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Re: [Springframework-rcp-dev] Am I getting the idea?
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From: Andy D. <an...@ma...> - 2004-05-19 19:07:13
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Thank you for your quick response! I saw ComponentFactory, which caused me to realize I'm probably approaching this from the wrong angle. I can't get the idea out of my head that what I want to do is code only functionality in Java code (in other words, code only ActionHandlers and any custom GUI components), but avoid writing a drop of glue code (Pages, Views, Wizards, etc). Instead, I want to glue things together using IoC: create components, configure them, assemble them into views, pages, dialogs, wizards, etc, into a final Application. Maybe this is where my encounter with SwiXML could come in: define views (or pages?) using some form of XUL, and configure the components used into those views/pages using IoC (Spring). It seems like an intruguing idea that rich client pages could be loaded from a server in much the same way that HTML pages are loaded from a server (though this could be optional, of course... just include the XUL and Spring XML in a .jar instead). Say you have an object in your GUI that brings up a menu when right-clicked, and one of those menu actions pulls up a dialog for editing the object... if there was the option to have that dialog page served up XUL style, then I could customize that page dynamically on the server-side - thus keeping more of the code on the server side and making the client a little bit thinner. Someone in the manager role might get a different page than someone in the ceo role, for example. Another way to say it: what I want to do is code only application building blocks in Java (actions, components, etc), and then dynamically construct those building blocks into a final application at run time. This way, I could dynamically generate XML from my server that defines the application at run time. This would create a slightly thinner rich client. - Andy On Wednesday 19 May 2004 11:24 am, Keith Donald wrote: > Yes, documentation is lacking. That will be improving as the design of the > undocumented features stabalize, and certainly before we release anything. > > Nice description btw, here are my observations: > > - Yes there is a single "Application" per rcp-app. The application has > associated with it a default perspective, where a perspective provides a > configuration 'template' for a application page. (Note: the application, > however, can have multiple perspectives defined. Each perspective, when > opened, is displayed on a single page within an application window. There > can be multiple application windows per application, each with it's own > menubar/toolbar/statusbar and page area.) > > - When the application launcher initializes the application, the main > window definition is retrieved from the context. The window is then > configured - this is where the *.contribution stuff comes in -- consisting > of its menubars, toolbars, page, and status line. The *.contribution stuff > provides factories (higher-level abstraction) for producing menu items, > tool bar buttons, and status line items, for example. Group markers, as > you mentioned, allow you to create logical groups of contribution items, so > custom views can contribute their own actions to those groups when they are > activated. > > - You are entirely correct about the View behaivior. When a view is > activated, it is handed a context which provides information about the > window it's displayed on and allows for the view to register local action > handlers with global actions. This keeps, for example, the "Delete" action > invoking the right code based on the active view - assuming two different > views both support "Delete" and they do different things... > > Check out ComponentFactory for creating controls. I will forward some > samples to the list this weekend (unfortunately I can't right now as I need > to remove some stuff first.) > > Keith > > -----Original Message----- > From: spr...@li... > [mailto:spr...@li...] On Behalf Of > Andy Depue > Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 1:52 PM > To: spr...@li... > Subject: [Springframework-rcp-dev] Am I getting the idea? > > > With Spring RCP being so new, it appears the only documentation is the > source. :-) So, after reading the source, let me see if I'm getting the > idea > (btw, I don't have any experience with Eclipse, so any concepts spring-rcp > borrows from Eclipse I've learned only through spring-rcp source). If I'm > getting this wrong, please let me know. > > An Application consists of one or more windows (ApplicationWindow), managed > by > WindowManager. An application has at least one window (a main window). A > Window displays a single page (ApplicationPage) at a time. A page contains > a > View registry. This means a Page can contain multiple Views. So, if my > application's main window consists of a single Page (which is really the > only > option, right?), then I can swap out the contents of the main window by > swapping pages? I'm guessing an example of this would be "workbenches" in > the IDE world? For example, if I am in Edit mode, then I have several > views > > open on my page: maybe a folder view, an edit view, and an output view. In > Debug mode, I have a "watches" view, breakpoint view, source code view, > stack > view, etc. With this understanding, I'm having trouble figuring out where > the Perspective class fits in, as it seems to be a one-to-one > relationshipship with a View (though it is by the view's ID and not a > reference to a View itself). > OK. On to Actions. In rcp, you have VisualActions and ActionHandlers. A > VisualAction defines only the visual representation and keyboard access > (menu > item, toolbar item, icon, text, mnemonic, accelerator, etc). The actual > functionality of the action is provided separately in an ActionHandler. > Actions are registered in a global ActionRegistry, and ActionHandlers are > register7ed with views (via the ViewContext). Well, I guess it is also > possible to associate an ActionHandler directly with an Action (for those > actions that are not view dependent). So, when a View becomes active, > spring-rcp will query the view against every registered global Action to > see > > if that View provides an ActionHandler for the Action. This means that the > functionality of a particular Action can be dynamically implemented > per-view > > (kinda cool, actually). It looks like for this to work, your Actions must > also implement TargetableVisualAction (which is implemented by > DefaultVisualAction). > The org.springframework.rcp.action.contribution package seems to be all > about > building menus and toolbars. I'm not sure I have this right, since I > haven't > played around with it. Since an Application can present the user with > multiple ways to do actions (menus, toolbars, pop up menus. etc), > spring-rcp > > provides an abstraction that allows you to group such actions logically and > automatically represent that group as any of these more concrete > implementations. So, a ContributionItem is an abstraction on top of a menu > item, toolbar button, etc and a ContributionItemManager is an abstraction > on > > top of a menu bar, toolbar set, etc. ContributionItemManager allows you to > group ContributionItems (via group id) - each group becoming a different > menu > along a menubar, or a different toolbar in a toolbar set(?) I'm not too > sure > about this actually. ContributionItem seems similar in many ways to an > Action... but I guess it needs to be different because some menu items > (such > > as seperators) are not actions? In fact, ActionContributionItem seems to > be > > no more than a wrapper (adapter) that makes an Action look like a > ContributionItem. A ContributionItem can create menu items and toolbar > controls just like an Action can. > Some questions on my exploration of the source so far: > What is the preferred way for creating/configuring controls from > spring-rcp? I don't see a common Page interface... it looks like dialogs > get their own idea of what a page is and windows get another. Is this > intentional? > > Well, that's about all the further I've gotten so far. > BTW, if anyone has any example configuration files used with spring-rcp, > I'd > > love to see them. > > Thanks, > Andy > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by: SourceForge.net Broadband Sign-up now > for SourceForge Broadband and get the fastest 6.0/768 connection for only > $19.95/mo for the first 3 months! > http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=2562&alloc_id=6184&op=click > _______________________________________________ > Springframework-rcp-dev mailing list > Spr...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/springframework-rcp-dev > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by: SourceForge.net Broadband > Sign-up now for SourceForge Broadband and get the fastest > 6.0/768 connection for only $19.95/mo for the first 3 months! > http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id%62&alloc_ida84&op=Click > _______________________________________________ > Springframework-rcp-dev mailing list > Spr...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/springframework-rcp-dev |
