How to define flow for changing the content area

[Vijay B]

I am planning to use datafx for a new app that i am building for my client. The application's navigation is controlled by bunch of buttons on the right side of app. Based on button clicked, the center pane (defined as a stack-pane with id: #contentArea) should change.  Can you provide the right direction for defining the flow for my case.

Vijay

[Hendrik Ebbers]

The Flow should be handled in the main area (contentArea). You can define global actions for a flow - see Flow.withGlobalLink(....). By doing so you can create actions that link to all your views. the buttons in the menu can call the actions - FlowHandler.handle(....)

[Robert Ross]

I find this response a bit confusing.  Flow is not documented very well and there's no examples of using these "Global" methods that I can find.  Can you provide a simple example of of this would work when you have a parent shell FXML that needs to trigger flow behavior on a sub-pane which shows a different FXML?

[Hendrik Ebbers]

Hi,

we plan to add JavaDoc and more examples in the next weeks. I will try to add a example the next days that shows how global actions can be used.

[Robert Ross]

Vijay, were you able to get this working?  I have to code something up VERY quickly and can't afford to wait a few days for examples.  If you've gotten this working with "Global" actions, can you provide any insight on how this works?

[Hendrik Ebbers]

I don't have access to my IDE at the moment but I think something like this should work:


public class GlobalActionsDemo extends Application {

    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) throws Exception {
        StackPane pane = new StackPane();

        DefaultFlowContainer flowContainer = new DefaultFlowContainer(pane);

        Flow flow = new Flow(ViewController1.class)
                .withGlobalLink("view1ActionId",
                        ViewController1.class)
                .withGlobalLink("view2ActionId",
                        ViewController1.class);

        FlowHandler handler = flow.createHandler();
        handler.start(flowContainer);

        Button b1 = new Button("View 1");
        b1.setOnAction((e) -> handler.handle(("view1ActionId"));

        Button b2 = new Button("View 1");
        b2.setOnAction((e) -> handler.handle(("view2ActionId"));

        VBox box = new VBox();
        box.getChildren().addAll(pane, b1, b2);

        Scene myScene = new Scene(pane);

        stage.setScene(myScene);
        stage.show();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);

[Robert Ross]

Thanks!  I think this explains it pretty well.  The only bug I found in what you just provided is here:

 Scene myScene = new Scene(pane);

This should be:

 Scene myScene = new Scene(box);