krad - new features and improvements for the rice application development framework

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KRAD - New Features and Improvements for the Rice Application Development Framework

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Introduction

• Scott Gibson Rice Development Manager University Of Maryland• Jerry Neal Rice Developer Indiana University

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/


Overview

• Why this Presentation?• Benefits of the KNS (KRAD)• Overview of KNS Components• What is KRAD?• Overview of KRAD Features• Questionnaire & Questions


Why this Presentation?

• Community Involvement • Early Feedback


Benefits of KNS (KRAD)

• Decreased development time• Increased code reuse (more maintainble)• Standard development paradigm (training)• Standard Look and Feel• Integration with other Rice modules (KEW,

KIM)• Accessibility• Designed for Extensibility


Overview of KNS Components Concept

ENTITY_T Entity(POJO)

ORMMapping

Data Dictionary

Lookups and

InquiriesMaintenanceDocuments

TransactionalDocuments

Workflow(KEW)

Table

IDM (KIM)


Overview of KNS Components Data Dictionary


Data DictionaryOverview of KNS Components


Overview of KNS Components Lookup


Overview of KNS Components Inquiry


Overview of KNS Components Maintenance


Overview of KNS Components Transactional


What is KRAD?

• Stands for: “Kuali Rapid Application Development”

• Major effort to enhance and improve the KNS– More Flexible, Richer … Faster!

• Eventual rename of KNS Rice module


What is KRAD?

• Major focus:– Rich UI Support– More UI Flexibility– Improved Configuration and Tooling– Better alignment with Kuali Student– Numerous smaller improvements

• Lookups, Inquiries, & Maintenance Improvements


What is KRAD?

• Inspiration– Numerous suggestions collected from projects and the

community– TRC Working Group– Feedback from UI Designers– Kuali Student– Other Frameworks: Fluid, Rails, Roo, RSF, Seam

• Timeline – First release scheduled for Rice 1.1– Continued work on major enhancements through Rice 1.2


KRAD Features – Rich UI

• Simplifies HTML Document Traversing & Event Handling

• Built in Cross Browser support

• Lightweight and Non-Impacting

• Rich Widgets:– Dialog, Button,

Accordion, Autocomplete …

• Interactions and Effects:– Draggable, Droppable,

Show, Hide, Toggle …


KRAD Features – Rich UI LightBox

• Keeps user on page (reduces number of tabs/windows)

• Display div content or iframe• Draggable, Resizable, Modal• Built using jQuery Dialog

– Ex. $(selector).dialog([options])



• Lightbox support for Inquiries, Lookups, Confirmations, and expanded Text Areas

LightBox



• Constraint Message – displays field restrictions• Defined in dictionary:

Messages

Ex. Constraint Message



• Watermark – displays in text field (ex. date format)

• Defined in dictionary:

Messages

Ex. Watermark



• Growls – notifications about events• Built in growls for Save & Route• Use jQuery for custom notifications:

Messages

Ex. Save Message



• Other Messages:– Roll over field level help– Always displayed field Summary– Page submit/load notification

Messages



• Show information when needed• Show/Hide

– Sections (Tabs)– Groups (Parts of Tab)– Fields– Field Group (Grouping of fields)

• Server & Client side support

Progressive Disclosure



• Implement PresentationController:

• Also supports conditional read-only & required• Called on page submits, can define ‘trigger’ field in dictionary for more

dynamic behavior:


Server Side



• Declare as ‘progressiveDisclosure’ in dictionary:

• Configure show conditions on Field or write custom jQuery script:


Client Side



• Dynamic Read-Only Content – additional read-only information displayed under a field

• Defined in the dictionary:

Ajax

Ex. Chart Description


KRAD Features – Rich UI Themes



• Client side validation– Automatic translation of dictionary validation to

client validation script• Improved Navigation (breadcrumbs)• Text based button generation• Auto-complete Fields• Improved Calendar widget

Other


KRAD Features – UI Flexibility

• More layout flexibility for Inquiry and Maintenance Screens

• Ability to generate all screens (transactional documents)

• Support different look and feels (e.g. KS)• Extensible and Customizable , no ‘Black Box’

Goals



• Built using existing pieces of functionality (generalizing maintenance framework)

• Simplified architecture with reduce layering (no ‘object translation’ layer)

• Uses fine grained tag files (‘HTML Templates’) for rendering view

• No hard-coded associations (object – tag ), everything configured through spring

• Allow code access to modify definitions when necessary

Architecture



• Comprised of ‘Building Blocks’

Dictionary Definition

Object Template


Object Template


Object Template

Core

Dictionary Definition Template


Object Template

Custom

Framework

Architecture



• View – Rendering of information, fields, and other items to a user (the HTML page: header, body, footer, style, navigation)

