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

The Makumba Data Definitions (MDDs) can be placed anywhere in the CLASSPATH, in the dataDefinitions folder.

dataDefinitions/organisation/Partner.mdd
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
personalContacts= set general.Person ; precise personal contacts at the partner

dataDefinitions/organisation/Country.mdd
name=char[60]               ;Country
iso2letterCode=fixed char[2];2-letter ISO code

dataDefinitions/organisation/Person.mdd
name=char[60]               ;name
birthdate=date              ;birthdate

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. example/WEB-INF/classes/localhost_mysql_testdatabase.properties

alter#MDD_name=true

In order to create the table or make the MDD changes available, just 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

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

<h2>Partners:</h2>

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

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

 Object details

example/partners.jsp
<%@ 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

example/partnerNew.jsp
<%@ 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:

example/countryNew.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

example/partnerEdit.jsp
<%@ 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