Partial Page Rendering Using Hidden IFrame

Partial Page Rendering Using Hidden IFrame



Executive Summary:



Partial-page rendering removes the need for the whole web page to be



refreshed as the result of a postback. Instead, only individual regions



of the page that have changed are updated. As a result, users do not



see the whole page reload with every postback, which makes user



interaction with the Web page more seamless.

Developers that want to add such behaviors to their web pages are often



faced with a difficult decision. All of these actions can be



implemented using a very simple solution: by refreshing the entire page



in response to the user interaction. However this solution is easy but



not always desirable. The full page refresh can be slow, giving the



user the impression that the application is unresponsive. Another



option is to implement such actions using JavaScript (or other



client-side scripting technologies). This results in faster response



times, at the expense of more complex, less portable code. JavaScript



may be a good choice for simple actions, such as updating an image.



However, for more complicated actions, such as scrolling through data



in a table, writing custom JavaScript code can be a very challenging



undertaking.

This paper provides a solution which avoids the drawbacks of the full



page refresh and custom JavaScript solutions. In this paper partial



page rendering functionality provides the ability to re-render a



limited portion of a page. As in the full page render solution, partial



page rendering sends a request back to the application on the



middle-tier to fetch the new contents. However, when partial page



rendering is used to update the page, only the modified contents are



sent back to the browser. This paper gives the solution using a hidden



IFrame and simple JavaScript to merge the new contents back into the



web page. The end result is that the page is updated without custom



JavaScript code, and without the loss of context that typically occurs



with a full page refresh.



Introduction:



Web pages typically support a variety of actions, such as entering and



submitting form data and navigating to different pages. Many web pages



also support another type of action, which is to allow the user to make



modifications to the contents of the web page itself without actually



navigating to a different page. Some examples of such actions include.

Clicking on a link could update an image on the same page. For example,



an automobile configuration application might update an image of a car



as the user chooses different options, such as the preferred color.

Selecting an item from a choice box might result in modifications to



other fields on the same page. For example, selecting a car make might



update the set of available car models that are displayed.

Clicking a link or selecting an item from a choice could be used to



scroll to a new page of data in a table. Clicking a button in a table



might add a new row to the table.

All of these actions are similar in that they result in the same page



being re-rendered in a slightly different state. Ideally, these changes



should be implemented as seemlessly as possible, so that the user does



not experience a loss of context which could distract from the task at



hand.

Partial page rendering can be implemented with very simple solution



using a hidden IFrame and minimal JavaScript. Any part of the page can



be partially rendered with using a div or table tags in HTML.



Page Elements That May Change During PPR:



•Re-Render Data: The same fields are redrawn but their data is updated.



Examples include the Refresh Data action button, or recalculate totals



in a table.

•Re-render Dependent Fields: Fields may be added, removed, or change



sequence, and data may be updated. Examples include the Country choice



list, which may display different address fields, and toggling between



Simple and Advanced Search.

•Hide/Show Content: Both fields and data toggle in and out of view.



Page Elements That Do Not Change During PPR:



Some page elements are always associated with a page, regardless of the



content displayed on the page.



As a general rule of thumb, elements above the page title (except



message boxes) remain constant and do not change position, whereas



elements in footer constant but may move up or down the page to



accommodate changes to page content. The following elements never



change when PPR is initiated:

• Branding

• Global buttons

• Tabs, Horizontal Navigation, SubTabs

• Locator elements: Breadcrumbs, Train, Next/Back Locator

• Quick links

• Page titles (first level header)

• Page footer

• Separator lines between the Tabs and Page Title

In most cases the following elements will also not change, other than



moving up or down the page to accommodate changed elements.



Nevertheless, in certain cases actions on the page may require them to



be redrawn:

• Side Navigation, unless it contains a Hide/Show control.

• Subtabs

• Contextual information

• Page-level action/navigation buttons

• Page-level Instruction text

• Page-level Page stamps

• Page-level Key Notation

In all above scenarios this solution can be used to achieve the good



performance and user interaction of the web pages.



