Tapestry Object Properties

When using Tapestry, an important aspect of your work is to leverage the properties exposed by the various objects within Tapestry. A page has properties (inherited from base classes such as AbstractComponent and BasePage ) and contains components and other objects with more properties. Pages are connected to an engine, which exports its own set of properties. This table is a quick guide to the most common objects and their properties.

Property name Defining class Property type Description
assets IComponent Map of IAsset Localized assets as defined in the component's specification.
beans IComponent IBeanProvider Used to access beans defined using the <bean> specification element.
bindingNames IComponent Collection of String The names of all formal and informal parameter bindings for the component.
bindings IComponent Map of IBinding All bindings (for both formal and informal parameters) for this component, keyed on the parameter name.
body AbstractComponent IRender [] The body of the component: the text (as IRender ) and components (which inherit from IRender ) that the component directly encloses within its container's template.
bodyCount AbstractComponent int The active number of elements in the body property array.
components IComponent Map of IComponent All components contained by this component, keyed on the component id.
changeObserver IPage ChangeObserver An object that recieves notifications about changes to persistent page properties.
classResolver IEngine ClassResolver Object responsible for locating classes and classpath resources.
clientId IComponent String The component's client-side element id.
componentMessagesSource IEngine IComponentMessagesSource An object that allows components to find their set of localized messages.
container IComponent IComponent The page or component which contains this component. Pages will return null.
disabled IFormComponent boolean If true, the component should be disabled (and not respond to query parameters passed up in the request).
displayName IFormComponent String Localized string to be displayed as a label for the form control. Most implementations leave this undefined (as null).
engine IPage IEngine The engine to which the page is currently attached.
extendedId IComponent String An "extended" version of the idPath property that includes the name of the page containing the component as well.
form IFormComponent IForm The form which encloses the form control component.
global IEngine , IPage Object The Global object for the application.
hasVisit AbstractEngine boolean Returns true if the Visit object has been created, false initially.
id IComponent String The id of the component, which is unique within its container. In many cases, the framework may have assigned an automatically generated id. Pages do not have an id and return null.
idPath IComponent String A sequence of id's used to locate a component within a page. A component bar within a component foo within a page will have an idPath of foo.bar . Pages return null.
listeners AbstractComponent , AbstractEngine ListenerMap Used to map listener methods as objects that implement the IActionListener interface.
locale IEngine Locale The locale for the current client; this is used when loading pages from the page pool, or when instantiating new page instances.
locale IPage Locale The locale to which the page and all components within the page is localized.
location many Location The location that should be used with any error messages generated about the object. This is ultimately the file, line (and even column) of the template or specification file responsible for defining the object (be it a component, a page, or some other kind of object).
messages IComponent Messages Localized messages for the component.
name IFormComponent String The name, or element id, assigned to the form control by the IForm . This is set as the component renders (but the property can then be read after the component renders).
namespace IComponent INamespace The namespace containing the component. Components are always within some namespace, whether it is the default (application) namespace, the framework namespace, or a namespace for a component library.
outputEncoding AbstractPage String Output encoding for the page.
page IComponent IPage The page which ultimately contains the component.
propertySource IEngine IPropertySource Source for configuration properties.
pageName IPage String The fully qualified page name (possibly including a namespace prefix).
pageSource IEngine IPageSource The object used to obtain page instances.
rendering IComponent boolean True if the component is actively rendering (inside it's render() method).
requestCycle IPage IRequestCycle The request cycle to which the page is currently attached.
scriptSource IEngine IScriptSource Object that parses and caches script specifications.
specification IComponent IComponentSpecification The specification which defines this component. Often used to access meta data defined in the component's specification using the <meta> element.
specification IEngine IApplicationSpecification The specification for the application.
specificationSource IEngine ISpecificationSource Object responsible for reading and caching page and component specifications.
visit IEngine Object Returns the Visit object for the current client, or null if the Visit object has not yet been created.
visit IPage Object Returns the Visit object for the current client, creating it if necessary.