User's Guide

Using the VisualAge Organizer

To create a new application with the VisualAge Organizer window, do the following:

  1. Select New from the Applications menu.
  2. In the Name field, type a name for your application.
  3. Select OK.

VisualAge creates the application and adds, for example, NewApp to the application list.

Note that when an application is selected, the part classes in that application show in the parts list. Also note that VisualAge automatically creates two classes. VisualAge uses these classes, named NewApp and NewAppAbtPackage in this example, to start your application when it is packaged as a stand-alone application, and also to load your application into another user's development image.
VisualAge Organizer

Adding part classes to your application

You can add the following kinds of classes to your application:

Visual parts
Visual parts are all the windows and other user interface elements of your application.

Nonvisual parts
Nonvisual parts are the parts that do not have a visual representation at runtime.

Smalltalk classes
Smalltalk classes specify the data and behavior of objects. They are not actually VisualAge parts. You create Smalltalk classes to implement special logic, such as logic for your own data type converters.

If you have the Database and the Reports features loaded, you can also add the following kinds of classes:

Database access sets
Database access sets are the classes that store database query and stored procedure definitions.

Report parts
Report parts enable you to lay out reports such as accounting forms.

To create a new visual part in the VisualAge Organizer, follow these steps:

  1. In the Applications pane, select the application to which you want to add a visual part.
  2. Open the New Part window by

    selecting New from the basic Parts menu or by selecting the New Part icon tool. Upon opening, the New Part window displays:
    New Part window

To use this window and define your class:

  1. Name your class in the Part class field.
  2. Select the kind of class you want from the Part type drop-down list. You can select among Visual part, Nonvisual part, Smalltalk class and, provided you have the Database and Reports features loaded, Database access set and Report part.
  3. If needed, select the superclass for your new class from the Inherits from drop-down list. You usually can take the default. However, for Smalltalk classes, you will likely want to select a class whose data and methods are ones your new class needs.
  4. If you want to work on your new class immediately, keep the Open now checkbox selected. If you just want to create the class now and work on it later, deselect the Open now option.
  5. Select OK.

Notice that VisualAge adds the class to the list of parts for your application. If you checked Open now, it also opens an editor on the class so you can begin work on it. If you made a visual part, a Composition Editor window appears for you to begin laying out your user interface.


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