Elektron User Manual
Contents
1. 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 252. Configuring Elektron Adding Components Elektron as a system is reasonably open It is possible to add an Amber component you have written to Elektron simply by creating a text file for the new component and placing it in the appropriate directory The Component Properties Files amp What They Do Each component that appears in the Elektron toolbar has a corresponding properties file in the Elektron configuration directory A properties file is simply atext file with the properties extension Each properties file contains information about e The component s name and location on the toolbar e Which java classes implement the new component e Which properties are supported by the Component Properties Editor window in GUI designer view Writing the New Component Details on writing and testing new Amber components may be found in the Amber Development Guide When a new component has been written and is ready to be added to Elektron you must ensure the component s class files are on the Amber Server machine in a directory that is part of the Amber Server s classpath Creating the properties File The properties file must be saved in the lt Amber Server Root gt config elektron component directory Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 17 The convention for the name of the properties file is lt package name gt lt classname gt properties for example amber server component
3. 72 24 Amber component properties set in the defineComponents method Any Amber components that have simple properties set will be recognised by Elektron A simple property is defined as having a single parameters which can be an integer a string or a Boolean For example btnOk setLabel Ok Any more complex properties will be ignored Any other statements or comments in the file will be retained by Elektron but ignored If a java file is loaded and is not recognised as a valid Amber class it will be treated as a plain text file Hence it can be edited normally but visual Amber components cannot be manipulated Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 16 How Generating Works When an Amber file is loaded into Elektron a list of the Amber components and their properties is built up and stored intemally Elektron actually maintains three separate lists 1 The Amber component declarations 2 The Amber component adds in defineComponents method 3 The Amber component properties set in defineComponents method Whenever an Amber component is added moved deleted or a property changed the visual representation of the component is changed and also the appropriate list in memory is altered and the line or lines of source code are regenerated and redisplayed Lines of code that are regenerated will replace the old lines of code so that when the file is saved it will reflect the changes correctly
4. Page 20 What N t To DO neee aa Page 20 TAG enabelen Page 24 Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 2 Introduction Audience The Elektron Users guide is intended to give experienced Java developers an introduction to the Elektron Integrated Development Environment This guide assumes that the reader has a detailed knowledge of programming in Java 1 1 or later The Elektron Users Guide is to be read in conjunction with the Amber Development Guide and the Amber API Documentation however a basic understanding of Amber would be useful prior to reading this guide in order to get the most out of it Where appropriate this manual provides references to the relevant sections of these other documents Overview of Elektron Elektron is a basic Integrated Development Environment IDE to assist Amber developers in producing Amber applications more easily than they could otherwise Elektron is itself an Amber application and as such runs from an Amber Server is hosted on a web server and runs in a browser window What Elektron Is Features e Provides a means to create PanelHandlers FrameHandlers and ApplicationHandlers Creating these particular classes by hand is a time consuming process which Elektron simplifies e Provides an environment where the developer can graphically design the layout of a Panel or Frame by dragging and dropping Amber components on it Elektron generates all the code for i
5. to generate a new file Elektron loads a file from the disk of the server machine and uses that file as the basis for your work There are 6 template files found in the directory lt AmberServerRoot gt config elektron template You may alter the templates to your own liking The templates that ship with Elektron are very generic and have only very simple javadoc and don t implement some of the interfaces you might ordinarily need If you modify the template you must not change the name of the file This means that it is only currently possible to have one template of each type What Not To Do Templates must contain well formed parsable java code Do not remove any of the methods found in the default templates as Amber requires them The Menus Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 20 File Edit New Create a new file This option will prompt you for the file type Open Open an existing file from the Amber Server s directory system Save Save the current file to the Amber Server s directory system Save As Save the current file to the Amber Server s directory system with a new name Exit Close Elektron Find Look for text in the current code window You may specify search text and options for the search in the Find dialog that appears Searches always start from the current cursor position Replace Look for text in the current code window and replace it with sp
6. BasePanel to read public class HelloWorldPanelHandler extends BasePanel implements ActionListener 3 Inside the defineComponents function near the bottom add the line btnGo addActionListener this 4 Add the function public void actionPerformed ActionEvent e try lblHelloMessage setText Hello txtMyName getText Welcome to Elektron catch ComponentException ex problem occurred ex printStackTrace And now we have a live button Of course we are not checking for a null return from the text box or checking that the actionPerformed call came from the right source but this sort of functionality is implemented in the standard java fashion so can be added if you like Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 11 Saving the File Choose File Save Under the usr sre directory you must create a directory corresponding to your package name tutorial and save the file in there As per standard java conventions the filename must be the same as the class name 4 Create an ApplicationHandler Tying Panels and Frames together into an Application Select the File New menu item or New on the Project Manager window Select ApplicationHandler from the dialog that appears You will be presented with a code and GUI designer window similar to the one you used to lay out HelloWorldP anelHandler java An ApplicationHandler represents the overa
7. ButtonHandler properties The following is an example of a properties file name Button className amber server component ButtonHandler image button gif category Amber defaultCaption label property name String property x int property y int property width int 75 property height int 24 property label String The block of text at the top of the file tells Elektron what it needs to know about the component in order to correctly display it on it s toolbar and instantiate it in the GUI designer The recognised parameters are name The plain English name of the component This is the name which is used when automatically generating identifiers for new components and it also appears when you mouse over a component button on the toolbar className The name of the server side java class that implements the component For information on writing these classes please see the Amber Development Guide image The gif file that appears on the component s button in the toolbar palette The gif file should be 26x24 pixels and saved in the lt web server root gt amber elektron images directory Specifying an image that does not exist will result in a blank button on the toolbar palette category The toolbar palette is arranged into tabs The category property tells Elektron which tab this new component is to appear upon If you specify the name of a tab that does not exist a new tab will be creat
8. Elektron User Manual Elektron Codebase Version 1 4 0 Amber Copyright 1998 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd Elektron Copyright 2000 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd Table of Contents Tabl e of Contents eens erneer dent eee dere dea den Page 2 Ww J t RUM eoa sensed aen eneen Page Audience arne AR Page Overview of Elektron essssseesssseesseseesseseessssreesssrreessrrersseretssssreeessrresssees Page What Elektron US ae 2ccay saceccnioasaciceassasscnnaetensnssaaainosatuteanecsacseniatiowe Page Features aneian aeaa EEOAE EERE RR Page Windows eeen nerede eben ekeren hbe Page DE 80 oe fF 53 gq o a 5 5 OQ o B o a T oos 5 a oO a g ro jo O oo lar lar oa Lo uo uo az oo Overview of the GUI Designer nanne erneer Page 9 Giving the File a Visual Layout in the GUI Designer Page 10 Editing the Code by Hald nsinseerssaararseenkedatenen Page 11 Saving the File aceccpaadsscaninsanceneacandecacnntenssnceneauarauncesnsnteces Page 12 Tying Panels and Frames together into an Application Compiling a Single File iiss ececesnciacwapsctduvpsdaatisotausennines Page 15 Compiling All Files in the Project ce eeeeeeeeeeteeeeee Page 15 The Component Properties Files amp What They Do Page 17 Writing the New Component annae erneer eeen Page 17 Creating the properties File cicsssisiscaassineanigpnncvaasvasenine Page 17 Where They Are and What They Do ee eeeeeeeeeteeee
9. e New Open Save Compile warning Applet Window The toolbar showing some of the components it is possible to add to the GUI designer The GUI designer understands the following hotkeys Del Delete selected components Ctrl A Select all components Ctrl Left Move the selected component s to the left by the number of pixels specified in the Grid Size If snap to grid is off moves one pixel Ctrl Right Works similarly to Ctrl left except moves selected components right Ctrl Up Works similarly to Ctrl left except Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 9 moves selected components up Ctrl Down Works similarly to Ctrl left except moves selected components down L Align selected components left same as Edit Align Left R Align selected components right Edit Align Right T Align selected components top Edit Align Top B Align selected components bottom Edit Align Bottom There are several useful alignment and sizing options that can be found under the Edit menu Likewise options to set the grid size may be found here The properties of a selected component can be modified using the Component Properties Editor which appears to the left of the GUI designer If you flip back to the Code view you will see that the appropriate code has been automatically generated to add components set their position and set their proper
