The Branch Transformation Toolkit provides a fully customizable
XML Desktop that includes a reusable set of implemented components. These
components in turn provide a default behavior to define the desktop layout
in a transactional system. This design enables the whole set of operations
to be distributed in a hierarchical manner inside the XML Desktop.
Customization teams may choose to use the XML Desktop (hereafter referred
to as the Desktop) as is; to reuse the provided components; or to add their
own components. The Desktop is dynamically built at runtime by adding all
the components that have been defined in an external file. The layout of this
file follows the standard XML format.
The Desktop uses tasks to handle operations and operation panels.
A task is an object that contains at least one operation and an operation
panel. When a task is launched, its operation is initialized and its panel
is displayed on the Desktop
The Desktop components provide the following features:
- Ability to launch tasks
- Ability to maintain the list of opened tasks inside a task area
- Ability to close tasks one by one with a pop-up menu
- Ability to close all open tasks
- Ability to view multiple tasks
- Ability to display tasks in a tiled, cascaded, or overlapped arrangement
- Ability to customize the size of the panels and the position of the panels
in the working area
- Ability to show information, error, and warning message pop-ups, and to
customize the level of message to display
- Ability to customize a shortcut area
- Support for multiple languages (see National Language Support)
- Ability to change the orientation of the visual components
- Re-use of panels
- Support for flow of navigation between panels (see Navigation Controller)
- Ability to group tasks to be launched in scenarios, where each task appears
as a notebook page in the scenarios area
- A working area where the operation panels are displayed
- Text fields, to show whatever information is useful to the user. In particular,
a message field can be included to show a message displayed by any process
during the whole application process
- Display of current date and time, if required
- Icon buttons and menu items, to launch either a task or an external application
- Icon labels, to insert any required icon
- Multiple state icon labels, to enable the application to switch between
different icons depending on the status of devices or communications
- An exit button with a confirm dialog box
- Externalization of the processes (methods) to be executed when the Desktop
is either initialized or closed
- Ability to distribute the tasks to be launched in a tree hierarchy
- Ability to define action events in the external file for the different
components, such as when the mouse enters or leaves a label or an icon, when
an icon is clicked, or when a component is initialized
- Ability to launch a task by entering its name or code in a text field
- Ability to navigate with the keyboard and to launch tasks using mnemonics
or hot keys