Version 8.3.4
 —  Development Workplace  —

Elements of the Development Workplace

When you start the development workplace, the following page appears in your browser:

Development workspace

Notes:

  1. The Natural Tools node in the tree on the left is only available when Application Designer is part of a Natural for Ajax installation. These tools are not explained in this Application Designer documentation. For detailed information on how to use the Natural tools, see Application Modernization in the Natural for Ajax documentation.
  2. The Configuration Manager is also only available when Application Designer is part of a Natural for Ajax installation. This tool, however, is explained in this Application Designer documentation. See Customizing Configuration Files in the Configuration documentation for further information.

This document covers the following topics:


Icons at the Top

The following icons are provided at the top of the page:

Icon Description
Icon Displays information about Application Designer.
Icon Starts the monitoring tool.
Icon Closes the navigation frame on the left side of the development workplace.
Icon Reopens the navigation frame on the left side of the development workplace.
Icon Closes all open windows in the development workplace.

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Open Windows

Over time, you may open a lot of windows (for example, for different layouts). A link for each open window is shown at the top of the development workplace. You can switch between these windows by choosing the corresponding link.

Links for open windows

If the number of open windows exceeds the available horizontal space, you can use the following icons at the top right corner to scroll the list of windows to the right or left: Scroll icons.

Start of instruction setTo close a window

Start of instruction setTo close all windows

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Navigation Frame

The navigation frame contains several buttons. When you choose the Tools & Documentation button, a tree is shown from which you can start several tools, invoke documentation or view the license information. Each of these items is then shown in a window which appears in the area to the right of the navigation frame. These items are described in detail in the remainder of this documentation.

Navigation frame

The other buttons in the navigation frame represent projects. The following projects are delivered with Application Designer:

Important:
Do not put your development resources into one of the projects above - create your own project(s) instead. Thus, your resource files will not be touched when you install a new Application Designer build.

Your own projects, which you create using the Project Manager, are also shown as buttons (for example, a project with the name "cisyourfirstproject"; see also First Steps).

When you choose a button which represents a project, you can manage the layouts for this project. For example:

Project

Start of instruction setTo close the navigation frame

Start of instruction setTo reopen the navigation frame

The following commands are available in the navigation frame:

New Layout

A layout is defined using the Layout Painter. See Creating a Layout for detailed information on this command.

Note:
When you create a new layout, it is first shown directly below the Layouts node. When you refresh the view or restart Application Designer, it is automatically sorted according to your preferences (see below).

Refresh View

When you have added a layout directly in the file system or in a second browser window, you can refresh the view so that the latest changes to the current project are shown in the navigation frame.

Start of instruction setTo refresh the view

  1. In the navigation frame, choose the button for the project that you want to refresh.

  2. Choose the Refresh View command in the navigation frame.

Preferences

For each project, you can define that the layouts in the Layouts node are grouped into folders.

Start of instruction setTo set the preferences for a project

  1. In the navigation frame, choose the button for the project that you want to refresh.

  2. Choose the Preferences command in the navigation frame.

    The following dialog appears.

    Preferences

  3. Select one of the following options:

    Group layouts to packages

    The layouts are grouped into folders, according to the specified separator character.

    For example, when you define an underscore (_) as the separator character, all layouts starting with "My_ " are sorted into a folder with the name "My", and all layouts starting with "xyz_" are sorted into another folder with the name "xyz".

    When the name of a layout does not contain the specified character and the layout can therefore not be sorted into a special folder, this layout is sorted into a folder with the name "(default package)".

    Group layouts in alphabetical order

    The layouts are sorted into folders where each folder contains a maximum of 25 layouts.

    For example, you have 30 layouts and the name of the first layout in the alphabetically sorted list is "helloworld". In this case, the folder receives the name of the first layout ("helloworld") and the first 25 layouts are sorted into this folder. The next folder receives the name of your 26th layout and the remaining layouts are sorted into this folder.

    Do not group

    The layouts are not grouped into folders. They are shown as a flat list directly below the Layouts node.

  4. Choose the Save and Apply button.

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Content Frame

The content frame is the area to the right of the navigation frame. It displays information for the entry you have chosen in the navigation frame. For example, when you choose Project Manager in the navigation frame, a window pertaining to the Project Manager is shown in the content frame. Or, when you choose Java API in the navigation frame, a window containing the Java API documentation is shown in the content frame.

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