10. e file in the Project Manager window and click on the properties window The File Properties dialog will appear Use this dialog to change the class name and package of the file in the class definition and constructors If you click OK and look at the code listing for your new panel on the right hand side you will see that the package name class name and constructors have been updated in the code Of course these same changes can be made by hand but this way is easier Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 8 Set the File Properties as shown below Edit File Properties E of x File Type Panelander File Class HeloworidPanelHander File Package tutorial File Name src UntiledPanelHanderl java File Info Ok Cancel Warning Applet Window 3 Lay Out Components on the Panel or Frame Overview of the GUI Designer Locate the code window for this PanelH andler Click on the Design Tab This brings up the GUI Designer view for the panel This GUI Designer works similarly to other GUI layout tools in most IDEs Using it is a case of selecting the component you want on the toolbar and clicking on the GUI designer at the location you want to add it Once components have been dropped on the GUI designer panel they can be dragged resized and deleted Elektron Development Environment 10 x File Edit View Project Tools Help En oy Amber Panels amp Frames B B E ar SSO Hr e
11. e the Amber Server is running You can do this by trying out the Amber Samples If there is a problem please consult the troubleshooting section in the Amber Installation Guide 1 Point your web browser to the URL http lt amber server hostname gt amber elektron elektron html Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 5 Where the lt amber server hostname is the hostname or IP address of the box the Amber Server is running on You should see your web browser loading class files and Elektron should start If not please consult the troubleshooting section in the Amber Installation Guide Creating a New Project The First Step Before you do any work in Elektron first create a project Use the Project New Project menu item to do this This creates a new empty project temporarily named UntitledProject epf Once you have a project it can be used as a container to group related files together Projects can be loaded saved closed browsed the files in them may be edited and any java files a project contains can be compiled If necessary this project s properties can be configured through the Project Properties View Project Properties Adding a New File to the Project The Second Step There are two ways of getting a file into a project When you are first starting out you will want to create a new file Choose the New button from the toolbar or Project window or the File New me
12. ecified text You may specify search text replace text and options for the search in the Replace dialog that appears Searches always start from the current cursor position Find or Replace Next Repeats the last find or replace operation you performed on this code window The search always starts from the current cursor position Align Left When multiple components are selected moves all selected components so that their left edge aligns with the leftmost component s edge Align Right Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 21 When multiple components are selected moves all selected components so that their right edge aligns with the rightmost component s edge Center Horizontally Centers all selected components between the leftmost and rightmost edges of the selected components Space Equally Horizontally Makes sure the horizontal spacing between all components is the same Will not move the leftmost and rightmost components Align Top When multiple components are selected moves all selected components so that their top edge aligns with the topmost component s edge Align Bottom When multiple components are selected moves all selected components so that their bottom edge aligns with the bottommost component s edge Center Vertically Centers all selected components between the topmost and bottommost edges of the selected components Space Equally Vertically Makes sure the ve
13. ed defaultCaption When creating a component in the GUI designer it may be appropriate for some components to default one of their properties to be the same as their name For instance labels are created with their label property set to be the same as their name the end result being that any new label created in Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 18 the GUI designer has appears on screen as label 1 label2 etc If you wish to use this facility for your new components set the defaultCaption to be the name of the property you wish to default to the component s name This property is optional appliesToPanels Set this property to true if you wish to allow an Elektron user to instantiate your new component on a Panel or Frame Handler The property is optional By default all components are allowed to be instantiated on a Panel or Frame Handler appliesToApplication Set this property to true if you wish to allow an Elektron s user to instantiate your new component on an Application Handler The property is optional By default a component is not allowed to be instantiated on an ApplicationHandler The remainder of the properties file describes the properties of the component that are recognised by the Component Properties Editor in the GUI Designer view These descriptors are of the form property lt propertyname gt lt datatype gt lt defa
