Working with Components

Creating a component

A new component can be created from the Ebase Xi Designer file menu (File > New > Component) and then selecting the component type:

· Part Page – this is the most commonly used type of component and contains controls that will be inserted into pages of forms or other components

· Multi Page – similar to a part page component, but consisting of a number of complete pages. These components are added to the pages view of forms or other components.

· Fields & Tables – contains fields and tables only. Does not contain any controls.

Editing components

A component can be edited using the component editor. This is virtually identical to the forms editor differing only in that it disables any "Forms only" features (See Component Concepts: Forms only features)

Adding components to a form

Part Page components

Part Page components are added to a form's page by right clicking on a control in the WYSIWYG View or Outline View, selecting either Insert control after.. or Add control to.., then selecting Part-page component.

Multi Page components

Multi page components may be added to a form using the Pages View: right click on a page and select Insert multi page component.

Fields and tables components

Fields and tables components may be added to a form by clicking the Add a fields and tables component icon on either the Fields View or Tables View toolbar.

The following dialog box is displayed (the title and component description vary according to component type):

Component: click the … button to display the workspace browser containing a list of available components

Prefix: all form elements inserted are prefixed with this name when the component is inserted into the form - fields, tables, texts, controls, pages etc.

Link / embed: whether the inserted component instance should retain a link to the original or whether it should just be copied into this form. Linked components can be changed subsequently and then redeployed; embedded components are copied at insert time, but then the link to the component is removed.

Testing components

Components can be tested in isolation (just like running forms) by clicking the Test icon on the component toolbar. This causes the component to be temporarily embedded into a dummy form and run in a browser to allow the designer to test the component's behaviour before adding it to forms or deploying any changes.

Deploying changes in components

Once a component has been linked into a form, it may be modified in isolation and once the designer is happy with the new component, the changes may be deployed to all forms linking to it by clicking the Deploy changes icon on the main toolbar.

Deleting components

Components may only be deleted if they are not linked to any forms. You will be notified of any forms which are currently linked to the component when you right click on the component in the hierarchy tree panel and select delete. If you confirm deletion, all existing fields for this component will be completely embedded into the form and all links to the component will be lost.