Application Overview

A brief overview of the application will be useful, so quickly I will explain the functionality and the use of the app.

The application starts with a toolbar that allows all the basic functionality.  The 'File' menu item will drop down a menu that has most of the same basic features of the toolbar just to demonstrate the menu capability.  The menu also has one feature not on the toolbar, namely the 'New Order' menu item.

Underneath the toolbar is a display area.  The top line displays the order information, and the bottom panel displays a tree that contains all the parts of the order.

The 'Open' button and 'Open / Delete' menu item open a dialog box that allows the user to select a pre-existing order.  He can then open or delete the order.  Deletes are persisted immediately.

The 'Save' button and menu item persist the changes to the database.

The 'Add Item' button and menu item will allow the user to select an item to add to that node of the tree.  What the user is able to add depends on what the user has selected on the tree.  The user can only add a part that is a child part for the part selected on the tree.  If the user has selected the top of the order, then they may only add a part that has no parent.  This will be a little more clear when we view the data and entity relationships.

The 'Delete Item' button and menu item will delete the node (and all the children underneath it) that the user has currently selected.  If the user has selected the top of the tree, the delete button will be disabled.  An order my not be deleted from the 'Delete Item' selection.

The 'Check Out' button and menu item will redirect the user to another page that would, if this were a fully functional application collect more information like payment.  Here it only serves to demonstrate the continuation of the session and the difference between SessionBeans and RequestBeans.

The 'Ajax/Validation' button is to demo ajax and validation issues that have no other place, or are to complicated to explain while demonstrating other features.

The 'WebServices' button is a button that will demonstrate the client portion of Web Services.  These tie into the WebServices that are running in the background, and although the systems are running in the same environment, it demonstrates how two different systems can communicate with each other.

The 'Logout' button demonstrates the ending of the session, and the closing of the Session and Stateful beans.