XPages and jQuery DataTables: Simplifying View Creation while Maximizing Functionality

XPages and jQuery DataTables: Simplifying
View Creation while Maximizing Functionality
Oct. 11, 2016

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Paul Della-Nebbia
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Courtney Carter
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Michael Smith
@MichaelGSmith

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7
XPages and jQuery DataTables - Simplifying View
creation while maximizing functionality
Michael Smith
Mutual Boiler Re
@MichaelGSmith

October 11, 2016
Xpages & jQuery DataTables
Simplifying View creation while maximizing
functionality in XPage applications.

xpage.me XPages & jQuery DataTables
• Notes & Domino developer for ~18 years
– Focused on XPages for past 5-6 years
• As a consultant was able to work for some very interesting
companies
• Currently a Senior Developer for Mutual Boiler Re
– We are kind of a niche inside a niche
• My blog: http://xpage.me
• Twitter: @michaelgsmith
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/magnitudesolutions
Michael G. Smith - About Me

• Introduction to DataTables (http://datatables.net)
– Try to cut through the fat and focus on the most useful stuff
– This is not a comprehensive overview (we’d be here all week)
• Roadmap to quickly surface view data in your Xpage apps
– Brand new or existing apps
• Share my experiences and lessons learned
– I learned a lot just working on this presentation!
• How to take everything and utilize it in an enterprise application
– Scalability
• You should be able to walk away and utilize these concepts
immediately
– If I’ve done my job
Goals for this session

• Developers “modernizing” legacy Notes/Domino Apps
– Focus is on building Notes-like views and embedded views, but
better
• Anyone interested in using REST to surface data to a front end
application to provide highly functional , nice looking grids
– These concepts aren’t limited to XPages
Who is this session for?

• What is DataTables?
• Why DataTables?
• Getting started with DataTables
• Putting the “Data” in DataTables
• The DataTables lifecycle
• Advanced configuration
• Domino View Management
• Putting it all together
Agenda

• Simply defined, it is:
– A client side framework/library
– A jQuery plugin
– It’s HUGE!
• It is NOT:
– the XPages control
• From the DataTables online manual:
The stated goal of DataTables is "To enhance the accessibility of data in HTML
tables”.
• My definition:
– A great tool for creating Domino-like rich views in XPage and web
applications
What is DataTables?

• Very easy to hit the ground running
• Integrates well with Bootstrap
• Further separates data from design
• Became more and more impressed with it’s capabilities
• “A” way, not “The” way
• Extremely well documented through online reference material
and support forums (http://datatables.net)
– When using example code try to make sure it is from v 1.10 or later
• Excellent at handling data types
• Great replacement for views and embedded views
– Embedded views on tabs – only load data when tab is clicked
Why DataTables?

• Adding files to your project
– CDN
– In the NSF (WebContent)
– Package Manager (Bower/NPM)
• Dependencies
– jQuery 1.7 or later
• My Demos
– DataTables 1.10.2
– jQuery 1.11.2
Getting started with DataTables

• Styling options
– Default DataTables css
– Bootstrap
• Requires a reduced DataTables css
• Use the Bootstrap table classes when assigning classes to the table
markup
– Other frameworks
• Foundation
• jQuery UI
– Use the DataTables theme creator to match your UI
– https://datatables.net/manual/styling/theme-creator
Getting started with DataTables (cont.)

• Add appropriate source files to your theme
– Using Core DataTables
• DataTables CSS
• jQuery
• DataTables js
– Using Bootstrap
• Bootstrap css
• DataTables Bootstrap css
• jQuery js
• Bootstrap js
• DataTables js
Getting started with DataTables (cont.)

Putting the “Data” in DataTables

• From the Docs:
Data for a DataTable can essentially come from three different
locations:
– HTML - ideal for when your table already exists and has been
populated with data.
– Javascript Array - used when your data exists in a JavaScript array
– An Ajax data source (JSON or JavaScript array)
• Let’s start with a simple xp:repeat
Putting the “Data” in DataTables

Putting the “Data” in DataTables (cont.)
• Adding a DataTable to a xp:repeat

• Simple xp:repeat Demo
Putting the “Data” in DataTables (cont.)

