Binding in Special Attribute

This article is out of date, please refer to zk-mvvm-book/8.0/data_binding/advanced/binding_in_special_attribute for more up to date information.

Special Attribute Issue

ZK Bind is a post-processing work on components after they have been created and it can control most attributes to change a component's status. However, there are some special attributes such as if and forEach in which ZK Bind can't work on because these attributes' value are determined and fixed when components are created. Therefore, binding these special attributes takes no effect on components, but you may want to use the functions that these special attributes provide, here we demonstrate alternative methods in MVVM approach.

The "if" Versus the "visible"

Assume that you want to show a "Delete" button only to a user who has administrative permission. There are several usages:

specialAttribte.zul

		<!-- wrong usage, no effect -->
		<button label="Delete " if="@load(vm.currentUser.admin)" />
		<!-- determined at the beginning -->
		<button label="Delete (EL)" if="${vm.currentUser.admin}" />
		<!-- can change during user interaction -->
		<button label="Delete (visible)" visible="@load(vm.currentUser.admin)" />
		<button label="Delete (disabled)" disabled="@load(not vm.currentUser.admin)" />
		<checkbox label="Is Admin" checked="@bind(vm.currentUser.admin)" />

• Line 2: It is a wrong usage; the delete button will never be created.

• Line 4: The button's creation is determined when a user visits the page and won't appear unless the user becomes a administrator and visits the page again.

• Line 6,7: It is what we recommend for most cases. You can bind on visible, and it brings you almost the same effect as if. The disabled also has similar effect.

The "forEach" Versus Children Binding

The forEach attribute also has the same issue.

specialAttribute.zul

	<!-- "forEach" versus children binding  -->
	<!-- wrong usage, no effect -->
	<checkbox label="@load(each.firstName)" forEach="@load(vm.personList)" />
	<!-- determined at the beginning -->
	<checkbox label="${each.firstName}" forEach="${vm.personList}" />
	<!-- children binding -->
	<div children="@load(vm.personList)">
		<template name="children">
			<checkbox label="@load(each.firstName)" />
		</template>
	</div>

• Line 3: It is a wrong usage; it doesn't create multiple checkboxes.

• Line 5: The checkboxes are created at the beginning when a user visits the page and won't change even if we change vm.personLIst.

• Line 7: Children binding is used when you want to dynamically create and destroy components.

Version History

Version	Date	Content
6.5.1	March 2013	Initial