Add a Screenlet Delegate

Screenlet delegates let other classes respond to your Screenlet’s actions. For example, Login Screenlet’s delegate lets the app developer implement methods that respond to login success or failure. Note that the reference documentation for each Screenlet that comes with Liferay Screens lists the Screenlet’s delegate methods.

You can also create a delegate for your own Screenlet. This tutorial walks you through the steps required to do this, using code from the advanced version of the sample Add Bookmark Screenlet as an example. All the example code in this tutorial resides in this Screenlet’s Screenlet class. Also note that this sample Screenlet has two actions: adding a bookmark to a Liferay instance’s Bookmarks portlet, and retrieving a bookmark’s title from its URL. This tutorial only details creating a delegate for adding a bookmark.

Follow these steps to add a delegate to your Screenlet:

1. Define a delegate protocol that extends the BaseScreenletDelegate class. In this protocol, define success and failure methods so the conforming class can respond to the server call’s success and failure, respectively. As parameters, these methods should take a Screenlet instance and the success or failure object. For example, Add Bookmark Screenlet’s delegate protocol (AddBookmarkScreenletDelegate) defines the following success and failure methods:

    @objc public protocol AddBookmarkScreenletDelegate: BaseScreenletDelegate {
   
        optional func screenlet(screenlet: AddBookmarkScreenlet,
                            onBookmarkAdded bookmark: [String: AnyObject])
   
        optional func screenlet(screenlet: AddBookmarkScreenlet,
                            onAddBookmarkError error: NSError)
   
    }
   

   Both take an AddBookmarkScreenlet instance as their first argument. For their second argument, the success method contains the bookmark added to the server, and the failure method contains the NSError object. Note that in this example, the methods are optional. This means that the delegate class doesn’t have to implement them.

2. In your Screenlet class, add a property for your delegate. This property should return BaseScreenlet’s delegate property as an instance of your delegate. For example, the addBookmarkDelegate property in AddBookmarkScreenlet returns the self.delegate property as AddBookmarkScreenletDelegate:

    var addBookmarkDelegate: AddBookmarkScreenletDelegate? {
        return self.delegate as? AddBookmarkScreenletDelegate
    }
   

3. Also in your Screenlet class, invoke the appropriate delegate methods in your Interactor’s closures. For example, the interactor.onSuccess closure in AddBookmarkScreenlet calls the delegate method that responds when the Screenlet successfully adds a bookmark. The interactor.onFailure closure calls the delegate method that responds when the Screenlet fails to add a bookmark. Note that in this example, these closures are in the Screenlet class’s Interactor method that adds a bookmark (createAddBookmarkInteractor). Be sure to call your delegate methods wherever the appropriate Interactor’s closures are in your Screenlet class:

    private func createAddBookmarkInteractor() -> Interactor {
        let interactor = AddBookmarkInteractor(screenlet: self,
                                           folderId: folderId,
                                           title: viewModel.title!,
                                           url: viewModel.URL!)
   
        // Called when the Interactor finishes successfully
        interactor.onSuccess = {
            if let bookmark = interactor.resultBookmark {
                self.addBookmarkDelegate?.screenlet?(self, onBookmarkAdded: bookmark)
            }
        }
   
        // Called when the Interactor finishes with an error
        interactor.onFailure = { error in
            self.addBookmarkDelegate?.screenlet?(self, onAddBookmarkError: error)
        }
   
        return interactor
    }
   

Great! Now you know how to add a delegate to your Screenlets.

Related Topics

Creating iOS Screenlets

Adding Screenlet Actions

Creating iOS List Screenlets

Architecture of Liferay Screens for iOS