| We still have our extensive
array of panes. Now we have five main panes, the main
window, and several other panes that you use
occasionally. The main panes are the Solution Explorer,
Toolbox and Properties Box.
The Explorer Pane items are sorted
alphabetically, with the exception of referenced libraries.
This can make it quite unintuitive. We feel that it
should probably be sorted according to branch content, with
the most common usage at the top. Historically this has
been Maps (Processes), Forms, etc.
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From the Solution Explorer items can be
selected by double-clicking (this can be set to
single-clicking in the options).
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Clicking on a container object in the explorer
bar does not open the editing window for items that are
edited together in a grid, such as connections and roles. We
often get caught by that, but it is something we shall
learn.
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From the Toolbox items may
be selected, and then clicking on the main window
adds an element of that type. Alternatively items
may be dragged and dropped to the main
window.
The main usage is in Maps, Forms and
Visual Scripts.
In effect this replaces the Toolbar
from Version 7.
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Here the properties of
any element can be edited. There are many types of
property, such as the following:
Formula, using the Formula Editor (more
later) or Intellisense.
Lists
Dropdowns
Checkboxes
Text Fields
And there are also ‘buttons’ to
create, edit and delete scripts.
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The property box
categories, like the toolbox, can be rolled up or
collapsed.
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Unlike other panes, the contents can be sorted
alphabetically as well. This may make it easier to find
certain properties. But we suspect it will be used only
rarely.
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You can also see the full description of
the selected item in the lower pane. This is very
handy and avoid you having to expand the Explorer bar
too much when learning to use new
elements.
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The additional two main panes
are:
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the Business Objects list where you
can view add variables from attached Business Objects,
as well as set the parameter(s) for the Business Object
to filter the result set,
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and the Repository
explorer. This last I tend to close as I will have one
repository almost all the time. We may have three,
Development, Testing and Production. Typically we would
not allow access to Production from the same PC, but
read-only access may be granted. In some strict
environments we will have a fourth for integration
testing.
Typically we will open the pane separately
to use this.
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From the Repository pane you can drag and drop
libraries to include, or in fact
‘reference’ in your project. What is not
obvious is that you have to drag a version. Dragging
the main container seems to work, but it in fact does
nothing. We assume doing that should reference the
latest version – at least that would be the result
if you followed the Principle of Least
Astonishment™
You also have a local offline storage for
libraries. This is a neat way to keep your libraries
stored offline. The list of services is stored in an
XML file in the Designer directory. We hope there will be
some way to edit these settings without resorting to
editing XML, however!
Overall they are fairly similar in purpose to the
same in Version 7, although the Toolbox used to be a toolbar,
and serve the same purposes.
We tend to dock the properties box on the left
and toolbox on the right for two reasons. Firstly it keeps
the properties closer, and that reduces ‘mouse
miles’, and secondly because the toolbox is often
hidden, whereas the properties box is not. Keeping the
properties box to the left prevents the main window
jumping around when the toolbox
disappears.
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1. Designer User Interface
