RE: [Springframework-developer] [ANN] - Spring Web Flow PR4 Released

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Congrats... Bummer about portlet support though but I understand..wrt
JSF integration have you had any further exchange from Craig on this. I
haven't seen any on the dev list.

  _____ =0D

	From: spr...@li...
[mailto:spr...@li...] On Behalf
Of Keith Donald
	Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2005 5:46 AM
	To: spr...@li...;
spr...@li...
	Subject: [Springframework-developer] [ANN] - Spring Web Flow PR4
Released
=0D
=0D

	Dear Spring Community,

	I'm pleased to announce the release of Spring Web Flow Preview 4
(PR4).  This release aligns Spring Web Flow with Spring 1.2.2+, as
Spring 1.2.2 introduced changes that broke compatibility with previous
preview releases.

	This will be the last Web Flow preview release-the next release
will be 1.0 RC1.  To download, access:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=3D73357&package_id=
=3D1
48517

	Note: there are some incompatible changes between PR3 and PR4.
This includes a root package rename from org.springframework.web.flow to
org.springframework.webflow, noting Web Flow's status as a standalone
module deserving of a top-level package.  For a complete list of
changes, access the change log here:
http://opensource.atlassian.com/confluence/spring/display/WEBFLOW/Change
+Log

	Special note for WebFlow Portlet users: PR4 does not ship
Portlet MVC integration.  Bottom line, Portlet MVC users will need to
wait for Web Flow RC1 in a few weeks when Portlet MVC has been
integrated for shipment with Spring 1.3.  We apologize for any
short-term inconvenience here: expect better Portlet MVC integration +
the sample app to be back in the coming weeks.

	--

	Contained within this PR4 release are a number of new and
noteworthy enhancements.  Here are some of them:

	State entry actions

	Any instance of any State type may be configured with an entry
action that will be executed when the state is entered.  This
facilitates generic state setup logic.  For example, a ViewState could
set an entry action to execute arbitrary pre-render logic.  Such
pre-render logic might load reference data to populate form drop downs.

	An example of configuring an entry action from a XML-based
webflow definition follows:

	<view-state id=3D"displayCriteria" view=3D"searchCriteria">

	      <entry>

	            <action bean=3D"searchFormAction" method=3D"setupForm"/>

	            <action bean=3D"searchFormAction"
method=3D"setupReferenceData"/>

	      </entry>

	      <transition on=3D"search" to=3D"executeSearch">

	            <action bean=3D"searchFormAction"
method=3D"bindAndValidate"/>

	      </transition>

	</view-state>

	Any number of actions may be executed in order as part of a
composite state entry action.

	TransitionableState exit actions

	Any instance of any TransitionableState type may be configured
with an exit action that will be executed when the state is exited.
This facilities generic state tear-down logic.

	<action-state id=3D"executeSearch">

	      <action bean=3D"searchAction"/>

	      <transition on=3D"success" to=3D"displayResults"/>

	      <exit>

	            <action bean=3D"auditAction" method=3D"logResults"/>

	      </exit>

	</action-state>

	=0D

	Multiple actions may again be specified-they will automatically
be wrapped in a CompositeAction.

	Flow Execution Listener Criteria

	Before PR4 there was no easy way to define for a set of flow
definitions which listeners should observe launched flow executions.
The new FlowExecutionListenerCriteria provides a pluggable strategy
where the set of applicable listeners for a given Flow definition is
calculated on a per-request basis.  For example:

	<bean id=3D"flowExecutionManager"
class=3D"org.springframework.webflow.execution.servlet.ServletFlowExecutio
nManager">

	      <property name=3D"listenerMap">

	            <map>

	                  <entry value=3D"*">

	                        <key>

	                              <list>

	                                    <bean
class=3D"example.Listener1"/>

	                                    <bean
class=3D"example.Listener2"/>

	                              </list>

	                        </key>

	                  </entry>

	                  <entry value=3D"sampleFlowA">

	                        <key>

	                              <list>

	                                    <bean
class=3D"example.Listener3"/>

	                              </list>

	                        </key>

	                  </entry>

	            </map>

	      </property>

	      ...