• Group – Grouping of the items (conceptually have different levels: Page, Section, Group, Field Group)

• Field – An application attribute or action and related elements (label, control, lookup, constraint, …)

• Widget – A element that encompasses functionality within the UI (calendar, breadcrumbs, quickfinder)

Concepts


KRAD Features – UI Flexibility Concepts

Concept Wireframe


KRAD Features – UI Flexibility Concepts

Ex. Disbursement

Voucher



• Responsible for overall layout and style – Navigation, Header/Footer, Body (Sections)– Can be single or multi paged

• KRAD View Types– StackedViewType: Renders sections in vertical flow

(with optional tabs), single page– TabbedViewType: Provides page navigation with

horizontal tabs

Views



– MenuViewType: Provides page navigation through a menu

– WizardViewType: Provides sequenced page navigation through the use of buttons

– DocumentStackedViewType & DocumentTabbedViewType: Extends base view types for rendering standard document header/footer content and sections

• View Type + Style = View

Views



• A view is associated with an application entity in the dictionary

Views



• Layout content for a Section, Group, or Field Group

• KRAD Layout Managers– GridLayoutManager: Arranges components in

table cells with auto wrapping ([options: numberOfColumns, autoLabel, labelPlacement])

– BoxLayoutManager: Arranges components one after another vertically or horizontally

Layout Managers



– TableLayoutManager: Arranges components in a collection table

– MaintenanceLayoutManager: Special GridLayoutManager that adds additional fields

• Custom Layout Managers can be created with dictionary definition and tag file handler

Layout Managers



• Contain a title, one or more groups, and zero or more actions

• Associated errors and rollup of group errors

Sections



• Contain a title, sub-title, one or more fields, zero or more actions

• Associated errors and rollup of field errors

Groups



• Usually associated with an attribute• Pull in information from dictionary attribute

entry, but can override any settings (label, control, lookup, …)

• Include many additional properties:– hidden, readOnly, lookupReadOnly, colspan, width, align,

labelPlacement, required, total, triggerOnChange, …

Fields



• Examples: – FieldDefinition, LabelFieldDefinition (attribute)– ActionFieldDefinition– TextFieldDefinition, HeaderFieldDefinition– BlankFieldDefinition

• Custom Fields can be created with dictionary definition and associated tag file handler

Fields



• Contains a label and one or more fields• By default uses BoxLayoutManager (Horizontal

or Vertical layout, single table cell for fields)

Field Groups



• MessageDefinition – HTML Text

Elements

• LinkDefinition – HTML Link



• ActionDefinition – HTML Image Submit

Elements

• ControlDefinition – HTML Control

• ImageDefinition – HTML Image



• New Elements can be added with a dictionary definition and tag file handler (with optional object)

Elements


KRAD Features

• Use ‘convention over configuration’ where possible

• Provide better error checking and reporting– Standalone dictionary startup & validation

• Support dictionary reload• Dictionary GUI

– Graphical interface to dictionary– Provides searches, auto-complete, …

Config & Tools


KRAD Features

• Tools– Create entity (bo class, dictionary, mapping)– Create document (document class, dictionary,

mapping, action class & form, optional authorizer or presentation controller)

– Generate Constraints– Message GUI

• Graphical interface for specifying messages (keys, text, constants, …)

Config & Tools


KRAD Features

• Multiple Lookups & Inquiries for an entity– Lookup – ‘basic’, ‘advanced’, …– Inquiry – ‘short’, ‘full’, …

• Dynamic Attributes– Define attribute in dictionary without entity/table

changes• Table support for labels

Other Improvements


KRAD Features

• More Dictionary Validation– Cross field validation (MustOccur, Case)– Collection minOccurs, maxOccurs– Validation message key (custom error messages)

• Client side table sorting, paging, add/delete rows (lookup and document collections)

• Improved Error Handling

Other Improvements


KRAD Features

• Support for service mapped entities (DTOs)– Dictionary support for general objects– Objects mapped to a service for persistence

operations– Eliminates need for ExternalizableBusinessObject– No developer concern regarding how an object is

loaded– Better alignment with JPA

Other Improvements


KRAD Features

• Improvements to Question Framework (QuestionHelper)– Allows easier and cleaner creation of questions– Keeps track of questions asked and their

responses• Maintenance Copy

– Specify ‘clearOnCopy’ for a maintainable field• Built in ValueFinders (Generic)

Other Improvements


Questionnaire & Questions


Thanks!

http://kuali.org/rice

krad - new features and improvements for the rice application development framework

Documents

rice modules kew

krad new features

major focus

major enhancements

toolingbetter alignment

nonimpactingrich widgets

continued work

knsmore flexible