• DataTables default configuration
Adding a DataTable to a xp:repeat (cont.)

• DataTables configuration options

• DataTables configuration options (most common)
– paging
– searching
– info
– ordering
– scrollY (my new favorite)

• Demo – adding simple configuration

• Simply add classes to your table markup
Adding style to the xp:repeat

• From the DataTables reference:

• The most common:
– hover
– stripe
– row-border OR
– cell-border

• By applying classes to the markup we turn this:
Adding style to the xp:repeat (cont.)

• Into this:

• If using the Bootstrap DataTables css then use the Bootstrap
table classes
– http://getbootstrap.com/css/#tables

• In Bootstrap:

Creating a DataTable from REST data

• Use the “ajax” option to retrieve data:

• DataTables expects:
– Array of arrays
• Columns object must be defined or ..
• Markup must contain thead with th/td cells for each data column
– Array of objects (JSON)
• Columns object must be defined!
Creating a DataTable from REST data (cont.)
The columns object is really, really important !!!

• Array of arrays
– Defining the columns object
• Need one object per column
• With no data field, the order of the objects must correspond to the
order of the returned data
• Use the data field to match up objects with 0 based index of the row
array (order doesn’t matter)

• Array of arrays
– Using markup
• Must have a thead element and a th or td for each column
• Order matters

• Array of objects (JSON)
– Columns object must be defined!

• Array of objects (JSON)
– Map the “data” field of the columns object to the appropriate field
in the returned JSON object

• The most common ways to retrieve REST data from Domino:
• xeViewJsonService
– Pros
• Easy to hit the ground running
• Domino handles data serialization
– Cons
• More difficult to fine tune the data returned (i.e. reduce payload size)

• xeViewJsonService

• The most common ways to retrieve REST data in Domino:
• xeCustomRestService
– Pros
• More granular control
• Easier to define the column definitions at the rest service
– Cons
• Need to be aware of data types and make sure data is serialized
properly
• Need to actually write the code that builds the data

• xeCustomRestService

• XAgent
– Pros
• More granular control (even more?)
• Easier to define the column definitions at the rest service
– Cons
• Need to be aware of data types and make sure data is serialized
properly
• Need to actually write the code that builds the data

• REST demo:

The DataTables Lifecycle

• Use callbacks to provide a “rich” view experience
– initComplete()
– drawCallback()
– rowCallback()
– createdRow()
• Similarities to the XPages lifecycle
• Be cognizant of your users
– Don’t slow down user experience by adding too much client side
processing
The DataTables “Lifecycle” (callbacks)

• Callback demo
The DataTables “Lifecycle” (callbacks) (cont.)

Advanced Configuration

• Row click events
• Renderers
• Programmatic filtering
• Dynamically inserting new rows (Lazy loading/Infinite scroll)
• Categorization
• Reloading data (view refresh)
• Fixed table headers
• View column icons
• Server column resort
• Error handling
• Using a DataTable as a Picklist

• Adding click events
– Use the “createdRow” or “rowCallback” callbacks
• DataTables docs say createdRow is more efficient
• This *should* result in better browser performance, i.e. javascript
objects won’t be left behind when the DataTable is destroyed
– Be aware when double clicking, click event is also fired unless the
timeout method is used
• This is a browser issue, not DataTables
• Demo

• Renderers
– Possibly the most powerful aspect of DataTables
– Executed whenever DataTables needs to get the data for a cell in the
column.
– This function might be called multiple times, as DataTables will call it
for the different data types that it needs:
• display
• sorting
• filtering
– Orthogonal Data
• Each data point has the ability to take multiple forms
• Demo:
Advanced Configuration (cont.)

