Defining Portlet Actions and Permissions

Now that your Guestbook Admin portlet has the appropriate service methods, you’ll now add portlet actions and permissions to your portlet. The action methods will be used by each of your action buttons in the Guestbook Admin portlet. The action methods you create will be similar to those you created in previous learning paths for guestbook entries. The only difference is, you’ll use these action methods in your new Guestbook Admin portlet. The same goes for your new portlet’s permissions. Time to begin adding action and permissions methods for your guestbook entities!

Adding Action Methods for Guestbook Entities

Your Guestbook Admin portlet should allow administrators to add, modify, delete, and control permissions of guestbooks. You’ve already created the add functionality, which is currently being displayed in the original Guestbook portlet. This will be migrated to your new portlet later, but first, you’ll create the three action methods necessary for the action buttons: Edit, Delete, and Permissions. You’ll add your methods to the existing GuestbookBacking bean and Guestbook wrapper class.

  1. Open the GuestbookBacking bean and add the following delete method:

     public void delete(Guestbook guestbook) {
    
             entries = getEntries();
             deleteGuestbookEntries();
    
             try {
                 GuestbookLocalServiceUtil.deleteGuestbook(guestbook);
                 addGlobalSuccessInfoMessage();
             }
             catch (Exception e) {
                 addGlobalUnexpectedErrorMessage();
                 logger.error(e);
             }
    
             // Re-create the Main Guestbook if we just delete the Main Guestbook ...
             if (DEFAULT_GUESTBOOK_NAME.equals(guestbook.getName())) {
                 createMainGuestbook();
             }
    
             // We just deleted the selected Guestbook so ...
             this.selectedGuestbook = null;
    
             // Force Guestbooks and entries to reload
             setGuestbooks(null);
             setEntries(null);
    
             // Go back to the guestbook_actions view
             select(null);
     }
    

    This method uses the deleteGuestbook(...) method you created in your service layer to delete the selected guestbook. The method also ensures that the Guestbook portlet always has a guestbook displaying by recreating the Main guestbook if there are no guestbooks available to display.

  2. Add the following method to your guestbook bean:

     public void deleteGuestbookEntries() {
    
         for (Entry entry : entries) {
    
             try {
                 EntryLocalServiceUtil.deleteEntry(entry);
                 addGlobalSuccessInfoMessage();
             }
             catch (Exception e) {
                 addGlobalUnexpectedErrorMessage();
                 logger.error(e);
             }
         }
     }
    

    This method uses the deleteEntry(...) method you created in the service layer to delete all guestbook entries when a guestbook is deleted. This avoids having orphaned entries stored in the database.

  3. Add the following edit method to your guestbook bean:

     public void edit(Guestbook guestbook) {
         setSelectedGuestbook(guestbook);
         editGuestbook();
     }
    

    This method sets the selected guestbook and calls the editGuestbook() method, which redirects the portlet to the guestbook view to edit the guestbook.

Terrific! You’ve created the necessary action methods necessary for the Guestbook entity’s Edit and Delete action buttons. Next, you’ll create the necessary permissions methods to allow for the Permissions button’s functionality.

Adding Permissions Methods for Guestbook Entities

The permissions action methods will be set up slightly differently than your edit and delete action methods. As you did with your Entry entity’s permissions, you’ll define the permissionsUrl property in the Guestbook wrapper class. Also, you’ll define permission checker methods that check if a user has permissions for the Add Guestbook, Edit, Delete, and Permissions buttons, as well as viewing the guestbook entity. Since these methods will reside in the Guestbook wrapper class, each Guestbook entity defined in your GuestbookBacking bean will be wrapped with these permissions. Once your Guestbook wrapper has the permissions methods, you can call them from a Guestbook Admin’s view.xhtml file, which you’ll create in the next section.

  1. Open the com.liferay.docs.guestbook.wrappers.Guestbook class and add the following variable and property:

     private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(Guestbook.class);
    
     private String permissionsUrl;
    

    This is similar to the Entry wrapper class’ logger property. This is used in the managed beans to log error messages if an exception occurred. The permissionsUrl property will be used in your new method, and called in a view controlled by the Guestbook Admin portlet.

