Autocomplete using advanced model in wicket - ajax

Question

First I want to say I saw a site:
https://cwiki.apache.org/WICKET/autocomplete-using-a-wicket-model.html
Still I have some problem with implementation.
Context
I have form where want to edit Order from my database.
I want to autocomplete client's name in form and save it to database.
Problem
I can see suggestions of client names and I can choose which client's name I'll use.
Just when I submit form new client won't be saved in order, in database.
I don't know how to relate form Model with AutoCompleteTextField input.
Any ideas ?
Pseudo code of my classes:
Order{
Long id;
String date;
Client client;
Status status;
...
}
Client{
Long id;
String name;
String nip;
String address;
String postcode;
String city;
String phone;
String mail;
...
}
Status{
Long id;
String name;
String value;
}
Edited:
Yes you are right.
My implementation of AbstractAutoCompleteTextField from site:
AbstractAutoCompleteRenderer autoCompleteRenderer = new AbstractAutoCompleteRenderer() {
protected final String getTextValue(final Object object) {
Client client = (Client) object;
return client.getName();
}
protected final void renderChoice(final Object object, final Response response, final String criteria) {
response.write(getTextValue(object));
}
};
// textfield
AbstractAutoCompleteTextField<Client> name = new AbstractAutoCompleteTextField<Client>("name", new PropertyModel(order, "client"), autoCompleteRenderer) {
protected final List<Client> getChoiceList(final String input) {
return clientService.findByNames(10, 0, input);
}
protected final String getChoiceValue(final Client choice) throws Throwable {
return choice.getId().toString();
}
};
form.add(name);
My form implementation you asked for:
form = new Form("orderForm", new CompoundPropertyModel(order)) {
#Override
public void onSubmit() {
orderService.update((Order) getDefaultModelObject());
setResponsePage(OrdersPage.class);
// Form validation successful. Display message showing edited
// model.
}
};
With this code I got: "'Hurtownia Techniczna "ADA"' is not proper Client." (translated from Polish) in feedback panel.

Answer 1

I think, that's where things go wrong:
AbstractAutoCompleteTextField<Client> name = new AbstractAutoCompleteTextField<Client>("name", new PropertyModel(order, "client"), autoCompleteRenderer)
Rest of the answer edited to reflect the correct use case
To be specific: You're creating a PropertyModel of your orders client value, which is a Client-Object and tie it to a TextField. To create a Client-object from the TextField, wicket needs a converter. There are lots of build-in converters but none of them is capable of converting to a custom object. Thus you'll need to provide the converter by implementing IConverter. Since I don't know how you store and retrieve your Client-objects I can only show you a generic example, a Locale-Converter used in one of my projects:
public class LocaleConverter implements IConverter {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 3251433094703013493L;
/* (non-Javadoc)
* #see org.apache.wicket.util.convert.IConverter#convertToObject(java.lang.String, java.util.Locale)
*/
#Override
public Object convertToObject(String value, Locale locale) {
Locale retValue = null;
try {
retValue = LocaleUtils.toLocale(value);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
throw (new ConversionException("" + value + " is not a valid locale.", e));
}
return retValue;
}
/* (non-Javadoc)
* #see org.apache.wicket.util.convert.IConverter#convertToString(java.lang.Object, java.util.Locale)
*/
#Override
public String convertToString(Object value, Locale locale) {
return value.toString();
}
}
Then you'll need to register your new converter to your application. Again, this will be slightly different for you since you've got a different converter...
#Override
protected IConverterLocator newConverterLocator() {
ConverterLocator newConverterLocator = (ConverterLocator) super.newConverterLocator();
newConverterLocator.set(Locale.class, new LocaleConverter());
return newConverterLocator;
}
This method needs to be included in your application class.