Layouts
As shown in Figure 5–1, the default.htm file provides a layout for your Progress Dynamics Web application.
The default HTML page provides the layout for the following user interface components:
- Menu Bar — Contains general application menus or menus for particular objects within an application.
- Tool Bar — Contains general application tools or tools for particular objects within an application.
- Dynamic Object Area — Provides an area for displaying the application user interface.
- Message Area — Provides an area where client and server messages appear. You can modify the behavior of the message area (for example, you can suppress the display of messages to avoid redundancy caused by automatic pop-up windows that the browser implements). See the "Controlling message display" section for instructions.
- Hidden Frame — Provides an area to contain client/server communications.
You can change the layout of your Web page by editing the markup of one of the default.htm files. However, you should have experience working with HTML and DHTML. You must understand the consequences of moving, changing, or deleting elements in the default HTML files.
Make your changes in copies of the default files. Do not edit the originals.
Controlling message display
The behavior of the message area is controlled by the following entry in default.htm (shown as installed):
There are three valid values for the mode attribute:
- auto — The message area is not initially visible; it appears and displays the appropriate messages when an error occurs. This is the default (as-installed) setting.
- on — The message area and any messages are always visible.
- off — The message area appears only when the user clicks the Toggle Status Window button, even if errors occur.
Some browsers automatically pop up an alert window when errors occur. If this is the case for your users, you might want to set the mode attribute in default.htm to off to avoid redundancy.