Apache Isis in Pictures

On this page we want to show you what a modern Apache Isis application looks like.

The screenshots below are taken from the Isis Addons' todoapp example (non ASF), which you are free to fork and use as you will. The corresponding domain classes from which this UI was built can be found here.

The todoapp also integrates with a number of other modules from the (non-ASF) Incode Platform. Because we expect that most apps will end up using one or more of these modules, we’ve chosen to include screenshots of those too.

These screenshots based on Apache Isis 1.13.x.

Basics

Let’s start with the basics…​

Sign-in

Apache Isis integrates with Apache Shiro. The core framework supports file-based realms, while the (non-ASF) Incode Platform's security module provides a well-features subdomain of users, roles and permissions against features derived from the Apache Isis metamodel. The example todoapp integrates with the security module.

010 login

Install Fixtures

Apache Isis has lots of features to help you prototype and then fully test your application. One such are fixture scripts, which allow pre-canned data to be installed in the running application. This is great to act as the starting point for identifying new stories; later on when the feature is being implemented, the same fixture script can be re-used within that feature’s integration tests. (More on tests later).

020 install fixtures

Dashboard and View Models

Most of the time the end-user interacts with representations of persistent domain entities, but Apache Isis also supports view models which can aggregate data from multiple sources. The todoapp example uses a "dashboard" view model to list todo items not yet done vs those completed.

030 dashboard view model

In general we recommend to initially focus only on domain entities; this will help drive out a good domain model. Later on view models can be introduced in support of specific use cases.

Domain Entity

The screenshot below is of the todoapp’s ToDoItem domain entity. Like all web pages, this UI is generated at runtime, directly from the domain object itself. There are no controllers or HTML to write.

040 domain entity

In addition to the domain entity, Apache Isis allows layout metadata hints to be provided, for example to specify the grouping of properties, the positioning of those groups into columns, the association of actions (the buttons) with properties or collections, the icons on the buttons, and so on. This metadata can be specified either as annotations or in XML form. The benefit of the latter is that it can be updated (and the UI redrawn) without restarting the app.

Any production-ready app will require this metadata but (like the view models discussed above) this metadata can be added gradually on top of the core domain model.

Edit properties

By default properties on domain entities are editable, meaning they can be changed directly. In the todoapp example, the `ToDoItem’s description is one such editable property:

050 edit property

Note that some of the properties are read-only even in edit mode; individual properties can be made non-editable. It is also possible to make all properties disabled and thus enforce changes only through actions (below).

Actions

The other way to modify an entity is to an invoke an action. In the screenshot below the ToDoItem's category and subcategory can be updated together using an action:

060 invoke action

There are no limitations on what an action can do; it might just update a single object, it could update multiple objects. Or, it might not update any objects at all, but could instead perform some other activity, such as sending out email or printing a document.

In general though, all actions are associated with some object, and are (at least initially) also implemented by that object: good old-fashioned encapsulation. We sometimes use the term "behaviourally complete" for such domain objects.

Mixins

As an alternative to placing actions (business logic) on a domain object, it can instead be placed inside a mixin object. When an object is rendered by Apache Isis, the mixin "contributes" its behaviour to the domain object (similar to aspect-oriented traits).

In the screenshot below the highlighted "export as xml" action, the "relative priority" property (and "previous" and "next" actions) the "similar to" collection and the two "as DTO" actions are all contributed by mixins:

065 contributions

Extensible Views

The remaining screenshots on this page are for v1.10.0 of the framework, which precedes the support for tabbed views introduced in v1.12.0.

The Apache Isis viewer is implemented using Apache Wicket, and has been designed to be extensible. For example, when a collection of objects is rendered, this is just one of several views, as shown in the selector drop-down:

070 pluggable views

The (non-ASF) Incode Platform provides a number of such extensions. For example, the gmap3 component will render any domain entity (such as ToDoItem) that implements its Locatable interface:

080 gmap3 view

Similarly the (non-ASF) Incode Platform's fullcalendar2 component will render any domain entity (such as ToDoItem) that implements its Calendarable interface:

090 fullcalendar2 view

Yet another "view" (though this one is rather simpler) is that provided by the (non-ASF) Incode Platform's excel Wicket component This provides a download button to the table as a spreadsheet:

100 excel view and docx

The screenshot above also shows an "export to Word" action. This is not a view but instead is a (contributed) action that uses the (non-ASF) Incode Platform's docx module to perform a "mail-merge":

110 docx

Please note that the Isis Addons are not part of ASF, but they are all licensed under Apache License 2.0 and are maintained by the Apache Isis committers.

