The outputText component can be used as a child to many other components to display read-only text. When you need the text to be formatted, you can use the outputFormatted component. For example, you may want to use bold formatted text within instruction text, as shown in Figure 18-2.

Figure 18-2 Use the outputFormatted Component in Instruction Text

Many ADF Faces components can have icons associated with them. For example, in a menu, each of the menu items can have an associated icon. You identify the image to use for each one as the value of an icon attribute for the menu item component itself. Information and instructions for adding icons to components that support them are covered in those components' chapters. In addition to providing icons within components, ADF Faces also provides icons used when displaying messages. You can use these icons outside of messages as well.

To display an image on a page, you use the image component. Images can also be used as links (including image maps) or to depict the status of the server.

The media component is used to display audio-visual content, such as advertisements or directions to complete a task. The media component can be configured to display all controls, typical controls, minimal controls, no visible controls (for example, controls are available only from a context menu), or no controls at all. Typically, you would not display controls when the clip is very short and control is not needed.

When the media component is the primary component on the page, then typically all controls are displayed, as shown in Figure 18-3.

Figure 18-3 All Controls are Displayed at the Bottom of the Player

You may find it helpful to understand other ADF Faces features before you implement your output components. Additionally, once you have added these components to your page, you may find that you need to add functionality such as drag and drop and accessibility. Following are links to other functionality that output components can use.

• Using parameters in text: You can use the ADF Faces EL format tags if you want text displayed in a component to contain parameters that will resolve at runtime. See How to Use the EL Format Tags.

• Conversion: In some cases, a value may need to be converted to a string in order to display. For information about conversion, see Validating and Converting Input.

• Drag and drop: You can configure a page so that a user can drag and drop output components or values of output components, to another area on a page. See Adding Drag and Drop Functionality.

• Localization: Instead of entering values for attributes that take strings as values, you can use property files. These files allow you to manage translation of these strings. See Internationalizing and Localizing Pages.

• Skins: You can change the look and feel of output components by changing the skin. See Customizing the Appearance Using Styles and Skins.

1. In the Components window, from the Text and Selection panel, drag and drop an Output Text onto the page. To create an outputFormatted component, drag and drop an Output Text (Formatted) from the Components window.

   Tip:

   If parts of the value require special formatting, use an outputFormatted component.

   Tip:

   If you plan to support changing the text of the component through active data (for example, data being pushed from the data source will determine the text that is displayed), then you should use the activeOutputText component instead of the outputText component. Create an activeOutputText component by dragging an Output Text (Active) from the Components window.

2. Expand the Common section of the Properties window and set the value attribute to the value to be displayed. If you are using the outputFormatted component, use HTML formatting codes to format the text as needed, as described in Table 18-1 and Table 18-2.

   The outputFormatted component also supports the styleUsage attribute whose values are the following predefined styles for the text:

   • inContextBranding

   • instruction

   • pageStamp

   Figure 18-6 shows how the styleUsage values apply styles to the component.

   Figure 18-6 styleUsage Attribute Values

   
   Description of "Figure 18-6 styleUsage Attribute Values"

   Note:

   If the styleUsage and styleClass attributes are both set, the styleClass attribute takes precedence.

1. In the Components window, from the General Controls panel, drag and drop an Icon onto the page.
2. Expand the Common section and set Name to the name of one of the icon functions shown in Figure 18-7. For example, if you want to display a red circle with a white X, you would set Name to error.
3. Expand the Appearance section and set ShortDesc to the text you want to be displayed as the alternate text for the icon.

1. In the Components window, from the General Controls panel, drag and drop an Image onto the page.

   Tip:

   If you plan to support changing the source attribute of the image through active data (for example, data being pushed from the data source will determine the image that is displayed), then you should use the activeImage component instead of the image component. Create an activeImage component by dragging an Image (Active) from the Components window.

2. In the Insert Image dialog, set the following:

   • Source: Enter the URI to the image file.

   • ShortDesc: Set to the text to be used as the alternate text for the image.

3. If you want to include a longer description for the image, in the Properties window, set LongDescURL attribute to the URI where the information is located.

1. In the Components window, from the General Controls panel, drag and drop a Link onto the page.
2. Drag and drop an Image as a child to the Link component.
3. In the Insert Image dialog, set the following:

   • Source: Enter the URI to the image file.

   • ShortDesc: Set to the text to be used as the alternate text for the image.

4. If different areas of the image are to link to different destinations:

   • Create an image map for the image and save it to the server.

   • In the Properties window, set the ImageMapType attribute to server.

