Makumba application example

In this example we will build a web application for managing data about our business partners in following steps:

1. Defining data structure - MDD
2. Wrinting JSP pages
   • Listing objects
   • Showing single object
   • Creating new object
   • Editing existing object
   • Fine tuning page layout
3. Business Logic

 MDD - Makumba Data Definition

File dataDefinitions/organisation/Partner.mdd (somewhere in classpath):

name=not null char[40]       ;Name
city=char[40]                ;City
country= ptr general.Country ;Country
phone=char[20]               ;Phone
fax=char[40]                 ;Fax
email=char[40]               ;E-Mail
homepage=char[50]            ;Home Page on the Internet
comment=text                 ;Other comments

name=char[60]               ;Country
iso2letterCode=fixed char[2];2-letter ISO code

Changes in the table in the database

To be able to change the table in the database you need to add the following line to the database proprieties <server_name>_<database_engine>_<database_name>.properties, e.g. public_html\WEB-INF\classes\devel-server.org_mysql_testdatabase.properties

alter#MDD_name=true
(you should comment it after the changes: #alter#MDD_name=true)

Create the table or make the MDD changes available: you will have to reload tomcat (or any engine that implement Java Servlet API).

 JSP - Java Server Pages

 Listing objects

• brief summary (name and city)
• link to a page with more detailed information

<%@ taglib uri="http://www.makumba.org/presentation" prefix="mak" %>

<h2>Partners:</h2>

<mak:list from="organisation.Partner p">
   <a href="partner.jsp?partner=<mak:value expr="p"/>">
                <mak:value expr="p.name"/>
   </a>,
   <i><mak:value expr="p.city"/></i>  <br>
</mak:list>

<hr>
[<a href="partnerNew.jsp">New partner entry</a>]

 Object details

<%@ taglib uri="http://www.makumba.org/presentation" prefix="mak" %>

<mak:object from="organisation.Partner p" where="p=$partner">
    <h2><mak:value expr="p.name"/></h2>

    <mak:value expr="p.city"/>,
      <mak:value expr="p.country.name"/>
    Home Page: <b><mak:value expr="p.homepage"/></b>
    <p>
    You can send them an email to: <mak:value expr="p.email"/><br>
    Call me: <b><mak:value expr="p.phone"/></b><br>
    Comment: <mak:value expr="p.comment"/>
    <p>
    <a href="partnerEdit.jsp?partner=<mak:value expr="p"/>">edit</a>
</mak:object>

<hr>
[<a href="partnerList.jsp">List them all</a>]

For additional options see the specification of mak:object and mak:value.

 New object creation

<%@ taglib uri="http://www.makumba.org/presentation" prefix="mak" %>

<h2>New partner</h2>

<mak:newForm type="organisation.Partner" action="partnerList.jsp">
   Name: <mak:input name="name"/> <br>

   City: <mak:input name="city"/> <br>
   Country: <mak:input name="country"/> <a href="countryNew.jsp">Add countries</a><br>
   <input type="submit" value="Create">
</mak:newForm>

<hr>
[<a href="partnerList.jsp">Back to list</a>]

Page countryNew.jsp looks almost the same as partnerNew.jsp:

<%@ taglib uri="http://www.makumba.org/presentation" prefix="mak" %>

<h2>New country</h2>

<mak:newForm type="general.Country" action="partnerList.jsp">
   Name: <mak:input field="name"/> <br>
   ISO code: <mak:input field="iso2letterCode" size="5"/><br>
   <input type="submit" value="Add">
</mak:newForm>

<hr>
[<a href="partnerList.jsp">Back to list</a>]

For additional options see the specification of mak:newForm and mak:input.

 Editing existing objects

<%@ taglib uri="http://www.makumba.org/presentation" prefix="mak" %>

<mak:object from="organisation.Partner p" where="p=$partner">
   <h2>Edit <mak:value expr="p.name"/></h2>
   <mak:editForm object="p" action="partnerList.jsp">

      City: <mak:input field="city"/> <br>
      Country: <mak:input field="country"/>
        <a href="countryNew.jsp">Add countries</a><br>
        
      Home Page: <mak:input field="homepage"/>
      <p>
      Email: <mak:input field="email"/><br>
      Phone: <mak:input field="phone"/><br>
      Comment: <mak:input field="comment"/><br>
      <input type="submit" value="Save">
   </mak:editForm>

   <mak:deleteLink object="p" action="partnerList.jsp">Delete this</mak:deleteLink>

</mak:object>

<hr>
[<a href="partnerList.jsp">Back to list</a>]

For additional options see the specification of mak:editForm, mak:input and mak:deleteLink.

 Fine-tuning layout

In order to keep your code as clean as possible, we advise you to break it down into small, human-managable files and include them in your pages with <jsp:include /> directive, eg:

<jsp:include page="header.jsp"/>

 BL - Business Logic

For this example you will need to define the following methods in, for example, Logic.java. See how makumba looks for the handlers.

public void on_newPartner(Dictionary d, Attributes a, Database db) {}
public void on_editPartner(Pointer p, Dictionary d, Attributes a, Database db) {}
public void on_newCountry(Dictionary d, Attributes a, Database db) {}
public void on_deletePartner(Pointer p, Attributes a, Database db) {}

Do not forget that you have to compile after changing a java file.

More about business logic