Linking to entity views

Default views

If AdminWebModule is enabled and you have an auto-detected entity type (eg. from a Spring Data repository), the default views are usually enabled. Every view has a base URL path, see the chapter default views for more information on the view types.

Table 1. Default view paths
View name	Path
`listView`	`@adminWeb:/entities/{entityName}`
`view`	`@adminWeb:/entities/{entityName}/{id}`
`createView`	`@adminWeb:/entities/{entityName}/create`
`updateView`	`@adminWeb:/entities/{entityName}/{id}/update`
`deleteView`	`@adminWeb:/entities/{entityName}/{id}/delete`

Not all paths work in all situations. The path structure is fixed, but it is only active if the corresponding view is also registered.

Association views

The default view path for an association depends on the type of association. A LINKED association will use the same path as the target entity type, usually with the exception of the listView. An EMBEDDED association has a path structure nested below the source entity path.

Table 2. Embedded association view paths
View name	Path
`listView`	`@adminWeb:/entities/{entityName}/{id}/associations/{associationName}`
`view`	`@adminWeb:/entities/{entityName}/{id}/associations/{associationName}/{associationId}`
`createView`	`@adminWeb:/entities/{entityName}/{id}/associations/{associationName}/create`
`updateView`	`@adminWeb:/entities/{entityName}/{id}/associations/{associationName}/{assocationId}/update`
`deleteView`	`@adminWeb:/entities/{entityName}/{id}/associations/{associationName}/{assocationId}/delete`

Custom view

You can easily register a custom view for an entity type using an EntityConfigurer. Rendering that view can be done by calling the base entity type or association url, and specifying the view query string parameter.

The path segments past the entity type root do not actually matter, you can use any of the default view paths as a base. The base type of view being rendered (eg. list view, form view) depends solely on how you defined the view itself.

Suppose you created a custom update form view with name myCustomView. The following paths would render the exact same view:

@adminWeb:/entities/{entityName}/{id}?view=myCustomView
@adminWeb:/entities/{entityName}/{id}/update?view=myCustomView

Building view links

An EntityViewLinks component is available to generate links to entity views from anywhere in your code. This component will inspect the EntityRegistry to find corresponding configurations and determine how links should be built.

Using EntityViewLinks central component

@Autowired
EntityViewLinks links;

// link to a list view
links.linkTo( MyEntity.class ).toUriString();

// Get the separate link builder
EntityViewLinkBuilder linkBuilder = links.linkTo( MyEntity.class );

Apart from using the EntityViewLinks component globally to build links, the relevant EntityViewLinkBuilder for a particular entity type can often be accessed directly:

It is registered as an EntityConfiguration attribute of that entity type. You can retrieve it using entityConfiguration.getAttribute( EntityViewLinkBuilder.class ).
When rendering an entity view, the builder is available as the linkBuilder property on the current EntityViewContext.
The EntityAdminMenuEvent exposes the builder for the current entity type as a linkBuilder property, for direct access when building menus.

EntityViewLinkBuilder examples

String url;
EntityViewContext entityViewContext;
MyEntity entity;

// -- Retrieving the link builder for the entity type
EntityViewLinkBuilder linkBuilder = entityViewContext.getLinkBuilder();

// -- Linking to the list view
// url: /entities/myEntity
url = linkBuilder.listView().toUriString();

// -- Linking to the create view
// url: /entities/myEntity/create
url = linkBuilder.createView().toUriString();

// -- Linking to the update view
// url: /entities/myEntity/1/update
url = linkBuilder.forInstance( entity ).updateView().toUriString();

// -- Linking to a custom view
// url: /entities/myEntity/1?view=customViewName
url = linkBuilder.forInstance( entity )
                 .withViewName( "customViewName" )
                 .toUriString();

// -- Linking to an association list view
// url: /entities/myEntity/1/associations/associatedItems/
url = linkBuilder.forInstance( entity )
                 .association( AssociatedItem.class )
                 .toUriString();

// -- Linking to a single associated item update view
// url: /entities/myEntity/1/associations/associatedItems/2/update
url = linkBuilder.forInstance( entity )
                 .association( associatedItem )
                 .updateView()
                 .toUriString();

The EntityViewLinkBuilder has a fluent API that allows customizing the URL before converting it to a String. It also has some short-hand methods for commonly used entity view related parameters. Every method call results in a new instance being created, so you will not make inadvertent changes to an existing link builder.

Useful methods of EntityViewLinkBuilder

// append a custom path segment
.slash( String path )
// append query parameter, url encoded
.withQueryParam( String param, Object... values )
// set a from URL ('from' query parameter), url encoded
.withFromUrl( String url )
// set a partial fragment ('_partial' query parameter), url encoded
.withPartial( String fragment )
// set a custom view name ('view' query parameter), url encoded
.withViewName( String viewName )

// return the unprocessed URI (eg. '@adminWeb:/entities/myEntity')
.toString()
// return the processed URI (eg. '/admin/entities/myEntity')
.toUriString()
// create a new UriComponentsBuilder with the current settings
.toUriComponentsBuilder()
// return as URI
.toUri()
// return as UriComponents
.toUriComponents()

// return the original EntityViewLinks
.root()

Common URL parameters

The following is a list of query string parameters often used with entity views:

from: Can hold a URL that should be used as a target when the new operation completes. Most often this is the target of the cancel link on a form view. See also EntityViewLinkBuilder#withFromUrl(String).

When building association links, a default from value to navigate back to the original entity will usually be added.
_partial: This can be the identifier of the only fragment of a page that should be rendered. Partial view rendering is part of the Across Web features. See also EntityViewLinkBuilder#withPartial(String).
view: Name of the specific custom view that should be rendered. See also EntityViewLinkBuilder#withViewName(String).