The application framework includes user interface components for developing applications and organizational components that provide access to them.
The user interface consists of controls, such as text boxes, buttons, and tabs, and each control has attributes that determine its behavior. Each application has apresentation.xml file that contains all of the information required to build the application user interface. When you create an application, it is automatically added to the navigation structure for modules and applications.
Controls are predefined components that are used to construct the elements of an application window. In Application Designer, you can select individual controls, view and modify the control properties, or drag new controls into the application from the Control Palette. You cannot change the code of a control, but you can modify its behavior by specifying appropriate values in the properties window for the control. For example, you can set a control to be a required field, associate a control with a lookup table, or link a control to an event.
Some controls, such as sections, tab groups, or button groups are container controls. Most container controls serve no purpose other than to contain other controls. Controls that are not containers must be placed within a container control. In Application Designer, you can drag controls from the Control Palette onto the application workspace, and then modify the control in the Control Properties window.
The positioning of controls is relative to other controls and is not based on pixels or a grid and provides for dynamic sizing of the width of a section and its columns. For example, if a section contains fields of various widths, the width of each field is automatically set to the width of the widest field in that section.
Every application has a presentation.xml file that contains all the information required to build the application user interface. All presentation.xml files are stored in the MAXPRESENTATION table in the database. Controls are predefined components that are used to construct the elements of an application window. In Application Designer, you can select individual controls, view and modify the control properties, or drag new controls into the application from the Control Palette. You cannot change the code of a control, but you can modify its behavior by specifying appropriate values in the properties window for the control. For example, you can set a control to be a required field, associate a control with a lookup table, or link a control to an event.
The presentation.xml file for an application includes a tag for each control used in the application user interface. Each control has a unique ID and attributes that determine how the control behaves when you view the application. The relative location of control tags in the presentation.xml file determine the order and sequence of the user interface elements that you see in an application window.
When a user starts an application, the presentation.xml file is retrieved from the database and is placed in the memory of the application server. The application framework retrieves the code for each control and creates a HTML description of it, based on the attributes specified in the presentation.xml. The rendering process is incremental, and the application server stores HTML descriptions for each control in memory until all controls in an application window are rendered. When all HTML elements are rendered, the application server passes the HTML to the user's web browser (client). The presentation.xml file is retained in the server cache, ready for the next time a user accesses the application.
When you open an application in the Application Designer, the presentation.xml file is loaded into memory. Any changes you make apply only to the stored version of the file until you save the application. When you save the presentation.xml, the modified information is committed to the database and you can then see the changes when you open the application.
Although you can perform most modifications to an application in Application Designer, you can edit the presentation.xml file if required. Sometimes, modifying the presentation.xml file is the most efficient approach to use, for example to change a specific term using search and replace. In an application with multiple tabs and dialog windows, this task requires that you open each individual window in Application Designer, which is both time-consuming and prone to error. Some applications use hidden tabs that are not visible in Application Designer. You cannot modify these tabs in Application Designer and must edit the presentation.xml file to change them.
After you create an application, it is added to Go To menu within the module that you specify when you create it.