Defining Portlet Actions

Writing the Guestbook Admin App
Step 4 of 5

The Guestbook Admin portlet now needs action methods for adding, updating, and deleting guestbooks. As with the Guestbook portlet, action methods call the corresponding service methods. Note that since your services and applications are all running in the same container, any application can call the Guestbook services. This is an advantage of Liferay DXP’s OSGi-based architecture: different applications or modules can call services published by other modules. If a service is published, it can be used via @Reference. You’ll take advantage of this here in the Guestbook Admin portlet to consume one of the same services consumed by the Guestbook portlet (the addGuestbook service).

Adding Three Portlet Actions

The Guestbook Admin portlet must let administrators add, update, and delete Guestbook objects. You’ll create portlet actions to meet these requirements. Open GuestbookAdminPortlet.java and follow these steps:

1. Add the following action method and instance variables needed for adding a new guestbook:

   public void addGuestbook(ActionRequest request, ActionResponse response)
       throws PortalException {
   
       ServiceContext serviceContext = ServiceContextFactory.getInstance(
           Guestbook.class.getName(), request);
   
       String name = ParamUtil.getString(request, "name");
   
       try {
           _guestbookLocalService.addGuestbook(
               serviceContext.getUserId(), name, serviceContext);
       }
       catch (PortalException pe) {
   
           Logger.getLogger(GuestbookAdminPortlet.class.getName()).log(
               Level.SEVERE, null, pe);
   
           response.setRenderParameter(
               "mvcPath", "/guestbookadminportlet/edit_guestbook.jsp");
       }
   }
   
   private GuestbookLocalService _guestbookLocalService;
   
   @Reference(unbind = "-")
   protected void setGuestbookService(GuestbookLocalService guestbookLocalService) {
       _guestbookLocalService = guestbookLocalService;
   }
   

   Since addGuestbook is a portlet action method, it takes ActionRequest and ActionResponse parameters. To make the service call to add a new guestbook, the guestbook’s name must be retrieved from the request. The serviceContext must also be retrieved from the request and passed as an argument in the service call. If an exception is thrown, you should display the Add Guestbook form and not the default view. That’s why you add this line in the catch block:

   response.setRenderParameter("mvcPath",
           "/guestbookadminportlet/edit_guestbook.jsp");
   

   Later, you’ll use this for field validation and to show error messages to the user. Note that /guestbookadminportlet/edit_guestbook.jsp doesn’t exist yet; you’ll create it in the next section when you’re designing the Guestbook Admin portlet’s user interface.

2. Add the following action method for updating an existing guestbook:

   public void updateGuestbook(ActionRequest request, ActionResponse response)
       throws PortalException {
   
       ServiceContext serviceContext = ServiceContextFactory.getInstance(
           Guestbook.class.getName(), request);
   
       String name = ParamUtil.getString(request, "name");
       long guestbookId = ParamUtil.getLong(request, "guestbookId");
   
       try {
           _guestbookLocalService.updateGuestbook(
               serviceContext.getUserId(), guestbookId, name, serviceContext);
   
       } catch (PortalException pe) {
   
           Logger.getLogger(GuestbookAdminPortlet.class.getName()).log(
               Level.SEVERE, null, pe);
   
           response.setRenderParameter(
               "mvcPath", "/guestbookadminportlet/edit_guestbook.jsp");
       }
   }
   

   This method retrieves the guestbook name, ID, and the serviceContext from the request. The updateGuestbook service call uses the guestbook’s ID to identify the guestbook to update. If there’s a problem with the service call, the Guestbook Admin portlet displays the Edit Guestbook form again so that the user can edit the form and resubmit:

   response.setRenderParameter("mvcPath",
           "/guestbookadminportlet/edit_guestbook.jsp");
   

   Note that the Edit Guestbook form uses the same JSP as the Add Guestbook form to avoid duplication of code.

3. Add the following action method for deleting a guestbook:

   public void deleteGuestbook(ActionRequest request, ActionResponse response)
       throws PortalException {
   
       ServiceContext serviceContext = ServiceContextFactory.getInstance(
           Guestbook.class.getName(), request);
   
       long guestbookId = ParamUtil.getLong(request, "guestbookId");
   
       try {
           _guestbookLocalService.deleteGuestbook(guestbookId, serviceContext);
       }
       catch (PortalException pe) {
   
           Logger.getLogger(GuestbookAdminPortlet.class.getName()).log(
               Level.SEVERE, null, pe);
       }
   }
   

   This method uses the service layer to delete the guestbook by its ID. Since the deleteGuestbook action is invoked from the Guestbook Admin portlet’s default view, there’s no need to set the mvcPath render parameter to point to a particular JSP if there was a problem with the deleteGuestbook service call.

4. Hit [CTRL]+[SHIFT]+O to organize imports. Save the file.

You now have your service methods and portlet action methods in place. Your last task is to implement the Guestbook Admin portlet’s user interface.