The SearchPanel component (replacement for LookupForm)

When data is stored in a database we want to be able to search for records. Searching is so common that DomUI has a special component that helps with creating database search screens: the SearchPanel. The Search Panel works on database objects, i.e. entity classes that are defined in Hibernate or JPA, or even with plain JDBC accessed objects (using DomUI's generic database layer). This means that working with the panel you stay inside the Java world.

Let's start with an example:

@Override public void createContent() throws Exception {
   ContentPanel cp = new ContentPanel();
   add(cp);

   SearchPanel<Invoice> lf = new SearchPanel<>(Invoice.class);
   cp.add(lf);
   lf.setClicked(a -> search(lf));

   lf.add().property("customer").control();        // Start with lookup by customer
   lf.add().property("total").control();           // Allow searching for a total
   lf.add().property("invoiceDate").control();     // And the date.
}

This example creates a search panel which searches for Invoice instances using the customer, total (amount) and invoiceDate properties. The actual searching and showing of the data is done by base class which will be shown at the end of this document.

This fragment creates the following UI: