/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/requestContext.xm]

#* ''OPTIONAL:'' added an RSF config set under [SpringIDE|http://springide.org/blog/] which includes all spring files

# Removed the {{/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/shippingrate-servlet.xml}} (it mostly has webmvc beans which we do not need)

#* Copied over the 3 flow bean definitions from within this file ({{flowExecutor}}, {{flowRegistry}}, and {{formAction}}) to the {{applicationContext.xml}}

#* Updated the header of the {{applicationContext}} to include the flow xmlns {{xmlns:flow="http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow-config"}}

# Went through each .html template and removed the JSP code and replaced it with ''rsf:ids''

#* This mostly involved the removal of non-standard html tags like {{<c:...}} and {{<spring:...}}

#* This also involved some moving around of tags to improve the xhtml

#* Also removed hidden input fields which were carrying along the flow id

# Created [producers|ComponentProducer] for each of the html files in the producers package

#* This is the ''best practice'' way to create RSF view producers

## Create a class named <template>Producer which implements {{ViewComponentProducer}}

## Create a {{public final static String VIEW_ID = "<template>";}} which is set to the template without .html

## Make the {{getViewID}} method return the VIEW_ID variable

# Added all producer bean definitions to the {{requestContext.xml}} file

# Made the IndexProducer implement {{DefaultView}} so it is the starting page for the app

# Added real code to the {{IndexProducer}} to create the links to initiate the flow inside a form so we can start it using an ajax call

#* Added in special form tag to allow us to get the flow start url \\{{<form rsf:id="rate_flow_link_form" action="selectCustomer.html" />}}

#* Create the form: {{UIForm form = UIForm.make(tofill, "rate_flow_link_form");}}

#* Create a link to start a flow and put it in a form: {{form.viewparams = new SWFLaunchViewParams("getRate-flow");}}

# Added real code to the {{SelectCustomerProducer}} to connect data to the form and associate the submit with the flow

#* Use the RSF convention of {{SWFBindingBean}} to proxy data to the flow formObject, this points to the {{org.springframework.webflow.samples.shippingrate.domain.RateCriteria.java}} object (defined by the ''formObjectClass'' in the ''formAction'' bean) which has fields on it like {{.residential}}, \\For example: {{UISelect choices = UISelect.make(form, "customer_choices", customerOptions, customerLabels, "SWFBindingBean.residential");}}

#** __NOTE:__ Here we are putting data into the ''rateCriteria'' bean (defined by the ''formObjectClass'' in the ''formAction'' bean)

#* Use the RSF convention of {{SWFEventBean}} to continue the flow, this ties to the {{view-state}} in the flow \\({{/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/flows/getRate-flow.xml}}) and the related ''transition'' which will have an ''on'', \\For example: {{<transition on="submit" to="selectSender">}} for __view-state id=selectCustomerType__

# Added the injection for the {{RateService}} to the remaining producers

#* it is used in every view except {{IndexProducer}} and {{SelectCustomerProducer}}

# Added functional code to the remaining producers (this is basic Java and RSF code so I will not go into detail here)

#* This did involve injecting the {{RateCriteria}} bean into the final view so that we could send it to the {{RateService}}

# Added the validation messages from {{/src/main/java/org/springframework/webflow/samples/shippingrate/domain/RateCriteriaValidator.java}} to the {{/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/messages/messages_en.properties}}

#* This is because RSF only allows internationalized messages

#* We had to add one additional validation message because of an internal Spring exception message which RSF does not have access to

# Committed the changed code to the [CARET SVN repository RSF samples trunk|https://saffron.caret.cam.ac.uk/svn/projects/RSFSamples/trunk/]

! Running the sample app

# Built and deployed the project using maven2 by running {{mvn install cargo:deploy}} from the main directory

# Started up tomcat and accessed the app at: ''[http://localhost:8080/SWFShippingRate-SWFRSF-1.0/faces/]''

# Tested the various flows

! Differences in app function

! Summary of needed changes

* No flows were changed and the logic for the application was not touched

* The "views" (JSPs) were transformed into RSF views (producers and templates) and various RSF bits were added (contexts)

* A few other RSFisms like internationalized messages and the web.xml had to be updated or added