   • Select the Link component and in the Properties window, set Destination to the URI of the image map on the server.

5. If the whole image is to link to a single destination, select the Link component and enter the URI of the destination as the value of Destination.

1. In the Components window, from the General Controls panel, drag and drop a Media onto the page.
2. In the Insert Media dialog, set the following attributes:

   • Source: Enter the URI to the media to be played.

   • StandbyText: Enter a message that will be displayed while the content is loading.

3. Expand the Common section of the Properties window and set the following:

   • Player: Select the media player that should be used by default to play the clip. You can choose from Real Player, Windows Media Player, or Apple Quick Time Player.

     Alternatively, you can create a link in the page that starts the playing of the media resource based on the user agent's built-in content type mapping. The media control attempts to pick the appropriate media player using the following steps:

     • If the primary MIME type of the content is image, the built-in user-agent support is used.

     • If a media player has been specified by the player attribute, and that player is available on the user agent and can display the media resource, that player is used.

     • If one player is especially good at playing the media resource and that player is available on the user agent, that player is used.

     • If one player is especially dominant on the user agent and that player can play the media resource, that player is used.

     • The player connected to the link provided on the page is used.

   • Autostart: Set to True if you want the clip to begin playing as soon as it loads.

   • ContentType: Enter the MIME type of the media to play. This will be used to determine which player to use, the configuration of the controls, and the size of the display.

4. Expand the Appearance section of the Properties window and set the following:

   • Controls: Select the amount and types of controls you want the player to display.

     Because the set of controls available varies between players, you define what set of controls to display in a general way, rather than listing actual controls. For example, you can have the player display all controls available, the most commonly used controls, or no controls.

     The following example uses the all setting for a media component.

     <af:media source="/images/myvideo.wmv" controls="all"/>
     

     Figure 18-8 shows how the player is displayed to the user.

     Figure 18-8 Media Player with All Controls

     

     The following values are valid:

     • All: Show all available controls for playing media on the media player.

       Using this setting can cause a large amount of additional space to be required, depending on the media player used.

     • Minimal: Show a minimal set of controls for playing media on the media player.

       This value gives users control over the most important media playing controls, while occupying the least amount of additional space on the user agent.

     • None: Do not show any controls for the media player and do not allow control access through other means, such as context menus.

       You would typically use this setting only for kiosk-type applications, where no user control over the playing of the media is allowed. This setting is typically used in conjunction with settings that automatically start the playback, and to play back continuously.

     • NoneVisible: Do not show any controls for the media player, but allow control access through alternate means, such as context menus.

       You would typically use this value only in applications where user control over the playing of the media is allowed, but not encouraged. As with the none setting, this setting is typically used in conjunction with settings that automatically start the playback, and to play back continuously.

     • Typical: Show the typical set of controls for playing media on the media player.

       This value, the default, gives users control over the most common media playing controls, without occupying an inordinate amount of extra space on the user agent.

   • Width and Height: Define the size in pixels of the complete display, including the whole player area, which includes the media content area.

     Tip:

     Using the width and height attributes can lead to unexpected results because it is difficult to define a suitable width and height to use across different players and different player control configurations. Instead of defining the size of the complete display, you can instead define just the size of the media content area using the innerWidth and innerHeight attributes.

   • InnerWidth and InnerHeight: Define the size in pixels of only the media content area. This is the preferred scheme, because you control the amount of space allocated to the player area for your clip.

     Tip:

     If you do not specify a size for the media control, a default inner size, determined by the content type of the media resource, is used. While this works well for audio content, it can cause video content to be clipped or to occupy too much space.

     If you specify dimensions from both schemes, such as a height and an innerHeight, the overall size defined by the height attribute is used. Similarly, if you specify both a width and an innerWidth, the width attribute is used.

5. Expand the Behavior section and set Autostart. By default, playback of a clip will not start until the user starts it using the displayed controls. You can specify that playback is to start as soon as the clip is loaded by setting the autostart attribute to true.

   Set PlayCount to the number of times you want the media to play. Once started, by default, the clip with play through once only. If the users have controls available, they can replay the clip. However, you can specify that the clip is to play back a fixed number of times, or loop continuously, by setting a value for the playCount attribute. Setting the playCount attribute to 0 replays the clip continuously. Setting the attribute to some other number plays the clip the specified number of times.

<af:media source="/components/images/seattle.wmv" playCount="0"
          autostart="true" controls="all"
          innerHeight="112" innerWidth="260"
          shortDesc="My Video Clip" 
          standbyText="My video clip is loading"/>