The Assembly Surface is divided into the following areas:
The control area is a horizontal area across the top of the Assembly Surface comprised of a menu bar and input fields. The menu bar includes the following menus:
File | Items that control the editing session. |
View | Views with which you can work. |
Options | Items that control how the Assembly Surface displays. |
The input fields control the assembly as a whole. Fields in this area include:
Class | Identifies the class of the aggregated bean. |
Extends | Identifies the Java class you are extending, for example, Applet, Frame, or Panel. |
Package | Identifies the package to which the generated bean will belong. |
Repository | Identifies the location in which the generated bean will be stored. |
Note: | The Class, Extends, Package, and Repository fields must all be filled in before a bean can be generated. |
There are check box controls located beneath the input fields for the generated bean. The demos do not use these controls.
The working area contains three sections. Each section uses a notebook paradigm as follows:
Left section | Currently only the Contents view is assigned to this section. The Contents view displays the beans that have been added to the aggregated bean being assembled.
| ||
Center section | Views assigned to this section include:
Notes:
| ||
Right section | Views assigned to this section include:
|
Each view displays as a notebook tab. A right mouse click on a notebook tab presents a pop-up menu that allows you to close that view or to present the view as a separate window. The material displayed on each notebook page varies.
The action area at the bottom of the Assembly Surface is comprised of several buttons and a status bar. Buttons in this area include:
Generate | Generates a new bean. The Class, Extends, Package, and Repository fields must be filled in before this button becomes active. |
Run | Runs the selected bean. |
Debug | Invokes the debugger on the selected bean. |
Stop | Stops all beans that are currently running. |
The status bar displays informational and error messages. Each time you perform an operation on the Assembly Surface using one of the buttons or a menu selection, the status of the operation displays in the status bar. The status bar is the only visible indication that work is being performed because the cursor does not change to an hourglass.
Note: | If you encounter difficulties and the status bar is not displaying any informational messages, check the Log view for additional error messages. |