Using ajax in widgets

When using dynaWidgets you do not want to reload the whole page on every request, especially on updating the widget´s contents. The following practices shows how to use ajax in combination with dynaWidgets.

Ajax Status Indicator

Whenever ajax is processed from within a widget the ajax status indicator in the widget header will be shown until the action is finished:

Ajax Loading of widget content

The initial loading of the widget contents can be proceeded in parallel by using ajax. Therefore the dynaWidget grid must be configured like this:

			<dwComp:dynaWidgetGrid id="myGrid" columns="2" 
				...
				loadWidgetsByAjax="true"
			... />

What´s important here:

widgets may not have their own forms in the content facelets, there must be one form around the dynaWidget grid component
on sending an ajax action from a widget, only the input components of the widget content facelet will be decoded, not those from other widgets
the widget content is also reloaded by ajax if you use the widget´s reload action

Processing ajax actions from within a widget

For using ajax in widget contents there are special ajax action components:

      		ajaxWidget_view.xhtml:
      		...
			<dwComp:widgetAjaxLink 
				value="do some ajax action" 
				reRenderWidget="true" 
				actionBean="#{myWidgetActionBean}"
				actionName="myAction" />
			...

What´s important here:

using the widget ajax components, the ajax action will be connected to the widgets ajax status (indicator)
each widget has an ajax queue to synchronize multiple ajax calls from within a widget. using the widget ajax components, the action is bound to this ajax queue
you can also use standard a4j actions. To connect those to the widgets queue and status you have to link it to the by using eventsQueue="#{dwFct:widgetAjaxQueueName()}".

An example for using ajax in a widget

For details on using the ajax action components see content components.