Blog: Posts from July, 2012

Tuesday, July 3, 2012Print Subscribe

Web applications may need to integrate with external websites. An application navigation menu option pointing to an external URL will be created if a page has its External Url property set to the URL of the resource. Application generator will not create a physical application page when External Url property is not blank.

Start the Project Designer. On the Project Explorer toolbar, click the New Page icon.

Give this page the following settings:

Property	Value
Name	CodeOnTime
Index	1005
External Url	http://codeontime.com/
Path	Code On Time
Title	Code On Time

Press OK to save the page. On the toolbar, press Browse.

The new page will show up in the navigation menu and site map.

Clicking on the link will navigate to the External Url specified previously.

Go back to the Project Designer. Drag the Code On Time page node onto Customers page node.

Right-click on Customers / Code On Time page node, and select New Child Page.

Proceed to create three child pages with the following properties:

Name	Title	External Url
Download	Download	http://codeontime.com/download
Learn	Learn	http://codeontime.com/learn
Buy	Buy	http://codeontime.com/buy

The Project Explorer page configuration hierarchy should look like the picture below:

Exit the Designer, select Settings option, and select Layouts. Change the menu presentation style to Advanced Two-Level.

Press Finish, and then generate the web application.

Mouse over the Customers menu option. The advanced menu will open with the CodeOnTime and all child menu options visible.

If you want the links to open in a new browser window, then change the External Url to start with “_blank:”.

Name	External Url
Download	_blank:http://codeontime.com/download
Learn	_blank:http://codeontime.com/learn
Buy	_blank:http://codeontime.com/buy

Labels: Designer, Web Application Generator

Tuesday, July 3, 2012Print Subscribe

Overview of Pages

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