Working with Components

Creating a component

A new component can be created from the Ebase Designer file menu (File -> New -> Component) which displays the following dialog box.

Components may be created as one of the following types:

· Part-Page – this is the default component type. Contains controls that will be inserted into pages of forms or other components.

· One or more pages – similar to a part-page component, but consisting of a number of complete pages. These components are added to the pages view of forms or other components.

· Fields only – contains fields and tables only. Does not contain any controls.

Components are always created in the GLOBAL project which appears at the bottom of the Business Projects section of the hierarchy tree panel.

Editing components

A component can be edited using the component editor. This is virtually identical to the forms editor differing only in that it disables any "Forms only" features (See Component Concepts: Forms only features)

The component editor is opened either by double clicking an existing component in the hierarchy tree panel (Business Projects -> GLOBAL -> Components) or as a result of creating a new component from the file menu (File -> New -> Component).

The component editor contains a component toolbar at the top of the area, which provides component-level functions such as save, delete, test component, edit texts, etc.

Adding components to a form

Part-page components

Part-page components are added to a form's page by right clicking on a control in the WYSIWYG View or Outline View, selecting either Insert control after.. or Add control to.., then selecting Part-page component.

One-or-more-pages components

One-or-more-pages components may be added to a form using the Pages View: either select a page and click the component icon on the Pages View toolbar, or right click a page and select Insert one-or-more-pages component.

Fields-only components

Fields-only components may be added to a form by clicking the Add a fields-only component icon on the form/component toolbar or in the main Form menu.

The following dialog box is displayed (the title and component description vary according to component type):

Insert … component: shows the available selection components of the selected type.

Name prefix: all form elements inserted are prefixed with this name when the component is inserted into the form - fields, tables, texts, controls, pages etc.

Link / embed: whether the inserted component instance should retain a link to the original or whether it should just be copied into this form. Linked components can be changed subsequently and then redeployed; embedded components are copied at insert time, but then the link to the component is removed.

Testing components

Components can be tested in isolation (just like running forms) by clicking the Test icon on the component toolbar. This causes the component to be temporarily embedded into a dummy form and run in a browser to allow the designer to test the component's behaviour before adding it to forms or deploying any changes.

Deploying changes in components

Once a component has been linked into a form, it may be modified in isolation and once the designer is happy with the new component, the changes may be deployed to all forms linking to it by clicking the Deploy changes button on the main toolbar. If the forms which are linked to the changed component are currently being edited, a warning message will be displayed asking all forms to be closed before the redeploy can be processed. This is because a) you don't want other users to be surprised when their forms change unexpectedly in front of their eyes and b) you want to be sure that all forms linking to the component are up-to-date.

Copying components

Components may be copied (as for forms) by right clicking on the component in the hierarchy tree panel and selecting copy. Components may only be copied within the GLOBAL project.

Deleting components

Components may only be deleted if they are not linked to any forms. You will be notified of any forms which are currently linked to the component when you right click on the component in the hierarchy tree panel and select delete. If you confirm deletion, all existing fields for this component will be completely embedded into the form and all links to the component will be lost.