  2. Add the getPermissionsUrl() method to the class:

     public String getPermissionsUrl() {
    
         if (permissionsUrl == null) {
    
             LiferayFacesContext liferayFacesContext = LiferayFacesContext.getInstance();
             ExternalContext externalContext = liferayFacesContext.getExternalContext();
             long scopeGroupId = liferayFacesContext.getScopeGroupId();
    
             // Get the underlying HttpServletRequest and HttpServletResponse
             PortletRequest portletRequest = (PortletRequest) externalContext.getRequest();
             HttpServletRequest httpServletRequest = PortalUtil.getHttpServletRequest(portletRequest);
             PortletResponse portletResponse = (PortletResponse) externalContext.getResponse();
             HttpServletResponse httpServletResponse = PortalUtil.getHttpServletResponse(portletResponse);
             ELContext elContext = liferayFacesContext.getELContext();
             StringJspWriter stringJspWriter = new StringJspWriter();
             PageContextAdapter pageContextAdapter = new PageContextAdapter(httpServletRequest, httpServletResponse,
                 elContext, stringJspWriter);
    
             // Invoke the Liferay Tag class directly (rather than using the tag from a JSP).
             PermissionsURLTag permissionsURLTag = new PermissionsURLTag();
    
             permissionsURLTag.setPageContext(pageContextAdapter);
             permissionsURLTag.setModelResource(MODEL);
             permissionsURLTag.setModelResourceDescription(getName());
             permissionsURLTag.setRedirect("false");
             permissionsURLTag.setResourceGroupId(scopeGroupId);
             permissionsURLTag.setResourcePrimKey(String.valueOf(getGuestbookId()));
    
             // Set var to null if you want the tag to write out the url
             permissionsURLTag.setVar(null);
    
             try {
                 permissionsURLTag.doStartTag();
                 permissionsURLTag.doEndTag();
                 permissionsUrl = stringJspWriter.toString();
             }
             catch (Exception e) {
                 logger.error(e);
             }
    
         }
    
         return permissionsUrl;
     }
    

    This method generates the permissions URL used when clicking the guestbook entity’s Permissions button.

    Like the Entry wrapper class’ getPermissionsUrl method, this method grabs the underlying HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse, and ELContext to create a PageContextAdapter, invokes the Liferay PermissionsURLTag class directly and sets the PageContextAdapter and various other resources to it, and then writes the URL tag string to the permissionsUrl property.

    Next, you’ll add three properties and corresponding methods that can be called from a Guestbook Admin view file that checks if the user has the appropriate permissions to access each of your action buttons.

  3. In the com.liferay.docs.guestbook.wrappers.Entry class, add the following properties:

     private Boolean deleteable;
     private Boolean permissible;
     private Boolean updateable;
    

    These three properties will be used in your permissions methods, and called from a Guestbook Admin view file.

  4. Add the following permissions methods directly below your constructor method:

     public Boolean getDeleteable() {
    
         if (deleteable == null) {
             LiferayFacesContext liferayFacesContext = LiferayFacesContext.getInstance();
             long scopeGroupId = liferayFacesContext.getScopeGroupId();
             deleteable = liferayFacesContext.getThemeDisplay().getPermissionChecker().hasPermission(scopeGroupId,
                 MODEL, getGuestbookId(), ActionKeys.DELETE);
         }
    
         return deleteable;
     }
    
     public Boolean getPermissible() {
    
         if (permissible == null) {
             LiferayFacesContext liferayFacesContext = LiferayFacesContext.getInstance();
             long scopeGroupId = liferayFacesContext.getScopeGroupId();
             permissible = liferayFacesContext.getThemeDisplay().getPermissionChecker().hasPermission(scopeGroupId,
                 MODEL, getGuestbookId(), ActionKeys.PERMISSIONS);
         }
    
         return permissible;
     }
    
     public Boolean getUpdateable() {
    
         if (updateable == null) {
             LiferayFacesContext liferayFacesContext = LiferayFacesContext.getInstance();
             long scopeGroupId = liferayFacesContext.getScopeGroupId();
             updateable = liferayFacesContext.getThemeDisplay().getPermissionChecker().hasPermission(scopeGroupId,
                 MODEL, getGuestbookId(), ActionKeys.UPDATE);
         }
    
         return updateable;
     }
    

    These three methods’ returned properties correspond to the three permissions that can be granted to users. For example, the getUpdateable() method checks if the current user has the appropriate permissions to use the Edit action button for the guestbook. The method uses the LiferayFacesContext to grab the ThemeDisplay, and then checks if the user has the appropriate permissions to access the button by calling Liferay’s PermissionChecker. The PermissionChecker scans the Guestbook’s model resource to see if the current user holds the UPDATE action key. If the user’s role supports the action key, the Edit button is visible and usable; if not, the button is invisible to the user.

    The other two methods work in a very similar way. The getPermissible() method checks for the Permissions button’s permissions, and the getDeleteable() method checks for the Delete button’s permissions.

Your permissions methods are now in place. The only thing you have left to do is create a user interface for your Guestbook Admin portlet and utilize the action and permissions methods you’ve created. You’ll do this next.

« Updating Your JSF Application's Service LayerCreating Your JSF Application's User Interface »
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