A platform
definition defines how a screen set’s screens will appear on a specific
device type. A platform is defined to use one or more screens within
the same parent screen set. There are different platform types,
each corresponding to a different type of client device. The platform
affects the placement of buttons and the form factor of the screens
it uses.
The
most important attribute to the platform definition is the Platform
Type. This attribute specifies the platform upon which the screens
it uses will be displayed and how those screens will appear. A given screen
set can contain one or more platform definitions. At least one platform
must be defined before screens can be added to the screen set. During
publish, at least one screen must be used by at least one platform
within the screen set or an error will be returned and the publish
will not be allowed to proceed.
A platform can use more than
one screen within the same screen set. A screen can be used by more
than one platform as well. At run time, when a screen set definition
is sent to a client, the client’s device type will determine which
screens that client receives based on the platform using the screens.
Platform Attributes
General Attributes
- Platform Type: This is the type of device platform to
be supported by the screens used by the platform and will affect
the form factor and behavior of those screens.
- Caption: This is the title text displayed in the window
on the Client at run time for the screen set. Since this is at the
platform level, the screen set’s window can contain a different
caption on different target devices. This value may be set statically
or via a rule definition for more dynamic text. A rule used here
is expected to return a string value and is evaluated in the context
of the object displayed by the screen set.
- Size: This attribute only applies to platform definitions
for the Windows desktop, laptop, and tablet operating systems. For
this type of platform the Size attribute specifies the initial display
size of the screens it uses. For other Platform Types this
attribute is disabled and all screens used by the platform are displayed
in the full screen size of the device type. Note that this attribute
may be affected or negated by the application definition’s Screen
Size attribute.
- Button Placement: This attribute contains four possible
settings: Bottom, Top, Left, and Right. This attribute specifies
where the buttons for all screens used by the platform are displayed.
- List Navigation: This attribute controls whether or not
the object displayed by the screens used by the platform definition
can be changed via navigation buttons drawn automatically on the
Client. When true, these buttons will allow a user to change the
object displayed in the current screen set based on a list of objects
in the previous screen in the navigational flow. In this previous
list, the previous or next item in the list is selected and the
action executed to display the current screen set is executed again.
This attribute has no effect on platforms for the module main screen
set or for platforms within screen sets displaying a transaction
or fetch. This behavior is applicable when the previous screen was
a list screen, or when it was a detail screen containing a list
view or list tile view field.
- Screen Navigation: By default a screen sets screens are
displayed as tabs on the Client at run time. Selecting this option
removes the tabs and instead displays a menu button containing the caption
value of each screen definition to allow the user to select different
screens.
Platform Screen Type
The following
attributes are only valid for platforms of type iPad or Android
and support the display of a pop up screen using the platform’s
screens.
- Screen Types: The options for this attribute
include Full Screen and Overlay View. Full Screen
creates standard screens on the Client. Overlay View creates popup
screens that overlay the screen from which the user navigated. These
screens can be used for both read only information as well as for
data capture. When Overlay View is selected, the Height and Width attributes
are enabled to specify the size of the overlay screen displayed.
- Height: The vertical size of the overlay screen in pixels.
- Width: The horizontal size of the overlay screen in pixels.
Platform Style Attributes
The style attributes
of a platform specify the styles applied to different aspects of
the screens used by the platform. Style definitions must exist before
these attributes can be set. The final appearance of the screen
will be affected by the overall application of styles according
to the style hierarchy. There are three groups of style elements
for the platform: Screen Styles, Detail Screen Styles, and List
Screen Styles. Screen styles affect all screens used by the platform
regardless of screen type. Detail screen and list screen styles
affect only those screens of the corresponding type.
All
style attributes for the platform definition may be set statically
by selecting the style from a list, or by returning the name of
a style to apply from a rule definition. Rules evaluated for style
attributes are expected to return a string value containing the
name of the style to apply and are evaluated in the context of the
object displayed by the parent screen set.
Screen Styles- Tabs: The style to apply to the tab controls representing
each screen within an object screen set. Has no affect on screens
within a transaction or fetch screen set.
- Buttons: The style to apply to all button definitions
for screens used by the platform.
- Focused Buttons: The style to apply to the button that
currently has the focus.
Detail Screen Styles- Screen: The
style to apply to the screen as a whole. This will affect all portions
of the screen not displaying a field or button.
- Fields: The style to apply to all fields displayed on
the screen.
- Focused Fields: The style to apply to the field that
currently has the focus.
- Hyperlinks: The style to field labels defined to be hyperlinks.
List
Screen Styles- Screen: The style to the list screen
as a whole. This will affect all portions of the screen not displaying
a list, header label, detail pane, or button.
- Header Label: The style to apply to the list screen’s
header label. If no header label is defined this attribute has no
affect on the screen.
- Column Labels: The style to apply to the column labels
on the screen’s list control.
- Rows: The style to apply to all rows on the list screen.
The Hyperlinks optional style will override the Rows style for cells
with hyperlinks.
- Alternate Rows: The style to apply to every other row
in the list, beginning with the second row. The Hyperlinks optional
style will override the Alternate Rows style for every other row,
specifically cells containing hyperlinks within the row.
- Highlight Rows: The style to apply to a row for the purposes
of drawing attention to that row. This style should always be returned
via a rule definition that evaluates the object being listed. The optional
Hyperlinks style will be applied to the highlighted row’s cells
containing a hyperlink.
- Selected Rows: The style to apply to the row currently
selected by the user in the list control. The optional Hyperlink
style will be applied to any cells within the selected row containing
a hyperlink.
- Detail Pane: The style to apply to both the foreground
(text) and background of the list screen’s detail pane. If no detail
pane is defined this attribute has no affect on the screen.
Platform Button Attributes
Platforms defined
within a screen set displaying a transaction or fetch include an
additional set of attributes related to the buttons displayed on
screens used by the platform. Screens within this type of screen
do not contain button definitions, but rather contain buttons added
to each screen automatically by the Client based on the action that
displayed the parent screen set and the position of each screen within
the screen set.
- Cancel Action Details: The label for
cancel buttons that will cancel the action currently being executed.
- Previous Screen Details: The label for buttons that allow
users to navigate to the previous screen in the current screen set.
- Previous Record Details: The label for buttons that allow
users to navigate to the previous transaction instance. This button
is displayed on the first screen of a screen set when being displayed
by an action with looping behavior.
- Next Screen Details: The label for buttons that allow
users to navigate to the next screen in the current screen set.
- Next Screen (no back up) Details: The label for buttons
that allow users to complete the current instance of a wizard in
a loop and start the next iteration; or to move from one wizard
to the next when multiple wizards are displayed by the action.
- Complete Action Details: The label for buttons displayed
on the last screen of a screen set, when there are no additional
screen sets displayed by the action and when the current screen
set is not being displayed in a loop.
- Complete Action Details: The label for buttons displayed
on the last screen of screen set being displayed in a loop and that
will end that loop.
Platform Screens List
The Properties view
for a platform definition within the Agentry
Editor includes
a Screens tab. This tab lists all screens within the same parent
screen set of the platform. Within this list the screens to be used by
the platform can be selected. The screens listed here are not child
definitions to the platform, but rather a children of the screen
set. If a new screen is added to the screen set by starting the
Add Screen Wizard from the platform view, that screen will automatically
be used by that platform.