The TableFacade takes out the complexity of building HTML tables by offering a very high level API to work with. The approach that the TableFacade takes is you declare the whole table with all the defaults, and then customize things as needed.

For instance if you want to customize the previous example you can do this (Spring MVC example):

protected ModelAndView handleRequestInternal(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {
    ModelAndView mv = new ModelAndView(successView);
    Collection<Object> items = presidentService.getPresidents();

    TableFacade tableFacade = TableFacadeFactory.createTableFacade(id, request);
    tableFacade.setColumnProperties("name.firstName", "name.lastName", "term", "career", "born");
    tableFacade.setItems(items);
    tableFacade.setExportTypes(response, ExportType.CSV, ExportType.EXCEL);

    Table table = tableFacade.getTable();
    table.setCaption("Presidents");

    Column firstName = table.getRow().getColumn("name.firstName");
    firstName.setTitle("First Name");

    Column lastName = table.getRow().getColumn("name.lastName");
    lastName.setTitle("Last Name");

    Limit limit = tableFacade.getLimit();
    if (limit.isExported()) {
        facade.render();
        return null;
    } else {
        HtmlTable htmlTable = (HtmlTable) table;
        htmlTable.getTableRenderer().setWidth("600px");

        firstName.getCellRenderer().setCellEditor(new CellEditor() {
            public Object getValue(Object item, String property, int rowcount) {
                Object value = new BasicCellEditor().getValue(item, property, rowcount);
                HtmlBuilder html = new HtmlBuilder();
                html.a().href().quote().append("http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/").quote().close();
                html.append(value);
                html.aEnd();
                return html.toString();
            }
        });

        String html = tableFacade.render();
        mv.addObject("presidents", html);
    }

    return mv;
}

For more information about working with the table, row, and columns read the Components section.

Notice how there are no factories to deal with. However any API Object that you need is available through the facade, including the WebContext, CoreContext, Limit, Table, Toolbar, and View. When you ask the facade for a given object it builds everything it needs up to that point. Internally it keeps track of everything you are doing so it also works like a builder.

The TableFacade interface also has setters for all the facade objects including the WebContext, CoreContext, Limit, Toolbar, and View. The reason is if you really need to customize something and want to set your own implementation you can. Your object just goes into the flow of the facade. For instance if you want a custom toolbar just set the Toolbar on the facade and when the render() method is called it will use your Toolbar.

Be sure to also check out the State feature, which allows a user to come back to a table with it sorted, filtered, and paged the way that they left it. I am so used to this feature that I tend to forgot to mention it, but I bet most people would really enjoy this feature!

ComponentFactory Option

There is now an alternative way to create columns using the API. This technique is completely optional but may be nice in some situations, or you may decide this is a more natural way to create tables. Be sure to set the table on the facade after you create the table.

TableFacade tableFacade = TableFacadeFactory.createTableFacade(id, request);
tableFacade.setItems(items);

HtmlComponentFactory factory = new HtmlComponentFactory(tableFacade.getWebContext(), tableFacade.getCoreContext());

HtmlTable table = factory.createTable();

HtmlRow row = factory.createRow();
row.addColumn(factory.createColumn("name.firstName"));
row.addColumn(factory.createColumn("name.lastName"));
row.addColumn(factory.createColumn("term"));

HtmlColumn career = factory.createColumn("career");
career.setFilterable(false);
row.addColumn(career);

table.setRow(row); // be sure to set the row on the table

tableFacade.setTable(table);