Oracle Fusion Middleware Tag Reference for Oracle ADF Faces 12c (12.2.1.4.0) E81455-03

# <af:panelFormLayout>

af:panelFormLayout panelFormLayout panel form layout

UIComponent class: oracle.adf.view.rich.component.rich.layout.RichPanelFormLayout
Component type: oracle.adf.RichPanelFormLayout

The panelFormLayout positions input form controls, such that their labels and fields line up vertically. It supports multiple columns, and also supports a footer facet.

Usually, this component will simply contain labelled ADF Faces input components in its main content. This includes components whose names start with 'input' (like inputText and inputDate) and components that start with 'select' (like selectOneChoice, selectBooleanRadio, and selectManyChoice). These components must have their 'simple' attribute set to false, which is the default, and will cause the labels and fields inside the panelFormLayout to be aligned vertically.

When more complex field content is needed, use a panelLabelAndMessage around the content.

Other components can be added to panelFormLayout, but they will not line up with labels and fields automatically, and each will appear on its own row. You can use other panel components, like a horizontal layout panelGroupLayout, to layout a row of buttons or fields. To align content with other labels and fields, use panelLabelAndMessage or use the 'footer' facet. You may also alternatively place a facetRef, iterator, or switcher inside of the panelFormLayout and their resolved children will be treated as if they were direct children of the panelFormLayout.

## Grouping Items in a PanelFormLayout

PanelFormLayout supports grouping of its child components. If you place panelFormLayout children inside of a group, by default separators will be drawn around the group of items if adjacent to other form items. By default separators won't be drawn at the top if the group is the first item in the column or, at the bottom if the group is the last item in the column. Grouped panelFormLayout items are kept in the same column of the panelFormLayout even when the assigned rows attribute is set to a value smaller than the number of items in the group. The panelFormLayout component also supports the group component in its footer facet so you can place more than one item in the footer. You can group footer items one additional time to get separators to appear. In responsive layout mode, nesting of groups isn't supported.

By default visual group separators always appear (following the rules above). If you want a group but do not want the group separator to appear, you can set the group's startBoundary or endBoundary attributes to 'hide' to request that the corresponding boundary be hidden. Note that when a first group's endBoundary and a second group's startBoundary are both set, the separator will only be hidden if both values are set to 'hide' or one value is 'hide' while the other value is 'dontCare'.

A group of items can also have a title, by setting the group's title attribute. Only groups that have their start boundaries displayed will show their title values. Note that you should use a group title that is not horizontally longer than the width of the current panelFormLayout column. If you choose a group title that is longer than the width of the panelFormLayout, the panelFormLayout will stretch horizontally to accommodate the title.

## Geometry Management

- If a panelFormLayout component gets stretched by its parent, it will automatically display scroll bars if the panelFormLayout contents do not fit within the allocated dimensions.
- This component does not stretch its children.

## Screen Shot(s)

A panelFormLayout component containing three input fields.

## Code Example(s)

    <af:panelFormLayout layout="responsive" id="pfl">
      <af:inputText label="Prompt" id="it1"/>
      <af:inputText label="Prompt" id="it2"/>
      <af:panelLabelAndMessage id="plm1" for="foo" label="Prompt">
        <f:facet name="end">
          <af:outputText value="Note" id="ot1"/>
        </f:facet>
        <af:inputText simple="true" label="Prompt" id="foo"/>
      </af:panelLabelAndMessage>
      <af:selectManyCheckbox label="Prompt" id="smc1">
        <af:selectItem label="Value 1" value="value1" id="si1"/>
        <af:selectItem label="Value 2" value="value2" id="si2"/>
        <af:selectItem label="Value 3" value="value3" id="si3"/>
      </af:selectManyCheckbox>
      <af:selectOneRadio label="Prompt" id="sor1">
        <af:selectItem label="Value 1" value="value1" id="si4"/>
        <af:selectItem label="Value 2" value="value2" id="si5"/>
        <af:selectItem label="Value 3" value="value3" id="si6"/>
      </af:selectOneRadio>
      <af:inputText label="Prompt" id="it3"/>
      <af:selectOneChoice label="Prompt" value="option1" id="soc1">
        <af:selectItem label="Option 1" value="option1" id="si7"/>
        <af:selectItem label="Option 2" value="option2" id="si8"/>
      </af:selectOneChoice>
      <f:facet name="footer">
        <af:group id="g1">
          <af:inputText label="Prompt" rows="3" contentStyle="width:500px;" id="it14"/>
          <af:panelGroupLayout id="pgl2" layout="horizontal">
            <f:facet name="separator">
              <af:spacer id="sp1" width="4px"/>
            </f:facet>
            <af:button id="cb1" text="Save"/>
            <af:button id="cb2" text="Cancel"/>
            <af:button id="cb3" text="Help"/>
          </af:panelGroupLayout>
        </af:group>
      </f:facet>
    </af:panelFormLayout>

## Events

Type | Phases | Description
--- | --- | ---
org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.event.AttributeChangeEvent | Invoke, Application, Apply, Request, Values | Event delivered to describe an attribute change. Attribute change events are not delivered for any programmatic change to a property. They are only delivered when a renderer changes a property without the application's specific request. An example of an attribute change event might include the width of a column that supported client-side resizing.

