Bean Extender Guide to Features


Splash Screen Dip

The Splash Screen Dip provides the ability to attach an informational dialog to a JavaBean. This dialog will be displayed just before the bean to which the dip is applied is displayed. The dialog can contain text and/or an image, and will have a button that can be used to dismiss the dialog (the original bean will be disabled until the dialog is dismissed). The dialog can be used to convey any kind of information, such as advertisements, disclaimers, license agreements, registration reminders, etc. This dip can only be applied to AWT beans (that is, beans with java.awt.Component as an ancestor).

Dependencies

The Splash Screen Dip depends on the ImageViewer sample bean. This allows it to display jpeg images (*.jpg files), as well as static and animated gif images (*.gif images). The images can come from a resource available on the CLASSPATH (such as a .jar file), or from a location on your hard drive. To load an image from a resource file, specify a path such as the following: "/com/ibm/beans/demos/travel/travlog1.gif". To load an image from a location on your hard drive, specify a location such as "C:\Extender\doc\bannerx.gif". Due to the dependency on the ImageViewer bean, the media.jar file needs to be available in your CLASSPATH for the dip to function properly.

Development Details

This dip is an example of what can be created by the Dip Creation Wizard - see the Dip Creation Wizard Walk-Through for a detailed explanation of how this dip was created. Sample source and a Dip Creation Wizard model file are provided - just load the model file (splash.wiz) into the wizard tool to see the settings used to produce this dip. All code added after the wizard's code generation is clearly marked in the source files.

Applying the Splash Screen Dip

When you apply the Splash Screen Dip to a dippable bean, its Customizer dialog will appear. For the imageName property, enter the name of a .jpg or .gif file, which can be loaded as a resource from the CLASSPATH (using a name such as "/com/ibm/beans/demos/travel/travlog1.gif") or directly from a hard drive (such as "C:\Extender\doc\bannerx.gif"). For the noticeText property, enter the text you would like to appear in the TextArea on the splash dialog. If either property is left blank, then the corresponding part of the dialog will not be present (if both are left blank, the dialog will not appear). Here is an example of how to fill out the customizer dialog:

Using the Splash Screen Dip

When you run a bean that has been dipped in the Splash Screen Dip, the splash dialog will appear. In technical terms, the splash dialog will appear whenever the addNotify() method of its dippable bean is invoked. Here is an example of what the splash dialog looks like:


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