AppBuilder preferences
To begin setting AppBuilder-specific preferences, choose Options
Preferences. The dialog box opens at the General options tab:
Table 2–10 describes the Preference options available:
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Preference
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Description
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Create default window at startup
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Normally cleared. Setting this box causes AppBuilder to offer a brand new SmartWindow workspace for your use whenever it starts up. This might be especially convenient if you typically complete work on a particular window during an edit session and are ready for a fresh workspace next time. It is less useful if you normally resume work on an existing, partly completed window.
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Qualify database fields with a database name
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Normally cleared. AppBuilder’s output is application source code, including references to database fields. By default, such references are not fully qualified—any database that can supply the fields will be presumed to be the correct one. This can cause subtle difficulties in some circumstances. Setting this box causes AppBuilder to write out more complete references that are less prone to such errors.
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Minimize main window when running/debugging
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Normally cleared. Setting this box causes AppBuilder’s main window to go to an iconic state rather than stay open, when you start a test run or a debug session.
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Default to suppressing VIEW-AS phrases
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Normally cleared. Setting this box causes AppBuilder to generate code without including widget specifications from the Data Dictionary. If you then need to make changes in representation, you need make them in only one place (the Dictionary) rather than two (Dictionary and source).
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Recently used file list
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Normally set with a default value of 4. As a convenience, the File pull-down menu includes menu items that point to the 4 most recently opened structured-procedure files. You can open one of the files again by selecting its menu item. If you would like more or fewer than 4 files to be listed here, change the number. If you prefer that no files be listed, clear the box.
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Double-click for Section Editor
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Normally cleared. By default, double-clicking an object opens its Property Sheet. You can choose to open the Section Editor instead, by setting this box.
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Display multiple Section Editors
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Normally cleared. Setting this box allows you to have a separate Section Editor open for each open workspace. By default, a single Section Editor switches context according to which workspace has focus.
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Default function data type
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Normally
CHARACTER. Unlike procedures, functions return a value upon termination and a call to them can, for example, appear on the right-hand side of an assignment operator. You can choose here the default data type of the value they return. It will apply to all functions defined thereafter for which you do not specify some other data type. The other choices are COM-HANDLE, DATE, DECIMAL, HANDLE, INTEGER, LOGICAL, MEMPTR, RAW, RECID, ROW-ID, and WIDGET-HANDLE.
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Character-terminal colors
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Choose this button to open the Color Selector dialog box. Use it to set the foreground and background colors for your character-window workspaces. See the "Colors selector and editor" section.
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Advisors
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Advisors are dialog boxes that appear from time to time to offer advice about how to complete certain processes. Working with AppBuilder, you will most often see Advisors appear to suggest—and offer to help with—creation of SmartLinks between SmartObjects.
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Cue cards
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Cue cards appear when you create SmartObjects. They offer a brief definition of the object, and hints on how to use it.
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WebSpeed Options tab
If you have WebSpeed installed, you can use AppBuilder as your layout editor for both standard and Web applications. If you do not have WebSpeed installed, you will not see this tab. Your Preferences dialog box will only have the General, Grid Units, and Print tabs:
You can change any or all of the settings here, if the default values do not meet your needs:
- Web Browser — Enter the path to the browser you wish to use for WebSpeed development. By default, AppBuilder uses the path to the browser identified in the Registry. Choose the Browse button to open the standard MS-Windows file system navigation tool, if you want to locate your preferred browser interactively.
- Broker URL — Enter the URL of the WebSpeed broker you will use to run your Web objects. Choosing the Test button will display a test page of broker information if the URL you enter is a valid one.
- Open new Browser Window — Normally set. Clear this box to re-use a single browser window rather than generate new windows for each Web object. PSC recommends that you do not clear this box if using Netscape Navigator.
Grid Options tab
One of the hallmarks of good design is that things line up neatly. Graphic designers solved this problem by lining things up against a grid, originally printed on their workspace in a pale, cool-blue ink that was visible to the human designer but not to the platemaking camera.
AppBuilder provides a similar grid to help you lay out your widgets neatly in the application workspace. You can make it visible to you, but it is never visible to the users of your application:
You can choose a grid spacing in this tab. It will apply only to graphical frames; the character window has a fixed size. If you plan to run your application in both GUI and character-cell contexts, you might wish to define your grid to be 1.0 x 1.0 characters in size, and take care not to consume more than 80 x 21 cells for any single layout.
Once you have a grid defined, choose Options Snap to Grid to cause your widgets to automatically jump to the closest grid intersection, if you release the widget nearby. Choose Options Display Grid to make the grid lines visible to you as a series of dots. The two options are independent of one another.
Note that any changes you make to the grid spacing here will apply only to frame objects you create afterward, not to objects that you have already created. The Snap and Display menu item settings apply immediately to all existing and future workspaces, however.
Print tab
The Print tab gives you some control over the way AppBuilder will print the source code it generates for you:
The Font and Page Length items are self-explanatory. If you clear the Use Print Dialog Box setting, AppBuilder will queue all subsequent print requests to the default printer immediately, without opening the Print dialog box.