• Renderers

• Filtering programmatically
– The real power of DataTables can be exploited through the use of
the API
– Tables can be searched by row, column or globally across all data
– Must call the draw() event after performing search
• Demo

• Filtering programmatically

• Lazy Loading
– Grab additional data via REST and use DataTables api to insert rows
• Demo

• Categorization
– Not built in to DataTables but easy to add using the api and callbacks
– Outdated, but sometimes still a requirement during the app
modernization process
• Gently ease users into new tech by keeping some familiarity
• Demo

• Reloading data
– Avoid the dreaded “Can’t reinitialize DataTable” message
• When referencing your table be sure to use the same class it was
instantiated with
– When data is reloaded current sort remains intact

• Fixed Table Headers
– When adding a grid to a web application, ultimately users will want
the column headers to freeze while scrolling through data
– Used to this functionality in Notes
– DataTables has a Fixed Header extension
• Requires loading additional resources
• Creates a layer on top of the original table header
– Better Headers with scrollY
• Set scrollY to 0 in DataTables initialization
• Compute size of scroll body
• Came up with this method while preparing this presentation!

– Fixed Header Demo
– Multip

– Column icons were one of the great, simple things about Notes
views
– If using Font Awesome in your application, this becomes even easier
– Another example demonstrating the power and usefulness of
renderers

– Setup the back end view

– In the columns configuration, tell DataTables that the colIconEmail
column will be built with a renderer

– Build the column icon with the renderer

• Server Resort
– Backend view columns must be set to click to sort!
– This example is a good example of not having a clear path but using
the tools available in DataTables
– Add className to the columns config

• Server Resort
– Add click event to column headers
– Rebuild url based on clicked column and call reload

• Error Handling
– By default DataTables will alert all errors
– Errors can be suppressed by throwing to the console
– Be aware! Setting this option changes it for ALL DataTables on the
page!
$.fn.dataTable.ext.errMode = ‘throw';

• Error Handling
– Version 1.10.5 of DataTables introduced the ability to customize the
error handling
$('#example')
.on( 'error.dt', function ( e, settings, techNote, message ) {
console.log( 'An error has been reported by DataTables: ', message );
} )
.DataTable();

Putting it all together

• Manage your Domino views
– Separation of data and functionality
– Use views as strictly back end data containers
• Load em up with data!
– Minimize “click to sort” columns to reduce view index size
– Domino ISO-8601 dates can be problematic if not careful
• Ex. 1957-03-14T21:54:30Z
• My preference: creating a text column
– Strip out unnecessary columns, i.e. colors, icons
• May need to create REST only views in coexistence scenarios
– Fewer views
• No more specialized views with only a handful of columns
• Utilize categories and keys and ftsearch
Putting it all together

• Managing your Domino views (cont.)
– Make sure columns have an itemName !!!
Putting it all together (cont.)

• In order to apply all of this to an enterprise application we need
to be able to “connect” the data to the configurations
• My solution: REST View Manager
– Configure DataTable configurations in a browser and store json in a
Notes Document
• Minimizes need to touch designs
• Makes view customization by users much easier to implement and
manage
– Use a custom control that can be dragged and dropped into any
Xpage or custom control and configured through custom properties
– Opens the door to allowing users to customize their views

• REST View Manager

• REST View Manager
nsf
REST configuration
created client side
Xpage
DataTable
Client
Side
Server
side
REST Service
Read view config
Read view config
GET data
Save view config

• The Grand Finale Demo!
– Create a new REST configuration
– Create an Xpage
– Add the ccRestView custom control to the xpage
– Configure the ccRestView custom control with new REST
configuration
– Revel in view data!

Questions????
Use the Orange Arrow button to
expand the GoToWebinar panel
Then ask your questions in the
Questions panel!
Remember, we will answer your
questions verbally

@MichaelGSmith
#XPages
@TLCCLtd
@Teamstudio
@PaulDN
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Michael Smith

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