	</bean>

	=0D

	The above Spring configuration attaches Listener 1 and 2 to
executions of all flows (*), while Listener 3 is only attached to
"sampleFlowA".

	Greatly enhanced expression language support

	One of the real strengths in this release is the continued
progress with the new Spring data binding module.  Contained within
spring-binding is an expression parsing and evaluation abstraction
seamlessly integrated with a robust type conversion facility.  These two
in combination allow for arbitrary strings representing one or more
expressions like "Announcement: ${org} ${product} ${release} is out!" to
be consumed and converted to evaluateable expressions utilizing any
expression language, with OGNL being the default.

	Spring Web Flow leverages this machinery in several places:

	1.	For redirect expressions that evaluate against the
request context, for example:=0D

=0D
redirect:/${sourceEvent.parameters.url}?attribute=3D${flowScope.foo}&attri
bute2=3D${requestScope.bar}"

	2.	For transition expressions that drive dynamic state
transition decisions:=0D

	      <transition on=3D"${result =3D=3D 'success' &&
${flowScope.selectedItinerary.price} &gt; 500.0"
to=3D"requireCreditCheck"/>

	3.	For attribute mapping expressions that map attributes
between two sources:=0D

	      <subflow-state id=3D"browseDetails" flow=3D"detailFlow">

	            <attribute-mapper>

	                  <input value=3D"${sourceEvent.parameters.id}"
as=3D"someBean.id" from=3D"string" to=3D"long"/>

	            </attribute-mapper>

	            ...
	      </subflow-state>

	=0D

	Enhanced attribute-mapper type-conversion support

	As shown in #3 above, the "from" and "to" attributes of input
and output mapping elements can be used to specify type conversion
rules.  So the definition:

	<input value=3D"${sourceEvent.parameters.id}" as=3D"someBean.id"
from=3D"string" to=3D"long"/>

	says:

	Convert the value of ${sourceEvent.parameters.id} from a string
to a long and set the long result at someBean.id.

	Session-based TransactionSynchronizer strategy

	A new TransactionSynchronizer that manages a transaction token
in HTTP-session scoped storage is new for PR4.  It is ideal for working
with flows that are leveraging continuations and need to prevent
duplicate application transactions from occurring.

	New convenience action implementations

	The webflow.action package now sports several new action
implementations including: CompositeAction, DelegatingAction, and
GuardedAction.

	JMX-enabled flow execution statistics

	The sellitem sample now demonstrates the capability to collect
global statistics on all Web Flows using the JMX management protocol,
and monitor those statistics using any JMX client like the JDK 1.5
JConsole.  Future web flow releases will enhance this capability to
allow for management and monitoring on a per flow execution basis.

	Simplified and Improved Struts integration

	Struts 1.x integration has been greatly simplified with PR4 and
aligned with Spring 1.2.2's introduction of the SpringBindingActionForm.
There is no longer a need for a special FlowActionMapping as all
webflow-specific configuration is now managed by Spring.  See the
birthdate sample application for a concrete example.

	Other:

	Improved javadoc, error messages, and logging

	Much improved build system with "one-step" sample application
build/deployment

	Erwin and I must thank Colin Sampaleanu for putting together one
heck of a build system to manage the overall development and release
process.  You will find when you download PR4 that building and
deploying the sample applications, as well as any component of Spring
Web Flow (such as the project itself or the binding module) to be simple
and easy, with careful, automatic jar file management.  This
"common-build" system is Ant 1.6.x based and leverages Ivy 1.1 for jar
dependency management.

	---

	These are just some of the new features of this release.  For a
full list of changes, see
http://opensource.atlassian.com/confluence/spring/display/WEBFLOW/Change
+Log

	As always, we very much value your feedback.  Expect Web Flow
1.0 RC1 by the end of July with Portlet MVC and JSF integration.

	Cheers,

	Keith Donald
	Erwin Vervaet

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