Entity property controls

Configuring property view types

You can configure a property using the EntityPropertyDescriptorBuilder. This builder also contains some methods to influence the ViewElement that should be built for that property for a given mode.

By default a ViewElement will be built based on the property and some of its annotations. There are 3 ways you can influence the default behaviour:

specify a custom viewElementType() for a given mode
- a default builder of that type will be created for that mode
specify one or more viewElementPostProcessor() for a given mode
- these ViewElementPostProcessor instances will be added to the default builder, in the order they were registered
specify a custom viewElementBuilder() for a given mode
- the default building will be ignored and only your custom builder will be used

ViewElementMode of properties

Properties are rendered using the ViewElementMode that has been configured on the view that is requested. How the property is rendered can be overridden by customizing the element that is rendered for a specific mode, for example, by specifying the element type that should be used. So the ViewElementMode determines which controls are used to render the property. For example the FROM_WRITE/FORM_READ ViewElementMode will render a formGroup containing a label and control for that property.

The default configured ViewElementMode can be overwritten for a specific view or property.

Example of setting a viewElementMode

entities.withType(Booking.class)
   .updateFormView(uvb -> uvb
       .viewElementMode(ViewElementMode.FORM_READ) (1)
       .properties(props -> props
           .property("name")
           .viewElementType(ViewElementMode.FORM_READ, BootstrapUiElements.TEXTBOX) (2)
       )
   );

1	Render the updateForm with the FORM_READ ViewElementMode
2	When this property is rendered with the FORM_READ ViewElementMode, use a textbox as control

Table 1. Default ViewElementModes
ViewElementModes	Output
`VALUE`	Value of the property (e.g. John Doe).
`LABEL`	Label of the property (e.g. Username)
`CONTROL`	Control to update the value (e.g. a textbox).
`FORM_READ`	Typical combination of `LABEL` and `VALUE`.
`FORM_WRITE`	Typical combination of `LABEL` and `CONTROL`.
`LIST_LABEL`	Label of the property used in a tabular view (Column header).
`LIST_VALUE`	Value of the property used in a tabular view (Cell value).
`LIST_CONTROL`	Control to update the value in a tabular view inline.
`FILTER_CONTROL`	Control used to select a value in a filter.

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