How to pass information from one view (dockable) to another?

Question

I am facing a design problem. If I have (for example) on the left dockable view a list view that contains some pojo's, how do I notify the center dockable which one is selected? I am trying to implement some kind of Master-Detail-View where the user selects one item and then can configure it in the center area and the right area. Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

It depends on how you want to design your application.

If you want to create a separate Editor for each pojo then you can have a look at the LeftTestPane provided by the drombler fx archetype for a sample.

@FXML
private void onNewSampleAction(ActionEvent event) {
    sampleCounter++;
    Sample sample = new Sample("Sample " + sampleCounter);
    SampleEditorPane sampleEditorPane = new SampleEditorPane(sample);
    Dockables.inject(sampleEditorPane);
    Dockables.open(sampleEditorPane);
}

There is currently no API for selecting an already opened editor, but please note that editors are currently being improved with the work done for issue #111.

If you want a single detail view then you can use the Context Framework, which allows components such as Dockables and Actions to communicate in a loosly coupled way.

The ListView should implement LocalContextProvider and keep the selected pojo in its local Context.

@ViewDocking(...)
public class ListView extends SomeNode implements LocalContextProvider {

    private final SimpleContextContent contextContent = new SimpleContextContent();
    private final SimpleContext context = new SimpleContext(contextContent);
    private MyPojo currentSelection;

    ...

    @Override
    public Context getLocalContext() {
        return context;
    }

    ...

    if (currentSelection != null){
        contextContent.remove(currentSelection);
    }
    currentSelection = <current selection>
    if (currentSelection != null){
        contextContent.add(currentSelection);
    }
    ...
}

In this case, the DetailsView should be registered as a view (singleton), too, and implement LocalContextProvider as well as ActiveContextSensitive:

@ViewDocking(...)
public class DetailsPane extends SomeNode implements ActiveContextSensitive, LocalContextProvider {

    private final SimpleContextContent contextContent = new SimpleContextContent();
    private final SimpleContext context = new SimpleContext(contextContent);
    private Context activeContext;
    private MyPojo myPojo;

    ...

    @Override
    public Context getLocalContext() {
        return context;
    }

    @Override
    public void setActiveContext(Context activeContext) {
        this.activeContext = activeContext;
        this.activeContext.addContextListener(MyPojo.class, (ContextEvent event) -> contextChanged());
        contextChanged();
    }

    private void contextChanged() {
        MyPojo newMyPojo = activeContext.find(MyPojo.class);
        if ((myPojo == null && newMyPojo != null) || (myPojo null && !sample.equals(newMyPojo))) {
            if (myPojo != null) {
                unregister();
            }
            myPojo = newMyPojo;
            if (myPojo != null) {
                register();
            }
        }
    }

    private void unregister() {
        contextContent.remove(myPojo);

        //reset DetailsView
    }

    private void register() {
        // configure DetailsView

        contextContent.add(myPojo);
    }
...
}

Have a look at the RightTestPane provided by the drombler fx archetype for a sample.