Using the Editors

The Panther wizards are easy to use and guide you through the design process to create screens and reports that work with your database and the transaction manager. The editor provides access to the Panther wizards:

• Screen Wizard—Design screens for two-tier, three-tier, and Web architectures that you can use unchanged, or customize accordingly.

  For Web applications, you can select the Web-friendly output option on the Format Selection dialog of the screen wizard.

  For JetNet/Oracle Tuxedo applications, you can use the wizard to design service components as well as screens.

  For further information on the screen wizard, refer to Chapter 4, "Screen Wizard."

• Report Wizard—Design a Panther report that you can use unchanged, or easily edit for added functionality and refinements. For further information on the report wizard, refer to Chapter 5, "Report Wizard."

This chapter describes:

• How the wizards interact with repositories and templates to generate screens and reports.

• Templates and how to customize wizard output via the templates.

• How to navigate within the wizards.

How the Wizards Work

The screen wizard and report wizard take advantage of database objects in your repository to build screens and reports. Also, the first time you create a new screen or report with the wizards, Panther automatically creates the appropriate template screens in the open repository and related JPL and menus in the distributed libraries. Therefore, as a prerequisite to using the wizards, you must:

• Open or create a repository (refer to "Creating a Repository" for details)—The repository must contain at least one table that inherits from @DATABASE (specified in the object's Inherit From property). This property setting is the result of importing the desired database objects.

• Import the desired database objects (tables, views, and/or synonyms) to the open repository (refer to "Populating a Repository with Database Objects" for details) if the objects are not already imported.

The wizards guide you through a series of dialogs, prompting you for database specifications and design preferences required to create the appropriate presentation for your screens or reports. All the dialogs provide navigation buttons. The wizards set several properties for wizard-generated screens, reports, and the widgets on them. For further information on property specifications set by the wizards, refer to Appendix B, "Wizard Output."

Wizard Templates

In addition to using database objects in your repository, wizard-generated screens and reports use template screens as a source for graphical objects (such as push buttons and link widgets) not available from database entries in your repository. The JPL modules and menu/toolbar templates are passed on from the template screens to wizard-generated screens and reports via property settings.

Table 3-1 lists the templates created for Panther when you use the screen wizard for the first time.

Table 3-2 lists the templates created for Panther when you use the report wizard for the first time.

Description of the Templates

The following is a brief description of Panther templates (screens, menus, and JPL modules). After running the wizards, you can:

• Access the template screens in the open repository by choosing FileOpenRepository Entry.

• Access the template JPL modules by choosing FileOpenJPL and selecting the desired file from the appropriate library.

smwizard

It provides wizard-generated client screens with graphical objects and properties not available from database-derived entries in your repository. For example, it provides graphical push buttons, some widget types, and some screen property assignments (such as JPL procedures and menu name).

smwizsrv

It provides wizard-generated service components with graphical objects and properties not available from database-derived entries in your repository. For example, it provides some widget types and screen property assignments (such as JPL procedures).

smwizis

It provides screen wizard-generated selection screens and associated selection service components with graphical objects and properties not available from database-derived entries in your repository. For example, it provides push buttons and some screen property assignments (such as JPL procedures).

smwizweb

It provides wizard-generated screens specifically for use as Web applications with graphical objects and object properties not available from database-derived entries in your repository. For example, it provides graphical push buttons, some widget types, and some screen property assignments (such as JPL procedures).

smwizrw

It provides wizard-generated reports with graphical objects and object properties not available from database-derived entries in your repository. For example, it provides report areas, page headers and footers, and widgets such as lines, labels, graphs, and some overall report property assignments (such as JPL procedures).

smwzmenu

The screen wizard's template menu/toolbar smwzmenu is a binary file used by Panther at runtime and resides in the distributed client library. The ASCII script file from which it was made resides in the config directory under the name smwzmenu.mnu.

The menu is a good example of how to build menus with toolbars for your application. It demonstrates how to:

• Create multiple pull-downs.

• Place dividers exclusively on the menu or on the toolbar.

• Access standard GUI operations such as Edit and Windows.

• Set mnemonics on menu items.

• Use a menu that resides within another menu file (for example, the submenu sm_dbi_menu).

• Set status line and tooltip text.

• Attach pixmaps.

The pixmaps used for the screen wizard's template toolbar are delivered in client.lib, in the platform-specific format: BMP files (active versions only) for Windows, and XPM files for Motif.

JPL modules

The screen and report wizards set properties that make public the wizard's standard JPL module depending on the output generated. The standard JPL modules are as follows:

• smwizard.jpl—Resides in the distributed client library. It is used by the wizard-generated client screen.

• smwizsrv.jpl—Resides in the distributed server library (JetNet/Tuxedo only). It is used by the wizard-generated service component.

• rwwizard.jpl—Resides in the distributed client library or, in JetNet/Oracle Tuxedo only, in the common library. It is used by the wizard-generated reports.

The templates and the widgets in them have property settings that are inherited by your wizard-generated screen or report. You can alter or customize the properties of a template and any of its widgets to better suit your development requirements (For example, you might want to define your own pixmaps on push buttons). Almost all properties for wizard-generated screens and reports are propagated from the template screens through inheritance. However, the following properties are not inherited:

• Title property (under Identity)

  Note: Do not alter this property on the template screens because the wizards and Panther technical support use this information for version verification.

• Comments property (under Identity)

• Height and Width properties (under Geometry)

When you run the wizards after editing the templates, the wizard output reflects the template modifications.

Navigating in the Wizards

There are a variety of buttons available on screen and report wizard dialog boxes. They are:

Next and Back buttons

Choose Next to indicate to the wizard that you are satisfied with the settings on the dialog box and to proceed to the next one.

Choose Back to traverse the wizard dialog boxes backwards. You can revisit any dialog box on which you have already made entries.

Preview button

Choose Preview at any time to view the screen or report that is being built. You cannot save the screen or report at this point. Acknowledge the display to return to the wizard.

Done button

Choose Done on the Style and Finish dialog box to indicate that you are finished. The wizard-built screen or report is displayed and you can choose to keep the screen or report as is or make other choices in the wizard session.

Help button

Choose Help to access specific information about the wizard dialog box you are currently viewing.