14. en browsing for a file within Elektron the system will not allow you any higher than the usr directory This is to limit the possibility of accidental damage to the other files on the server Loading Saving amp Proper Directory Management on the Server When loading and saving files Elektron does not attempt to automatically create a directory structure based on the java package For instance when saving a java class that lives in the package com mycompany mypackage You must manually create the directories com com mycompany and com mycompany mypackage before saving the file in the right place The file selection dialog box provides a function to allow you to easily create directories Remember that even if your operating system doesn t care about case sensitivity with regard to directory names java does care and you must create the directories with the proper case Creating a Simple Application This section steps through the process of creating a basic Amber application in Elektron This tutorial will demonstrate all the basic components of the Elektron system Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 7 The example application presented here will ask for your name and display it back to you with a message It will be a fully fledged Amber application running in a Web Browser The Order in Which to Do Things For the purposes of this tutorial we will create a panel first lay out i
15. ll Amber application ApplicationHandlers are if you like the entry point of an Amber application In effect they are principally code modules to contain PanelHandlers and FrameHandlers Detailed information about ApplicationHandlers may be found in the Amber Development Guide Using the File Properties dialog box make the following alterations Package tutorial ClassName HelloWorldApplicationHandler 5 Add the New Panels to the Application Handler 1 In GUI Designer mode drop a GenericPanel from the Panels amp Frames tab onto the design area 2 Size the object to be large enough to hold the entire panel 3 Flip back to code view 4 Alter all occurrences of GenericPanel in the source to HelloWorldPanelHandler 5 Save the file 6 Create the HTML to Run Your Application from Within a Web Browser Select the File New menu item or New on the Project Manager window Select HTML file from the dialog that appears You will be presented with a code window similar to the one you used for the panel and application handlers but there will be no Design tab as the HTML is treated as a plain text file The HTML file is the file that the web browser will load when you wish to run your Amber application It will invoke a special Amber applet that will communicate with Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 12 the Amber Server and hence start off the process that will instan
16. machine the machine running the web browser e Port 80 HTTP HTTP is used to load the web page that launches the Elektron system HTTP is also used to access some other sundry files such as images and the API help Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 4 e Port 21384 AATP Amber Application Transfer Protocol AATP is the protocol utilised by Amber to communicate between the client and server If this port is not open the client will not be able to connect to the server and Amber will fail to run Browser Versions Elektron has been successfully tested on Windows e Netscape Version 4 7 or later including Mozilla e Internet Explorer 4 1 SR 1 or later Macintosh e Internet Explorer Version 4 5 or later Amber requires a 1 1 or later Java Virtual Machine so other browsers which provide this should run succes sfully What You Need Installed on the Server If You Want To Compile Elektron utilises a command line compiler If you would like to use the compilation features of Elektron you must have a command line java compiler such as javac installed and accessible to the Amber Server The Amber development team recommends javac 1 2 or later Before compilation can proceed you will need to configure the project s compiler command line and associated options in the Project Properties window The compile feature is optional Getting Started Firing up Elektron in Your Browser Ensur