## Supported Facets

Name | Description
--- | ---
footer | This facet is rendered under the columns and usually contains an af:group when you want to have more than a single item in the footer. This facet may not always line up perfectly, particularly if the labels or fields used in the panelFormLayout are longer than what you have allocated for them. Adjust the allocations you have with the labelWidth and fieldWidth attributes when necessary. Remember that labelWidth and fieldWidth must use the same units. Also, the columns attribute on inputText may be helpful to reduce the amount of space that it consumes. In responsive layout mode, the extra wide fields will stretch and end align with the widest field in the second column if there are three or more columns being displayed. Else the extra wide fields will end align with widest field in the last column being displayed. In JSP pages, only one component is allowed. When using Facelets, multiple components are allowed.

## Attributes

Name | Type | Supports EL? | Description
attributeChangeListener | javax.el.MethodExpression | Only EL | a method reference to an attribute change listener. Attribute change events are not delivered for any programmatic change to a property. They are only delivered when a renderer changes a property without the application's specific request. An example of an attribute change events might include the width of a column that supported client-side resizing.
binding | oracle.adf.view.rich.component.rich.layout.RichPanelFormLayout | Only EL | an EL reference that will store the component instance on a bean. This can be used to give programmatic access to a component from a backing bean, or to move creation of the component to a backing bean.
clientComponent | boolean | Yes | Default Value: false whether a client-side component will be generated. A component may be generated whether or not this flag is set, but if client Javascript requires the component object, this must be set to true to guarantee the component's presence. Client component objects that are generated today by default may not be present in the future; setting this flag is the only way to guarantee a component's presence, and clients cannot rely on implicit behavior. However, there is a performance cost to setting this flag, so clients should avoid turning on client components unless absolutely necessary. For the components outputText and outputFormatted, setting the clientComponent to true will render id attribute for the html DOM. This ID attribute can alternatively be generated by setting oracle.adf.view.rich.SUPPRESS_IDS to "auto" in web.xml.
customizationId | String | Yes | This attribute is deprecated. The 'id' attribute should be used when applying persistent customizations. This attribute will be removed in the next release.
fieldWidth | String | Yes | The preferred width of the fields. The web browser may override this dimension if it cannot fit the fields in the space allocated. You may define the fieldWidth using any CSS unit such as em, px, or %. The units used for this value must be identical to the units used in the labelWidth value. If a fieldWidth is provided as a percentage the labelWidth and the fieldWidth should total up to 100% (regardless of the number of columns). If the fieldWidth is not specified, the browser will let the children components have a natural flowing layout which may mean that the footer facet contents do not line up with the main form items. However, if the fieldWidth is not specified but a labelWidth is specified as a percentage, the fieldWidth will be derived as the appropriate percentage value for you. Note that if you are using a percentage value, multiple columns, and a footer, you may see a slight offset between the positioning of the main form items and the footer items in some web browsers if that browser does not honor fractional divisions of percentages. To minimize this effect, it is recommended that a percentage labelWidth be evenly divisible by the number of columns. This attribute has no impact in responsive layout mode. Use CSS instead to set the fieldWidth
id | String | No | the identifier for the component. Every component may be named by a component identifier that must conform to the following rules: They must start with a letter (as defined by the Character.isLetter() method) or underscore ( _ ). Subsequent characters must be letters (as defined by the Character.isLetter() method), digits as defined by the Character.isDigit() method, dashes ( - ), or underscores ( _ ). To minimize the size of responses generated by JavaServer Faces, it is recommended that component identifiers be as short as possible. If a component has been given an identifier, it must be unique in the namespace of the closest ancestor to that component that is a NamingContainer (if any).
inlineStyle | String | Yes | the CSS styles to use for this component. This is intended for basic style changes. The inlineStyle is a set of CSS styles that are applied to the root DOM element of the component. Be aware that because of browser CSS precedence rules, CSS rendered on a DOM element takes precedence over external stylesheets like the skin file. Therefore skins will not be able to override what you set on this attribute. If the inlineStyle's CSS properties do not affect the DOM element you want affected, then you will have to create a skin and use the skinning keys which are meant to target particular DOM elements, like ::label or ::icon-style.
labelAlignment | String | Yes | Valid Values: start, top The alignment of label prompts for the form items.