Contexts in Which PPR Should Not Be Used:



When PPR is implemented correctly, it significantly improves



application performance. When performance improvement is not possible



with PPR, it should not be implemented, thus avoiding unnecessary code



bloat, PPR can't be used when navigating to another page (with a



different title).



Partial Page Rendering Solution:



Solution provided to the Partial Page Rendering using simple hidden



iframe and JavaScript, this can be used as a generalized solution to



all the Partial Page Rendering scenarios.

Below is the main html (Table 1.1), which will have two buttons one is



to show a simple table which will be generated by the server, and



another button to remove the table.



[html]

[head]

[title] Main Document [/title]

[script language="JavaScript"]

[!--

function showTable() {

hiframe.location="./table.htm";

}

function removeTable() {

document.getElementById("tableId").innerHTML="";

}

//--]

[/script]

[/head]

[body]

[iframe id="hiframe"



style="visibility:hidden;display:none"][/iframe]

[table]

[tr]

[td]Table::[/td]

[td][/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td colspan="2"][div id="tableId"][/div][/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td][input type="button" value="Show Table"



onclick="showTable()"][/td]

[td][input type="button" value="Remove Table"



onclick="removeTable()"][/td]

[/tr]

[/table]

[/body]

[/html]



Table 1.1



[iframe id="hiframe" style="visibility:hidden;display:none"][/iframe]

This iframe tag is used as target to the Partial Page Rendering



Request.

The tag [input type="button" value="Show Table" onclick="showTable()"]



gives the user action to get the contents of a table from the server,



in this solution sample html is provided to render the table, which



supposed to be generated by the server.

The tag [input type="button" value="Remove Table"



onclick="removeTable()"] gives the user to remove the table from the



user interface.

The JavaScript

function showTable() {

hiframe.location="./table.htm";

}

Is used to get the contents from the server, the line



hiframe.location="./table.htm"; sends the GET request to the server,



and as a response iframe gets the HTML.

If the requirement insists to send a POST request for Partial Page



rendering Response, that can be achieved by setting the html form



element target attribute as the name of hidden iframe.



The code for the post request looks like

[form method="post" action="/myaction" target="hiframe"]



Partial Page Rendering Server Response:



Table 1.2 shows the sample response from the server for Partial Page



Rendering. This response has the JavaScript code to transfer the HTML



from hidden iframe to main page.





[html]

[head]

[script language="JavaScript"]

[!--

function iframeLoad() {

parent.document.getElementById("tableId").innerHTML =



document.getElementById("tableId").innerHTML;

}

//--]

[/script]

[/head]

[body onload="iframeLoad()"]

[div id="tableId"]

[table]

[tr]

[td]1[/td]

[td]One[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]2[/td]

[td]Two[/td]

[/tr]

[/table]

[/div]

[/body]

[/html]



Table 1.2

The tag [div id="tableId"] encloses the content to transfer from hidden



iframe to main page.

[table]

[tr]

[td]1[/td]

[td]One[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]2[/td]

[td]Two[/td]

[/tr]

[/table]

This is the content to show the table to user.



The code [body onload="iframeLoad()"] is used for triggering the action



to transfer the content.



function iframeLoad() {

parent.document.getElementById("tableId").innerHTML =



document.getElementById("tableId").innerHTML;

}



This JavaScript function does the transferring data from the hidden



iframe to main page.

parent.document.getElementById("tableId").innerHTML This part refers to



tag div html id in main page and this part



document.getElementById("tableId").innerHTML refers the HTML of the



Partial Page Response.





Conclusion:



Improve the user experience with Web pages that are richer, that are



more responsive to user actions, and that behave like traditional



client applications. Reduce full-page refreshes and avoid page flicker.



Partial page rendering using iframe is a very simple solution.



References:

1.



http://ajax.asp.net/docs/overview/PartialPageRenderingOverview.aspx

2. http://www.w3schools.com/htmldom/dom_obj_document.asp

3. http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_iframe.asp

4. http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/blaf/specs/ppr.html

5.



http://download-west.oracle.com/otn_hosted_doc/jdeveloper/904preview/ui



xhelp/uixdevguide/partialpage.html