17. nstantiating the designed panel or frame while leaving intact any other code that may already be in the file e Provides a code editor to allow developers to directly modify the code When code is modified that affects component layout these modifications are then reflected in the GUI designer view Naturally it is possible to edit non Amber java files and ordinary text files from within Elektron as well e Elektron allows you to compile your project with the command line java compiler of your choice The compiler options are fully configurable e Provides a project view of your files so that they can be grouped and compiled together Because Elektron is an Amber application the windows you see in the web browser only act as a client side display for the actual Elektron program which runs on the Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 3 Amber Server Whenever you develop under Elektron the files you are loading and saving are all located on the machine where the host Amber Server is running This may not necessarily be your local machine What Elektron Is Not Elektron is not the solution to all the world s problems As mentioned before it is only intended to be an aid to Amber development not a fully functional IDE You will find Elektron very useful in developing the Amber specific parts of your code such as PanelHandlers but we suggest you use a more fully featured IDE or text edi
18. nu item This brings up a dialog box offering you a range of file types you can create in Elektron Choose one and press OK You will generally want to create a PanelHandler or a FrameHandler For descriptions of all the different file types see the Amber Development Guide If you already have a file you wish to add you may choose the Add File button from the Project Manager window or the Project Add a File to this Project menu item This will allow you to browse to a file you have previously saved and add it to the project Remember that all files Elektron allows you to browse to are on the server machine not the client Once you have created or added a file it will be able to be viewed in a separate window ready for editing Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 6 The Process of Creating an Amber Application in Elektron Basic Project amp Directory Management Where Your Source Lives The usr src and usr classes Directories On the server the installation will have created a usr directory under the Amber Server root All your Elektron files will appear under here and this directory is yours to do with as you please The normal convention is that usr src be used for source code and usr classes be used for compiled classes These are the defaults in the Project Properties but you may create any directories you like under the usr directory and use a different structure if you wish Wh
19. piler can be configured through the Project Properties dialog Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 13 Edit Project Properties ToT Project Filename a work amber_2 usr UntitledProject epf Project Description MyProjectDescription Compiler Commandline javac classpath CLASSPATH d OUTDIR Class Path CLASSPATH d workamber_2 web lt path to classes zip gt Output Class root OUTDIR classes WV Separate compiles for each source file Valid escape codes in compiler commandline are CLASSPATH OUTDIR and SOURCEFILE OUTDIR is relative to your lt AmberRoot gt usr directory OK Cancel Warning Applet Window The option Separate compiles for each source file is a concession to Operating Systems that have a limit on the number of characters in a command line such as Windows 95 With this option enabled each java file in the project will be compiled in a separate invocation of the compiler If this option is disabled the compiler will be called once with all the project s files on the one command line If you are using an OS that supports long command lines like Linux or NT clear this checkbox to increase efficiency Parameters Allowable in the Compiler Command Line Options All these parameters are case sensitive OUTDIR Substitutes the Output Directory set in Project Properties window into the command line CLASSPATH Substitutes the Classpath Director
20. rtical spacing between all components is the same Will not move the topmost and bottommost components Grow to Largest Horizontally Makes all components the same width as the widest component Shrink to Smallest Horizontally Makes all components the same width as the narrowest component Grow to Largest Vertically Makes all components the same height as the highest component Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 22 View Shrink to Smallest Vertically Makes all components the same height as the shortest component Snap To Grid Turns the snap to grid behaviour on and off When it is on all sizing and movement operations on components will be constrained so that they are a multiple of the grid size Grid Size Sets the grid size in pixels Options are 2 4 8 pixels Delete Selected Removes the selected components from the GUI Designer and underlying code view Project Manager Show the project manager window The project manager allows you to add files to a project remove files from a project create new files and change a file s properties Project Properties Show the project properties window Allows you to set up Project wide parameters such as compiler command line and project description File Properties Show the file properties window Allows you to easily change the package and class name of a file Component Properties Show the file properties window while in GUI Designer
