CQ5/AEM6/Sightly - Return custom type from Java Use-Api

Question

Using JavaScript Use-Api I am able to create a custom object and return it to a html file. This feature allows me to create a list of custom objects, which can be used to create a menu or other complex list-like component.

Let's assume that I have following content structure:

/content
    /project
        /homepage
            /contentpage1
                /contentpage1.1
                /contentpage1.2
                /contentpage1.3 (hidden)
            /contentpage2
                /contentpage1.1 (hidden)
                /contentpage1.2 (hidden)
                /contentpage1.3 (hidden)
            /contentpage3
            /contentpage4

Menu should contains only first-level contentpages. Each menu item should have dropdown list with second-level contentpages, if they exist and are not hidden. I can do it in JavaScript with the following code:

"use strict";

use(function() {

    function getMenuItems() {
        var currentPageDepth = currentPage.getDepth();
        var menuObjects = [];
        if(currentPageDepth >= 3) {
            var homePage = currentPage.getAbsoluteParent(2);
            var list = homePage.listChildren();
            while(list.hasNext()) {
                var tempPage = list.next()
                var customPageObject = createMenuItemObject(tempPage);
                menuObjects.push(customPageObject);
            }            
        }
        return menuObjects;
    }

    function createMenuItemObject(page) {
        // ...
        // looking for any other properties of page or its children
        // ...
        return {page: page, 
                visibleChildrenExists: visibleChildrenExists(page)};
    }

    function visibleChildrenExists(page) {
        var list = page.listChildren();
        var visibleChildrenExists = false;
        while(list.hasNext()) {
            var subPage = list.next();
            if(!subPage.isHideInNav()) {
                visibleChildrenExists = true;
                break;
            }
        }
        return visibleChildrenExists;
    }

    return {
        menuObjectsList: getMenuItems(),
    };
}

HTML:

<headerComponent data-sly-use.headerComponentJS="headerComponent.js" data-sly-unwrap />
<menuItems data-sly-list.menuItem="${headerComponentJS.menuObjectsList}"  data-sly-unwrap >
     <li class='${menuItem.visibleChildrenExists ? "" : "direct"}' data-sly-test="${!menuItem.page.hideInNav}">
        <a href="${menuItem.page.path}.html">${menuItem.page.title}</a>
        <ul data-sly-test="${menuItem.visibleChildrenExists}" data-sly-list.submenuItem="${menuItem.page.listChildren}">
            <li data-sly-test="${!submenuItem.hideInNav}">
                <a href="${submenuItem.path}.html">${submenuItem.title}</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
     </li>       
</menuItems>

Why do I want to use Java Use-Api? It's easier to operate on interfaces like Resource or Node. It looks like it does not work pretty well in JavaScript, but I need to have possibility to return custom objects with multiple properties.

The question is: is it even possible to do something similar using Java Use-Api? What do I have to return? I can't return a map, because it won't be possible to access its elements since it's not possible to pass a parameter to Java Use-Api method... Any suggestion?

Answer 1

It is possible to return maps using the java-use api see an example below:

Method in the Java class

//Return a map
public Map<String, String> getTestMap() {
    //TODO some coding
    Map<String,String> testMap = new HasMap<String,String>();
    testMap.put("IDA", "test value");
    testMap.put("IDB", "test value 2");

    return testMap;     
}

HTML code to access each element of the map:

<div data-sly-use.param="JavaClass">    
    <div data-sly-test.map="${param.testMap}">
        <div class="pos">
            <span class="classA">${map['IDA']}</span><br>
            <span class="classB">${map['IDB']}</span>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>