Introduction to Using the Ebase Designer

The Ebase Designer is a client/server application where the client component is a standalone Java GUI application and the server component is a J2EE application that runs under an application server. This architecture supports any number of concurrent designers connected to a single server. The client is the major component and calls on the server to provide support and control functions. The designer server component functions include:

· Reading and writing data to/from the Ebase repository database

· Locking of Ebase Designer elements to maintain integrity

· Security

· Import and export of form components

Designer screen layout

The Ebase Designer contains the following areas:

· Main menu at the top of the screen.

· Designer tree at the top of the left panel. This is used to navigate to all form components.

· Functional area in the right panel. The contents of this panel vary according to the editor currently displayed.

· Open items toolbar above the functional area. Shows all open items.

· References panel at the bottom of the left panel. Contains cross reference, search panels etc.

The panels on the left hand side – Designer Tree and References Panel – are dockable and can be moved to different locations by dragging the panel title bars; the current configuration is remembered when the designer is shutdown. These two panels can also be hidden to make more space available for the functional area. To do this, click the auto-hide icon at the top of the Designer tree panel and close the References Panel (it will be shown automatically when it is needed).

Organization of elements

Ebase consists of a number of different element types e.g. form, script, list etc. and these all interact to produce a fully functioning form. These elements are organized into a tree structure which, at the top level, consists of:

· Business projects: a project consists of forms, scripts and messages. The scripts and messages are shared by all forms within the project, but cannot be used by forms in a different project. Scripts and messages in the GLOBAL project are available to all forms.

· IT elements: this contains all external resource definitions (database resources, email resources, XML resources etc) plus business views, sequences and databases. These elements can be used by all forms.

· Lists: this contains static and dynamic lists. These elements can be used by all forms.

· Presentation: this contains presentation templates, style sheets and print master pages. These elements can be used by all forms.

· Workflow: this contains workflow processes and workflow activity definitions. It is only visible when the Ebase Workflow module is installed.

· Integration Server: similar to Business projects, this contains implementations of published web services. It is only visible when the Ebase Integration Server module is installed.

· System: contains internal system web services

(See Ebase Element Types for more information)

Basic designer tasks

To open an element, navigate to it in the tree, then double click on the element name. Note that it may take a couple of seconds to load the element from the server. Once opened, an element remains active in Ebase Designer until it is explicitly closed. In a multi-user environment, the element is also locked and cannot be worked on by other designers until it has been closed.

To close an element without saving it, close the containing frame or select close on the local function menu (rightmost menu item). All open elements can be closed from the menu with File --> Close All.

To save an element, select save on the local function menu or click the Save button within the function editor. All elements must be explicitly saved.

To create a new element, right click in the tree at the appropriate location and select Create new ; or select an element type from the file menu (File --> New --> ….)

To delete an element, right click on the element in the tree and select delete or select the delete option from the local function menu (rightmost menu item).

To copy an element, right click on the element in the tree and select copy.

To rename an element, right click on the element in the tree and select rename.

To move element(s) to another project, right click on the element(s) in the tree and select move.

To export element(s), right click on the element(s) in the tree and select export.

To obtain a list of references to an element, right click on the element in the tree and select References.

Business Projects

A business project contains any number of forms, scripts and messages. The scripts and messages in a business project can only be accessed from forms within the same project, i.e. sharing of these elements across projects is not supported. An exception to this rule is the special GLOBAL project which contains scripts and messages available to all projects. The GLOBAL project also contains components that can be included in any form.