Ultra Light Client Guide and Reference


Implementing ULC objects

The UI Engine can be extended to support new kinds of ULC objects like widgets and data types (that is, type converters and formatters). This section demonstrates the required steps for implementing a ULC widget. As discussed in Overview of ULC, a ULC widget consists of two half objects:

In addition to the half objects, there is the real widget, which often already exists and needs to be adapted to be used in ULC. The development of a ULC extension is demonstrated based on the PieChart widget, which is shown in the following illustration:
Pie Chart Sample

Implementing a new ULC widget requires the following steps:

  1. If the widget does not exist, implement the real widget. In this example, the widget is called PieChart.
  2. Implement the UI half (UIPieChart).
  3. Implement the faceless half (ULCPieChart).

The real widget and the UI half must be implemented in Java. The faceless half can be implemented in either Java and Smalltalk, depending on the needs of your business.

Note:All the strings that are used as tags/keys in the ULC protocol between UI and faceless half must contain 8-bit characters (16-bit Unicode is only supported for data and not for the internal ULC protocol).


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