This document provides an overview of the different element types that can be edited with the Ebase Designer. In the designer tree, these elements are grouped into the following main categories:

· Business Projects

· IT Elements

· Lists

· Presentation

· Workflow

· Integration Server

· System

The following descriptions provide a brief summary of each element type. Click the link against each element for further information.

Business Projects

Project

A project consists of a number of related forms, scripts and messages. Important aspects of projects are:

· scripts and messages within a project can only be referenced by forms in the same project with the exception of GLOBAL scripts

· Designer project is the element that is protected by the security system i.e. if a designer has read/write access to the project, he has read/write access to all the forms, scripts and messages within the project.

Components can be created in the special GLOBAL project. These represent pieces of form functionality that can be shared by all forms. See Component Concepts.

Form

This is the central element within the Ebase system and is the element that is invoked by an end user. A form is made up of pages, controls, fields, tables, texts, events etc. It can contain references to all the other element types depending on the functions performed by the form. See Form Editor.

Script

A script is the Ebase programming element; scripts are written in either an API based language such as Javascript or in FPL (Form Processing Language). Scripts can be executed by the system when the event with which they are associated is triggered. See Event Processing and Server Programming.

Message

A message is a language dependent text, usually an error or warning, that is sent to the user under the control of a script; once displayed, the message disappears. The most common use for messages is for validating user input. See Working with Messages.

IT Elements

Business View

A Business View is a lightweight element and is merely a way of packaging together all the external resources that a form can access. In the Ebase Designer, a form's business view can be specified by clicking the Form Properties icon. (See Working with Business Views for more information).

All external resources share a mapping layer where resource fields are mapped to form fields. See Understanding Integration.

Database resource

Represents a single SQL statement that can be issued to any relational database. Typically reading and writing database data. See Working with Databases.

Stored Procedure Resource

Represents a call to s stored procedure and can be issued to any relational database that supports stored procedures. See Working with Stored Procedures.

XML resource

Provides the ability to read and write XML documents and to map elements from the XML document to form fields and tables. An XML resource includes a number of adapters that provide specific XML functionality:

Read and write documents to/from a URL
Read and write documents to/from a file
Read and write documents to/from a database via a stored procedure
Read and write documents to/from JMS
Invoke an XSL Transform
Copy parts of or whole documents
Log document contents

See Working with XML Resources.

Web Services resource

Provides the ability to call a Web Service and map the request and response documents to form fields and tables. This resource is an extension of an XML resource.

Email resource

Represents a single email message that can be sent. See Working with Email.

Messaging resource

Represents a message that can be read/written to or from an MQSeries message queue. This includes the possibility of waiting for a response message. See Working with MQSeries.

Printing resource

Provides the ability to populate an Adobe Acrobat PDF form with form field data and print via a PDF. Note that printing resources can only be used with existing PDF forms. Ebase provides alternative printing options using print forms. See Working with Printing Resources.

Custom Resource

Provides customers with the ability to write their own external resource to integrate with other external systems. See Working with Custom Resources.

Database Connection

This element is detached from all the other elements. It represents a connection to a database and is used by database resources, stored procedure resources and dynamic lists. The database connection editor within the Ebase Designer contains an import function to automatically configure database resources from the metadata of the database system. See Working with Databases.

Sequences

These provide the ability to provide unique document ids and are typically used when creating new documents. See Working with Sequences.

Lists

Dynamic list

This is very similar to a database resource in that it represents a single read SQL statement. In this case however, the results of the SQL are displayed to the end-user as a list. When the end-user makes a selection from the list, other columns from the database can be automatically read into the form. The main difference between dynamic lists and database resources is that dynamic lists are much simpler to use and require no script programming. See How to use Dynamic Lists.

Static list

This represents a simple list of data which is entirely static or rarely changes. The data values of a static list are entered by the designer using the static list editor. Static lists are less flexible than dynamic lists but are much easier to use. Entries within a static list are language dependent. See How to Use Static Lists.

Presentation

Presentation Templates

A presentation template can be thought of as a “skin”. Each form is linked to a presentation template which provides default links to Style Sheets and default styling properties. See Presentation Templates.

Print Master Pages

Provide master page templates used by print forms.

Web Resources

Style Sheets

Represent the ability to create Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). They are associated with Presentation Templates, Forms, or directly with Pages; the class definitions within the Style Sheets can then be used to style Controls and other visual form elements. See Working with Web Resources, How CSS Style is Applied and the Style Sheet Editor for more information.

Client Scripts

These are client-side (browser) scripts, usually written in JavaScript. Unlike Scripts which are run on the Server, Client Scripts run in a user’s browser. Created in using the Client Script Editor, they can be associated directly with Pages, or indirectly via Presentation Templates and Forms. They can be used to generate a richer client interface than can be achieved with just static pages. See Working with Web Resources for more information.

Workflow

Provides elements used by the Ebase Workflow module. See Introduction to Workflow.

Integration Server

Provides elements used by the Ebase Integration Server module. These provide the ability to create and publish Web Services to be called by external applications. Each Web Service calls an Integration Service which is similar to an Ebase form. See Ebase Integration Server.

System

Provides internal Web Services used internally by the Ebase system.