The Studio manages a Web application (WebApp) much the way it manages a Windows application. Once a WebApp is created, views may be created and added to it. When added to a WebApp, the appropriate view file is added to the program (via a Use statement) and the menu system is updated to provide access to this view.
If you create a new view using the Web View Wizard, the view will be created and added to your WebApp upon completion. The Web View Wizard allows you to create simple entry views (e.g., Customer Entry, Inventory Entry) or Header/Detail Grid views (e.g. Order Entry). The main form DEOs may be placed directly or within tab pages. The wizard will aid you in sizing and locating each DEO, which provides a great way to gain understanding of the column layout system.
A Web view can also be created from a template and it will also be added to your WebApp and the menu system under Views. The easiest way to move the option to a different menu option is via a combination of Code Explorer and Code Editor – selecting Highlight in Editor and then cutting and pasting to place the highlighted block under the cWebMenuItem object of your choosing.
Views can be manually removed or added from a WebApp using Workspace Explorer. This works exactly the same way for Windows and Web.
Depending on your application style, desktop or mobile/touch, your views must be built for the appropriate style. All of the basics of a view remain the same – you still create DDO structures and connect them to DEO control objects. The view must, however, be customized for the application style. Wizards and templates are available for both desktop and mobile/touch styles.
Lookup Lists are most easily created using the Web Lookup Wizard. This works exactly like the Windows Lookup Wizard. You can quickly create a lookup modal dialog and upon completion your Data Dictionary class will be updated with this information. Web prompt list DD information is stored using the new Field_WebPrompt_Object DD property. It works as you might expect.
Lookup Lists are primarily used with desktop style web applications. With mobile/touch applications, an alternate approach (breadcrumb/drilldown views) is used.
Modal Dialogs may be created using a template. They must then be added manually to your application by “Use”ing the file inside of your cWebApp object. Note that, unlike Windows, this file must be placed inside of the main cWebApp object.
Often modal dialogs need to interact with a view within your application. For example, you may press a button, which invokes the modal dialog passing it information. Upon completion, the dialog is closed and the results are passed back to the application, which processes the results. With WebApps this process is more complicated because this must be done asynchronously via multiple web client and server requests and responses. A specific mechanism is provided for this.
Modal dialogs work well with desktop style web applications; they are not a good fit for mobile/touch applications. With mobile/touch applications, an alternate approach (breadcrumb/drilldown views) is suggested.
See Modal Dialog Processing in Web Applications.
Previous Topic: Web Application Structure and Classes
Next Topic: Confirmations in Web Applications