Form Layer Views

OpenOffice.org Developer's Guide

Forms

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• Models and Views

• The Model-View Paradigm
• Models and Views for Form Controls
• Model-View Interaction
• Form Layer Views

• Form Elements in the Document Model

• A Hierarchy of Models

• FormComponent Service
• FormComponents Service
• Logical Forms
• Forms Container
• Form Control Models

• Control Models and Shapes

• Form Components

• Control Models
• Forms
• HTML Forms

• Data Awareness

• Forms

• Forms as Row Sets
• Loadable Forms
• Sub Forms
• Filtering and Sorting
• Parameters

• Data Aware Controls

• Control Models as Bound Components
• Committing Controls

• External Value Suppliers

• Value Bindings

• Form Controls accepting Value Bindings

• External List Sources

• Validation

• Validation in OpenOffice.org
• Validation and Bindings

• Scripting and Events
• Common Tasks

• Initializing Bound Controls
• Automatic Key Generation
• Data Validation
• Programmatic Assignment of Scripts to Events

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View Modes

An important aspect to know when dealing with forms is that the view for a form layer is in different modes. More precise, there is a design mode available, opposite to a live mode. In design mode, you design your form interactively with OpenOffice.org by inserting new controls, resizing them, and modifying their properties, together with control models and shapes, although OpenOffice.org hides this. In live mode, the controls interact with the user for data input.

The live mode is the natural mode for form views, because usually a form is designed once and used again.

The following example switches a given document view between the two modes:

  /** toggles the design mode of the form layer of active view of our sample document
   */
  protected void toggleFormDesignMode() throws java.lang.Exception {
      // get a dispatcher for the toggle URL
      URL[] aToggleURL = new URL[] {new URL()};
      aToggleURL[0].Complete = new String(".uno:SwitchControlDesignMode");
      XDispatch xDispatcher = getDispatcher(aToggleURL);
 
      // dispatch the URL - this will result in toggling the mode
      PropertyValue[] aDummyArgs = new PropertyValue[] {};
      xDispatcher.dispatch(aToggleURL[0], aDummyArgs);
  }

The basic idea is to dispatch the URL ".uno:SwitchControlDesignMode" into the current view. This triggers the same functionality as if the button Design Mode On/Off was pressed in OpenOffice.org. In fact, SwitchControlDesignMode is the UNO name for the slot triggered by this button.

Locating Controls

A common task when working with form documents using the OpenOffice.org API is to obtain controls. Given that there is a control model, and a view to the document it belongs to, you may want to know the control that is used to represent the model in that view. This is what the interface com.sun.star.view.XControlAccess at the controller of a document view is made for.

  /** retrieves a control within the current view of a document
      @param xModel
          specifies the control model which's control should be located
      @return
          the control tied to the model
   */
  public XControl getControl(XControlModel xModel) throws com.sun.star.uno.Exception {
      XControlAccess xCtrlAcc = (XControlAccess)UnoRuntime.queryInterface(
          XControlAccess.class , m_xController);
      // delegate the task of looking for the control
      return xCtrlAcc.getControl(xModel);
  }

Focusing Controls

To focus a specific control in your document, or more precisely, in one of the views of your document:

  /** sets the focus to a specific control
      @param xModel
          a control model. The focus is set to that control which is part of our view
          and associated with the given model.
   */
  public void grabControlFocus(Object xModel) throws com.sun.star.uno.Exception {
      // look for the control from the current view which belongs to the model
      XControl xControl = getControl(xModel);
 
      // the focus can be set to an XWindow only
      XWindow xControlWindow = (XWindow)UnoRuntime.queryInterface(Xwindow.class, xControl);
 
      // grab the focus
      xControlWindow.setFocus();
  }

As you can see, focusing controls is reduced to locating controls. Once you have located the control, the com.sun.star.awt.XWindow interface provides everything needed for focusing.

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