labelWidth | String | Yes | The preferred width of the labels. The web browser may override this dimension if it cannot fit the labels in the space allocated. You may define the labelWidth using any CSS unit such as em, px, or %. The units used for this value must be identical to the units used in the fieldWidth value. If a labelWidth is provided as a percentage the labelWidth and the fieldWidth should total up to 100% (regardless of the number of columns). If the labelWidth is not specified, the browser will let the children components have a natural flowing layout which may mean that the footer facet contents do not line up with the main form items. However, if the labelWidth is not specified but a fieldWidth is specified as a percentage, the labelWidth will be derived as the appropriate percentage value for you. Note that if you are using a percentage value, multiple columns, and a footer, you may see a slight offset between the positioning of the main form items and the footer items in some web browsers if that browser does not honor fractional divisions of percentages. To minimize this effect, it is recommended that a percentage labelWidth be evenly divisible by the number of columns. This attribute has no impact in responsive layout mode. Use CSS instead to set the labelWidth
layout | oracle.adf.view.rich.component.rich.layout.RichPanelFormLayout.Layout | Yes | Default Value: WEIGHTED The layout style to be used. Allowed values are 'weighted', 'fixed', or 'responsive'. The default is weighted which will size to the content. Using fixed will size to the width of the screen and truncate the labels and fields. Using responsive will auto arrange the fields in multiple columns and manage labelAlignment based on the space available for the panel.
maxColumns | int | Yes | the maximum number of columns to show. This attribute defaults to 3 on desktop and 2 on PDAs in weighted and fixed layout modes. This attribute will default to 3 in responsive layout mode. If this panelFormLayout is inside of another panelFormLayout, this will always be 1.
partialTriggers | String[] | Yes | the IDs of the components that should trigger a partial update. This component will listen on the trigger components. If one of the trigger components receives an event that will cause it to update in some way, this component will request to be updated too. Identifiers are relative to the source component (this component), and must account for NamingContainers. If your component is already inside of a naming container, you can use a single colon to start the search from the root of the page, or multiple colons to move up through the NamingContainers - "::" will pop out of the component's naming container (or itself if the component is a naming container) and begin the search from there, ":::" will pop out of two naming containers (including itself if the component is a naming container) and begin the search from there, etc.
rendered | boolean | Yes | Default Value: true whether the component is rendered. When set to false, no output will be delivered for this component (the component will not in any way be rendered, and cannot be made visible on the client). If you want to change a component's rendered attribute from false to true using PPR, set the partialTrigger attribute of its parent component so the parent refreshes and in turn will render this component.
rows | int | Yes | the number of rows after which to start a new column. The number of rows actually rendered depends also on the "maxColumns" attribute. When the number of children rendered equals the rows value, the next child is rendered in the next column. If the children will not fit in the given number of rows and columns, the number of rows will increase to accommodate the children. When left blank, rows defaults to the maximum integer value. This property is ignored in responsive layout mode.
shortDesc | String | Yes | the short description of the component. The shortDesc text may be used in two different ways, depending on the component. For components with images, the shortDesc is often used to render an HTML alt attribute for the image. Please see the accessibility guidelines section for correct alt text usage of the shortDesc attribute. shortDesc is also commonly used to render an HTML title attribute, which is used by user agents to display tooltip help text. In this case the behavior for the tooltip is controlled by the user agent, e.g. Firefox 2 truncates long tooltips. For form components, the shortDesc is displayed in a note window. For components that support the helpTopicId attribute and are not using the shortDesc as image alt text, it is recommended that helpTopicId is used instead of shortDesc as it is more flexible and provides more accessible descriptive text than the use of the title attribute.
styleClass | String | Yes | a CSS style class to use for this component. The style class can be defined in your jspx page or in a skinning CSS file, for example, or you can use one of our public style classes, like 'AFInstructionText'.
unsecure | java.util.Set | Yes | A whitespace separated list of attributes whose values ordinarily can be set only on the server, but need to be settable on the client. Currently, this is supported only for the "disabled" attribute. Note that when you are able to set a property on the client, you will be allowed to by using the the .setProperty('attribute', newValue) method, but not the .setXXXAttribute(newValue) method. For example, if you have unsecure="disabled", then on the client you can use the method .setProperty('disabled', false), while the method .setDisabled(false) will not work and will provide a javascript error that setDisabled is not a function.
visible | boolean | Yes | Default Value: true the visibility of the component. If it is "false", the component will be hidden on the client. Unlike "rendered", this does not affect the lifecycle on the server - the component may have its bindings executed, etc. - and the visibility of the component can be toggled on and off on the client, or toggled with PPR. When "rendered" is false, the component will not in any way be rendered, and cannot be made visible on the client. In most cases, use the "rendered" property instead of the "visible" property. Not supported on the following renderkits: org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.core