IDE Overview
The IDE is made up of a few primary elements (Figure 1 shows
the IDE interface):
- The Editing Area is the central page editor
that makes up most of the IDE interface.
- The Server Navigator shows the datasources,
Web Services and other elements available within the
application.
- The Palette contains the interface
components that can be dragged onto your page.
- Code Clips contains snippets that can be
used in beans.
- Property Sheet allows the developer to edit
the properties that can be edited for the different visual
components and other application elements.
- Dynamic Help contains online IDE help.
- Project Navigator shows the pages and beans
and other files in the current project.
- Document Outline shows all the components
within the current page.
- The Debugger and Build Output will display
debugging/build information when a developer builds or tests a
page.
As with most other IDEs, every application starts with the
creation of a project. A project will contain everything in your
application and can be deployed all at once at the click of a
button. By default, a new JSP template will be created called
Page1.jsp (you can rename it, if you like). From here,
development can begin.
Developing Forms
While you can create your own JSF components, many of the
components you will need for applications are already included
in JSC. These components include form elements such as drop-down
lists, text fields and text areas; and other handy components
such as data grids, text outputs and group panels. To use these
elements in your pages, you simple click on the component you
wish to add to your interface and drag it from the palette
window to the editing area. The editing area is broken down into
grids. You can use these grids to help your layout, as items
will snap to the grids when you expand their size.
Once you have placed your component(s) into your page, selecting
any component will show you editable properties in the property
sheet. You can edit these properties to further customize your
page. For example, entering a value into the "value" property
will then store a default value for that component.
Of course, there are times when it is just easier to get in
there and edit the code yourself. This can be done by clicking
the "Source" tab at the bottom left of the editing area. The
color-coded JSP/JSF source is fully editable, and clicking on
the Design tab will toggle back to the visual layout of your
page, reflecting any changes you made to the code. Figure 2
shows the code edit view.
In addition to editing the visual components, developers can
also use validation components to apply rules to components,
forcing users to enter the correct data type or requiring
fields. Additionally, data elements can be converted using
conversion components In short, this visual interface goes
beyond just creating the visual elements, but also allows for
the creation of logic and data model workings and validation.
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