Blog: Posts from July, 2012

Blog

Posts from July, 2012

Tuesday, July 3, 2012Print Subscribe

Pages are the building blocks of the application, and host instances of data controllers (Data Views) and custom user controls (Controls).

Page Properties:

Property	Description
About This Page	Defines the text displayed in the “About This Page” box on the page itself.
Custom Style	Specifies an optional list of space-separated custom CSS classes to be applied to the page.
Description	Specifies the tooltip on the navigation menu.
External Url	Defines an arbitrary uniform resource locater. If specified, then no physical application page is created. Optional.
Index	Specifies the order of the page in the application navigation hierarchy. The order of pages can be changed by using drag and drop in the Project Explorer.
Master Page	Specifies a custom master page.
Name	Specifies the name of the physical page created by the application generator.
Path	Specifies where the page is positioned in the hierarchy. The Path segment can be changed by using drag and drop in the Project Explorer. The page can be excluded from the menu by clearing the Path property.
Roles	Specifies which user roles are permitted to access the page.
Style	Specifies the standard CSS class applied to the page. The standard stylesheets are configured to change the icon displayed in the top left corner of the page.
Title	Specifies the title of the page displayed in the browser title bar or tab.

Learn to work with pages in the Project Designer.

Learn to drag and drop pages in the Project Explorer.

Common tasks:

Task	Description
Extending Pages	Learn to extend generated pages with custom content without losing changes after subsequent code generation.
Configuring Master-Detail Relationships	Learn to configure a master-detail page with multiple levels.
Grouping Data Views in the Same Container	Learn to hide child data views when the master data view becomes invisible.
Custom Master Page	Learn how to replace the standard master page with a custom master page.
Creating a Form Template	Learn to add custom templates to pages to affect rendering of form views.
Creating a Grid Template	Learn to add custom templates to pages to affect rendering of grid views.

Labels: Designer, Web Application Generator

Monday, July 2, 2012Print Subscribe

Working with Pages in Designer

Pages are basic building blocks of any web application. Pages host instances of data controllers called Data Views. Pages can also host instances of custom user controls called Controls. The real estate of pages is broken down in containers. Data views and controls are placed in containers. Pages are accessible via the application navigation system. System pages are not included in the navigation system, but can still be accessed via the URL directly.

Developers can browse the list of application pages.

Pages can be located by entering the name of the page in the configuration navigator.

Clicking on the name of a page in the grid view will navigate to the edit form of the page. You can also use context menu option “Edit”.

The Sync context menu option will select the page node in the Project Explorer.

The pages are organized in the navigation menu and site map according to the Index and Path. They can be reordered using drag and drop operations in the Project Explorer.

Labels: Designer, Web Application Generator

Sunday, July 1, 2012Print Subscribe

Working with Commands

Commands provide a dictionary of SQL expressions matched to the field names of the parent data controller. The application framework uses the “from” section of the command to figure the name of the base table and joined tables, if applicable.

Here is an example of command1 from Employees data controller:

select
    "Employees"."EmployeeID" "EmployeeID"
    ,"Employees"."LastName" "LastName"
    ,"Employees"."FirstName" "FirstName"
    ,"Employees"."Title" "Title"
    ,"Employees"."TitleOfCourtesy" "TitleOfCourtesy"
    ,"Employees"."BirthDate" "BirthDate"
    ,"Employees"."HireDate" "HireDate"
    ,"Employees"."Address" "Address"
    ,"Employees"."City" "City"
    ,"Employees"."Region" "Region"
    ,"Employees"."PostalCode" "PostalCode"
    ,"Employees"."Country" "Country"
    ,"Employees"."HomePhone" "HomePhone"
    ,"Employees"."Extension" "Extension"
    ,"Employees"."Photo" "Photo"
    ,"Employees"."Notes" "Notes"
    ,"Employees"."ReportsTo" "ReportsTo"
    ,"ReportsTo"."LastName" "ReportsToLastName"
    ,"Employees"."PhotoPath" "PhotoPath"
from "dbo"."Employees" "Employees"
    left join "dbo"."Employees" "ReportsTo" on 
        "Employees"."ReportsTo" = "ReportsTo"."EmployeeID"

Creating a Command

New commands can be created by using the context menu option “New Command” on the Commands node. The New Command icon on the toolbar can also be used.

Moving Commands

Commands can be moved by dragging and dropping onto a controller, Commands node, or on another command. The context menu options Cut/Copy and Paste will also work.

When a command is removed from a controller, any references to the command will be cleared. The views will need to be reconfigured with a replacement command.

Deleting a Command

Commands can be deleted using the context menu “Delete” action. The Delete keyboard shortcut will serve the same purpose. Any views that refer to the command will have their CommandId property cleared.

Renaming a Command

Use the context menu “Rename” option to rename the command. Pressing F2 will also rename the command. Any views of the data controller will reference the new name.

Resetting a Command

Commands are recreated by the web application generator every time the baseline is refreshed. If the developer modifies the command, automatic recreation will no longer occur, and the developer must update the command by hand.

The “Reset to Baseline” context menu option will restore the command to baseline state.

Labels: Designer, Web Application Generator