Address Book Tag Library: Overview
This tag library implements a collection of tags that enable address
book access to any class of device that utilizes a markup style presentation
system.
The Address Book Tag Libraries consists of the following tags:
Context
This tag is used to maintain state between requests, and must be present
on a JSP before any other address book tag may be used.
Commands
The following tags perform an action or command on the
address book service:
- fetch - fetches a collection of address book
entries into the context.
- add - adds an entry to the address book.
- delete - deletes an entry
from the address book.
- modify - modifies an existing
address book entry.
Beans & Collections
The following tags provide access to address book data:
- entry - provides address book entry properties.
- entries - collection of address book entry
beans.
- get - gets a bean property.
- set - sets a bean property.
- addgroupmembers - sets the list
of "members to add" in a group bean.
- deletegroupmembers - removes
a list of members from a group bean.
- setgroupmembers -
sets the list
of "members to set" in a group bean.
- contact - provides access to entry bean
properties in the "contacts" collection.
- contacts - the "contacts" collection of
entry beans.
- groupmember - provides access to
entry bean properties in the "groupmembers" collection.
- groupmembers - the "groupmembers"
collection of entry beans.
- memberchoice - Provides access to
entry bean properties in the "memberchoices" collection.
- memberchoices - the "memberchoices"
collection of entry beans.
The entries, contacts,
groupmembers, and memberchoices collection tags behave
more-or-less the same. However, these collections were designed in
anticipation of a fairly specific pattern of usage. To summarize:
- entries: Typically
used to fetch the top level of an address book, which may include both contacts
and groups.
- groupmembers: Typically
used to fetch the members of a specific group, which may include both contacts
and groups.
- contacts: Typically
used to fetch only contacts. Regardless of whether a particular group,
or the entire address book is fetched, all groups fetched into this collection
are expanded into their constituent contacts.
- memberchoices: Typically
used to fetch entries from an address book, which may include both contacts and groups. This collection is typically
used to create a presentation of choices to the user. Once the user
submits their selections, the addgroupmembers
and setgroupmembers tags may be
used to set reference within a specified group bean, to specific entries within
the memberchoices collection.
The entry, contact, groupmember,
and memberchoice bean tags behave
more-or-less the same. Generically, they can all reference address
book entries. However, there are two different kinds of entries:
contacts and groups. The bean that is used to
store each type of entry provides access to a different set of properties.
The different type of entry beans may be distinguished from one another
using the "elementType" property.