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Enhancing Java EE Web Applications with Automated Form Generation Tools

This article discusses the challenges of manual form development in Java EE applications, particularly in JSF environments. It highlights how error-prone and tedious manual form generation can lead to inconsistencies and weak type safety. The authors introduce a new tool that enables automated form generation, allowing developers to create forms efficiently using XML configurations and templates. Examples illustrate the mapping of entity beans to form components, promoting client-side validation. The conclusion emphasizes the tool's potential to significantly reduce development time and enhance application robustness.

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Enhancing Java EE Web Applications with Automated Form Generation Tools

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Form Builder TomášČerný Michael J. Donahoo Eunjee Song Department of Computer Science Baylor University, Waco, TX

  2. Content • Introduction • Background • Manual form generation • Tool • Example • Related work • Conclusion

  3. Introduction Java EE web applications JSF, Seam, Hibernate • Entity beans determine view forms • Manual form development is error-prone and tedious • Developer consistency • Weak type safety in view • Properties propagation • Entity bean inconsistency with view form • Form auto-generation by our tool • Client-side validation

  4. Background • Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) • Presentation tier - JSF • Business tier – Session bean • Persistence tier – Entity bean • Java Server Faces (JSF) • Rich user interface on server side • Components • Facelets (XHTML) • Templating framework • Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) • Distributed applications

  5. Manual form generation • What we want to create? • read-only and editable form

  6. Manual form development • What do I need to know? • Field - component mapping • Horizontal properties • field type ► component type • Integer ► inputNumber component • Vertical properties • field annotation ► component type • String ► @Password ► inputPassword • mapping condition • String ► length > 255 ► inputTextArea

  7. Tool • Java Application • XML configuration • Mapping field ► component template • Template-based form generation • Developer can use his favorite view components • Component libraries – client-side validation

  8. Tool

  9. Example @Entity @Table(name = “person”) publicclassPerson { privateString name; @NotNull @Length(max=100) publicString getName() { returnname; } publicvoidsetName(String name) { this.name = name; }

  10. Example <rb:inputTextid="$id" edit="#{editable}" value="#{$value}" label="$label" size="$size" maxlength="$maxlength" required="$required"/>

  11. Example <rb:inputTextid="name" edit="#{editable}" value="#{bean.name}" label="Name:" size="30" maxlength="100" required="true"/>

  12. Conclusion Contribution • New tool for JSF applications • New development style • Significant development time decrease • Client-side validation Future work • Use the idea in Model Driven Development • Extend tool for table generation • Extend tool for test generation • New client-side validation (lower X greater)

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