Re: [wsrp][wsia][wsrp-wsia joint itnerfaces] Actions

[Carsten Leue <CLEUE@de.ibm.com>]

Mike - here comes my view on things:

The user has basically two different possiblities to operate a portlet: he
can "view" the portlet and he can "interact" with the portlet. With
"interact" I mean that he can send data to the portlet (e.g. form data) or
just send a command (= action) to the portlet (e.g. by clicking on a link
that has a special signification to the portlet). Think of the example of a
newsfeed portlet that allows the user to browse through multiple pages. In
such a portlet you would need a "link" that make the portlet switch to the
next page and a link to switch to the previous page.

So there are two semantically different functions for the portlet to
perform:
1. representing the current state as markup
2. modifying the current state based on a command (= action)

The first function is expressed by "getFragments" the second one by
"performAction".

Principally the getFragments method must at least return the markup to
display, whereas the performAction method does not necessarily need to
return markup.
However we decided to let the performAction method return markup for
performance reasons as it saves one additional call to getFragments after
the action has been performed. Semantically this would not have been
necessary.


Best regards
Carsten Leue

-------
Dr. Carsten Leue
Dept.8288, IBM Laboratory Böblingen , Germany
Tel.: +49-7031-16-4603, Fax: +49-7031-16-4401



|---------+----------------------------->
|         |           Michael Freedman  |
|         |           <Michael.Freedman@|
|         |           oracle.com>       |
|         |                             |
|         |           06/12/2002 02:33  |
|         |           AM                |
|         |           Please respond to |
|         |           Michael Freedman  |
|         |                             |
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  |       Subject:  [wsrp][wsia][wsrp-wsia joint itnerfaces] Actions                                                                            |
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I would like to open another discussion parallel to our session debate.
From the perspective of the protocol defined in the latest draft I can't
figure out the semantic difference between performAction and
getFragment.  Each seem to be capable of returning the same stuff.  Why
do we need both?  I.e. how are they semantically different?
     -Mike-


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