Security, Auditing and more…​

As well as providing extensions to the UI, the (non ASF) Isis Addons provide a rich set of modules to support various cross-cutting concerns.

Under the activity menu are four sets of services which provide support for (non-ASF) Incode Platform's sessionlogger module (for user session logging/auditing) , command module (audit/profiling), audit module (audit object changes) (shown) and (inter-system) event publishing:

120 auditing

In the security menu is access to the rich set of functionality provided by the (non-ASF) Incode Platform's security module:

130 security

In the prototyping menu is the ability to download a GNU gettext .po file for translation. This file can then be translated into multiple languages so that your app can support different locales. Note that this feature is part of Apache Isis core (it is not in Isis Addons):

140 i18n

The (non-ASF) Incode Platform also provides a module for managing application and user settings. Most apps (the todoapp example included) won’t expose these services directly, but will usually wrap them in their own app-specific settings service that trivially delegates to the settings module’s services:

150 appsettings

Multi-tenancy support

One significant feature of the (non-ASF) Incode Platform's security module is the ability to associate users and objects with a "tenancy". The todoapp uses this feature so that different users' list of todo items are kept separate from one another. A user with administrator is able to switch their own "tenancy" to the tenancy of some other user, in order to access the objects in that tenancy:

160 switch tenancy

For more details, see the (non-ASF) Incode Platform's security module README.

Me

Most of the (non-ASF) Incode Platform's security module’s services are on the security menu, which would normally be provided only to administrators. Kept separate is the "me" action:

170 me

Assuming they have been granted permissions, this allows a user to access an entity representing their own user account:

180 app user entity

If not all of these properties are required, then they can be hidden either using security or though Apache Isis' internal event bus (described below). Conversely, additional properties can be "grafted onto" the user using the contributed properties/collections discussed previously.

Themes

Apache Isis' Wicket viewer uses Twitter Bootstrap, which means that it can be themed. If more than one theme has been configured for the app, then the viewer allows the end-user to switch their theme:

190 switch theme

REST API

In addition to Apache Isis' Wicket viewer, it also provides a rich REST API with a full set of hypermedia controls, generated automatically from the domain objects (entities and view models). The framework provides two default representations, one an implementation of the Restful Objects spec, the other a simplified representation suitable for custom Javascript apps. Other representations can be plugged in.

The screenshot below shows accessing the Restful Objects representation API accessed through a Chrome plugin:

200 rest api

The framework also automatically integrates with Swagger, generating a Swagger spec from the underlying domain object model. From this spec REST clients can be code-generated; it also allows developers to play with the REST API through the Swagger UI:

205 swagger ui

Integration Testing Support

Earlier on we noted that Apache Isis allows fixtures to be installed through the UI. These same fixture scripts can be reused within integration tests. For example, the code snippet below shows how the FixtureScripts service injected into an integration test can then be used to set up data:

210 fixture scripts

The tests themselves are run in junit. While these are integration tests (so talking to a real database), they are no more complex than a regular unit test:

220 testing happy case

To simulate the business rules enforced by Apache Isis, the domain object can be "wrapped" in a proxy. For example, if using the Wicket viewer then Apache Isis will enforce the rule (implemented in the ToDoItem class itself) that a completed item cannot have the "completed" action invoked upon it. The wrapper simulates this by throwing an appropriate exception:

230 testing wrapper factory

Internal Event Bus

Contributions, discussed earlier, are an important tool in ensuring that the packages within your Apache Isis application are decoupled; by extracting out actions the order of dependency between packages can effectively be reversed.

Another important tool to ensure your codebase remains maintainable is Apache Isis' internal event bus. It is probably best explained by example; the code below says that the "complete" action should emit a ToDoItem.Completed event:

240 domain events

Domain service (application-scoped, stateless) can then subscribe to this event:

250 domain event subscriber

And this test verifies that completing an action causes the subscriber to be called:

260 domain event test

In fact, the domain event is fired not once, but (up to) 5 times. It is called 3 times prior to execution, to check that the action is visible, enabled and that arguments are valid. It is then additionally called prior to execution, and also called after execution. What this means is that a subscriber can in either veto access to an action of some publishing object, and/or it can perform cascading updates if the action is allowed to proceed.

Moreover, domain events are fired for all properties and collections, not just actions. Thus, subscribers can therefore switch on or switch off different parts of an application. Indeed, the example todoapp demonstrates this.