Author: jmorliaguet
Date: Mon Jan 9 10:21:20 2006
New Revision: 2197
Modified:
cpsskins/branches/jmo-perspectives/ui/framework/doc/index.txt
Log:
- doc update
Modified: cpsskins/branches/jmo-perspectives/ui/framework/doc/index.txt
==============================================================================
--- cpsskins/branches/jmo-perspectives/ui/framework/doc/index.txt
(original)
+++ cpsskins/branches/jmo-perspectives/ui/framework/doc/index.txt Mon Jan
9 10:21:20 2006
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
==========
The CPSSkins AJAX toolkit was developed for the CPSSkins application to
-simplify the creation of a rich user interface.
+simplify the creation of rich user interfaces.
Introduction
============
@@ -20,57 +20,96 @@
provides a way of creating "rich widgets" and of controlling their visibility
in a simple way.
-The implementation is based on the MVC pattern ("Model-View-Controller").
+The implementation is based on the MVC design pattern
("Model-View-Controller").
The pattern imposes to keep presentation concerns separate from the
application's data layer and from the user interactions with the application.
+Model
+-----
+
+The *model* represents the application's *data* and defines how the data is
+accessed.
+
Views
-----
-The concept of *view* is taken from the *MVC pattern*
("Model-View-Controller").
Views provide a graphical representation of the *model*. A same model can be
-presented with different views. The components provided by views are called
-*widgets*.
+presented with different views. Views are associated to widgets.
Widgets
-------
-A widget is the HTML fragment used by the view to display the model's data.
+A widget is the HTML fragment used by the view to render the model. The view
+requests the data from the model and uses the widget to display the data in
+HTML. Different widgets behave differently. The user's interactions with the
+widget are sent to the controller as requests for action.
+
+Effects
+-------
+Widgets can be displayed using effects (fade-in, fade-out). Effects are
+defined in the view.
Perspectives
------------
The notion of perspective is borrowed from the Eclipse UI. A perspective
determines which views are visible in a given context. Perspectives are
-usually task-oriented.
+usually task-oriented, they are selected by the *controller*.
Perspectives can be nested to create "sub-perspectives". Sub-perspectives can
be used to create "sub-views" of a given view.
-Effects
--------
-Widgets can be displayed using effects (fade-in, fade-out).
+It is possible to navigate between nested perspectives. Switching perspectives
+translates into switching views.
+
+Controllers
+-----------
+
+Controllers map user actions to model updates.
+
+Controllers can also select views -- this is done by switching *perspectives*.
Technical implementation
========================
+Model
+-----
+
+The data displayed by the widget can be obtained directly from the HTML page
+itself using data bindings. This is done by embedding HTML comments expressed
+in the JSON format inside the page.
+
+The JSON encoded data gets converted into a javascript object when it is
+accessed for the first time. The next time the data is accessed the model
+returns the javascript object instead. This only works with identifiable
+elements (i.e. nodes that have an "id" attribute). For nodes that are not
+identifiable the data wil be stored and retrieved from HTML comments instead.
+
+
+View
+----
+
Views are declared using XML tags. They get interpreted when the page is
initially loaded. For each view that is declared a widget is created.
-The data displayed by the widget can be obtained directly from the page
-itself using data bindings. This is done by embedding HTML comments expressed
-in the JSON format.
-The data gets converted into javascript objects when it is accessed for the
-first time. It is then possible to query the server to get new data.
+It is possible to specify which *effect* will be used when the widget is
+shown or hidden.
-Views can be registered as *observers* of a model and be refreshed
automatically
+Views can be registered as *observers* of a model and be redrawn automatically
when the data in the model is updated.
Views can also register a *controller* that will handle user actions.
+
+
+Controller
+----------
+
Controllers are written in Javascript. They consist mainly in a collection of
action handlers: for each action taken by the user, there is an action handler.
+Controller classes have access to the model and to the view.
+
Available widgets
=================
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