21. served Page 15 Appendices The Parse amp Generate Process Do I Really Need to Know This Stuff In an ideal world no However you may find that you try to open an Amber file in Elektron and the file loads but doesn t display the visual components that you expected it to This will be due to the way you ve structured the file so an understanding of what Elektron expects will help you track down the problem How Parsing Works When Elektron loads an Amber file it will look for the following elements l 2 3 7 Package name Can be read and set in the file properties Class name Can be read and set in the file properties Class that this class extends Used to determine the type of Amber file one of PanelHandler FrameHandler ModalFrameHandler or ApplicationHandler Amber components declared as class instance variables An instance variable must be of a class that has been loaded as a component in the Elektron toolbar for it to be recognised as a valid Amber component that Elektron can display These declarations should be of the form private ButtonHandler btnOk new ButtonHandler getParentApplication Amber components added to the class in the defineComponents method Any instance variable that is added to the class inside the defineComponents method will be a candidate for Elektron displaying as a visual component The add statement should be of the form add btnOk new XYConstraints 109 162
22. t s components and then perform the supporting tasks that make it a real running application that is creating the ApplicationHandler and HTML file However Elektron does not force a particular workflow upon you If you are comfortable with ApplicationHandlers and their HTML files it is perfectly fine to do things in a different order than the one presented in this tutorial For the purpose of this tutorial the steps we will follow are 2 Create an empty Project 3 Create a panel or frame within the project 4 Lay out components on the Panel or Frame 5 Create an ApplicationHandler 6 Add the new panel to the ApplicationHandler 7 Create the HTML file to invoke the ApplicationHandler from a browser 8 Compiling your Code from within Elektron 9 Configure the Amber Server to know about the application 10 Test the application in a browser 1 Create an Empty Project We assume you are starting this with a new empty project See the Getting Started section for information on how to create a new project 2 Creating a Panel Creating the PanelHandler The PanelHandler is a container that holds the Amber visual components A more detailed description of it s role is contained in the Amber Programmer s Guide Choose File New from the menu or the New button from the Project Manager window Select new PanelHandler from the dialog that appears Setting the Initial Properties with the File Properties Window Select th
23. tiate the application you have just created above An example HTML file will look like this lt HTML gt lt HEAD gt lt META HTTP EQUIV Content Type CONTENT text html charset iso 8859 1 gt lt TITLE gt Untitled Elektron Project lt TITLE gt lt HEAD gt lt BODY gt lt H1 gt Welcome to the Untitled Elektron Project lt H1 gt lt APPLET CODE amber client RPanel class NAME UntitledComponent WIDTH 100 HEIGHT 100 HS PACE 0 VSPACE 0 ALIGN middle gt lt PARAM NAME ID VALUE 0 gt lt PARAM NAME SERVER VALUE 127 0 0 1 gt lt PARAM NAME PAGEID VALUE put your numeric ID in here gt lt APPLET gt lt HR gt lt BODY gt lt HTML gt The things you need to change are 1 Change the lt TITLE gt and lt H1 gt text to Hello World Change the SERVER PARAM to the name or IP address of the server you are running your web server on 3 Change the PAGEID PARAM to the numeric ID that you have chosen to identify this Amber Application The Amber Server will lookup this ID in it s database when it is asked to instantiate your application Refer to the Amber Development Guide for more detail 7 Compiling your Code from Within Elektron Configuring Your Project Before You Compile Compilation in Elektron works through an external compiler typically Sun s javac The command to execute to run the command line com
24. ties Giving the File a Visual Layout in the GUI Designer Design the following screen by clicking and dropping new components onto the GUI designer and then changing their appropriate properties src UntitledPanelHandler1 java zolz Edit Design My Name Go Hello message will appear here Warning Applet Window The components on this screen are as follows Name Type Set Properties to IblMyName LabelHandler Text property to My Name txtMyName TextFieldHandler Text property to an empty string btnGo ButtonHandler Caption to Go IblHelloM essage LabelHandler Text to Hello message will appear here Remember to bring up the component properties window if it s not currently visible is to use View Component Properties Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 10 Editing the Code by Hand Use the GUI Designer tab to flip back to the Code view You may alter any of the code generated while you were in edit mode and when you return back to GUI design mode the changes you have made will take effect Using the code view you may add any functionality you like For the purposes of this tutorial we will enable the Go button and cause it to update the Hello Message label with a friendly message To enable the button 1 Add the line import java awt event 2 Alter the line public class HelloWorldPanelHandler extends
