Improving Your
Application Interface
The Web deployment software provides
mechanisms to improve the appearance of your applications.
There are several ways to improve
the appearance of your application:
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You can use your own
page frames in the header and footer. |
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You can enhance your
screens by inserting HTML tags in your .per files for automated HTML emulation for pure interpretation
of HTML tags by the browser. |
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You can modify the application
itself to improve its appearance. |
Supplying Your Own Headers and
Footers
Standard page headers and footers
are generated by default; however, you can supply your own headers and footers.
The Dynamic 4GL HTML server will load the header and footer of the page
named in the configuration file.
For example, you can add a corporate-style
page frame with logo, background, title, standard references to the home-page
and other information.
HTML Tags
You can use standard HTML tags in
your applications. In addition, you can represent tables using HTML emulation.
Disabling Password Display
There is a new tag for designing
your interface. Use the class="Password" parameter in the .per file to disable
the display of passwords in your application. The parameter generates the
HTML tag <INPUT
type=password ... > .
Using the "Password" tag,
you can disable the display of the user's password (the password is replaced
by asterisk characters). Include
the following code in the .per file:
f005 = customer.password,class="Password",invisible,not
null,required;
The following tag is generated:
<INPUT
TYPE="password" NAME="Ef005_11" SIZE=15 VALUE="">
Similarities Between
a .per File and an .html File
A .per file is
a screen description file for 4GL. An .html file is a screen
and resource description file for any Web browser.
Both file types are in ASCII format.
4GL |
HTML |
User interface is done
through screen. |
User interface is done
through pages. |
A field can be either
dependent on a database or completely independent. |
A field is independent
of any data source. |
A form may or may not
depend on a table. |
A page does not depend
on any table. |
Forms are defined by
non proportional ASCII characters. |
Pages are defined by
proportional characters and special HTML tags. |
International characters
are quite difficult to manage. |
All international characters
are a sequence of ASCII characters. For example, "é" is
represented by "é". |
Forms are not expandable
without modification of the form compiler. |
HTML is "expandable"
through new tags that can be interpreted by specific software (web form
compiler, browser, etc.) |
|
There is a notion of
forms in HTML. An HTML form is contained in a page. A page can contain more
than one HTML form. An HTML form contains several fields, buttons and widgets. |
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