25. tor for the rest of your development It is quite common to use Elektron to build up a skeleton of your application with all the panels in place and with components arranged before switching to another IDE to complete the development cycle If you find you need to move components around or add new ones you can always load the panel or frame back into Elektron and it will parse the files without difficulty unless you have introduced syntax errors You can then save this modified file and continue to work on it outside Elektron Also Elektron is not a multi user development environment If multiple developers are working on a project in Elektron it is suggested that each user has a local copy of the Amber Server which they develop against The glue which holds the developers together should be a Source Code Control system like Microsoft Visual SourceSafe or RCS System Requirements Amber Prerequisites The Amber Server provided with Elektron must be installed and running The machine on which Elektron is to be used must be able to browse to the web server on the Amber Server machine See the Installation Guide for instructions on installing and starting the Amber Server Amber Database and Web Server You should verify Amber is installed and running correctly by trying out the Amber Samples provided with Amber Ports If you are using a firewall the following ports must be open between the Amber Server machine and the client
26. ultvalue gt For example adding the line property label String tells Elektron that there is a property called label that is to appear in the Component Properties Editor window The label property takes a String Whereas the line property width int 75 tells Elektron that there is a property called width that is to appear in the Component Properties Editor window The width property is set with an int and has a default value of 75 You should always include property descriptors for the name x y width and height properties Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 19 In order for the Component Properties Editor window to work successfully with the properties you specify your implementation of the component must meet the following conditions 1 The datatype must be one of int String or boolean 2 You must implement a public method in the java code called getX and one called setX where X is the name of the property you specify in the properties file The setX must take one parameter with a datatype matching the one in the properties file and the getX must take no parameters but return a value of the specified datatype For instance for the line property caption String Your java must implement two calls public void setCaption String newCaption public String getCaption Modifying the Template Files Where They Are and What They Do Whenever you use Elektron
27. view Allows you to modify the individual properties of components Messages Shows the message window The message window displays output from the parse and compile processes Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 23 Project Help New Project Create a new project with the name UntitledProject 1 epr Open Project Open an existing project stored on the Amber Server s file system Save Project Save the current project onto the Amber Server s file system Save Project As Save the current project with a new name onto the Amber Server s file system Close Project Closes the current project allowing you to open another one Add File to Project Allows you to choose a file from the Amber Server s file system for inclusion in the project Remove File From Project Remove the selected file from the project Edit File In Project Open the selected file in a code editor window Show Properties of File In Project Open the File Properties dialog The same as View File Properties Contents Opens a new browser window which will display Elektron and Amber specific help Java Version Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 24 Runs the java version command to establish the version of java you are currently running About Displays the Elektron about box The about box contains the version number of the software Copyright
28. y set in Project Properties window into the command line Note that you will need to include the standard java class files and your own Amber class files in this path SOURC EFILE Substitutes the fully qualified name of the java source file This is optional if Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights reserved Page 14 there is no SOURCEFILE specified it is appended to the end of the command line Compiling a Single File Select the file you wish to compile in the Project Manager dialog by clicking on it and making sure it is highlighted Click the compile button on the Toolbar or choose the Project Compile File menu item Output from the compiler will appear in the Messages Window which will pop up after a few seconds when the compile has completed Compiling All Files in the Project Select Project Compile All Files menu item 8 Configure the Amber Server to Know About the Application 1 Add the new Amber application to the Amber database 2 Restart the Amber Server Please refer to the Amber Development guide for instructions on how to do this 9 Test the Application in a Browser 1 Ensure the HTML file you have generated is accessible by the web server You may need to copy the HTML file into your web root 2 Browse to the HTML file with your browser 3 Ifall is OK your application should kick into life Copyright 2001 2002 Clearfield Research Ltd All rights re
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search