8.4.2 Setting Project Properties

Project Properties are the properties that apply to the complete Project. The Project Property form provides a way to edit these properties. The Project Property form can be opened by either clicking the Project Properties menu item from the Properties Menu or by pressing F12 key.

Project properties controls how the project is handled including the following.

• Look and Feel Standards, parameters common across the Project and Project Description.

• Source Generation settings.

• Class path settings of required jars, run time options and Smart jar archive options.

• Compilation options.

• Main Screen, JDK path settings and test screen options.

• Debugging Settings.

The detailed explanation of the usage of each Tab is given below.

General

The above figure shows of the General Tab. In this Tab you can set the "Look and Feel Standards", parameters common to the whole Project and the Project Description.

The combo box labelled Look and Feel Standards has the following options:

• AdventNet Look and Feel (ALF) Standards

• User Defined Standards

• None

Project Parameters : This contains the list of parameters and the corresponding values to be used in an Applet or Application.

In the case of the Applet, the generated HTML Document contains these parameter value pair.

In the case of Application, these would be the command line arguments and the code required to parse these command line arguments are automatically generated.

(Click here for the snap shot)

Project Description : In this option you can provide a brief Project Description, which is written to the README file. Click the Edit Button to invoke the Editor.

Source Generation

The above figure shows the Source Generation Tab. Here, you have to provide Package Name you wish to include and the settings to internationalize the source. There is an option to Support Dynamic Parameter Change in the application. When you enable this option, you can pass the parameters dynamically.

Source Directory: The non editable text field labelled 'Source Directory' displays location of the generated source files for the current project. This field is not editable.

Package Name:  This specifies the name in which the project files needs to be grouped. The source generated for the project belongs to this package.  

Internationalize the Source: This option is provided to internationalize the generated source. If you wish to internationalize the source check the option and provide the Locale Properties. The Locale Properties dialog is invoked when you click the Locale Properties Button.

The fields in Locale Properties dialog are

Variable Name: Variable name is used for getting the locale properties. By default it is set as "resourceBundle", it can be changed as desired by the user. The source part generated with this variable name is shown below as an example:

JButton1.setText(resourceBundle.getString("OK"));

Bundle Name: This indicates the file name specifying the locale properties. By default, it is given as "<Project name>Resources". For example, for the project "default" the file name is "defaultResources"

Locale: This indicates the language in which the words should be mapped to. On choosing the language, the language extension is appended to the Bundle name which specifies the locale file name. For example, the locale file name for the "default" project is "defaultResources_ar_DZ".

To edit the locale properties, open the locale file in the form "BundleName_LocaleEditable.properties" present under the directory "<Web NMS Home>/Projects/<Your Project>/classes" and make changes. For more information, refer the topic Internationalizing the Application.

Classpath Settings

In the above figure you can find three panels namely

Compilation classpath: In this panel you can include the jars required for the Project.

Required jars: By default the APIUtils.jar and the JimiProClasses.zip are loaded and other Jars which are used in the screens are also loaded. You can include any other jar from the jars directory of Web NMS Home.

Classpath: In the Classpath option you can include the classpath of the third party jars. This is applicable only for Application build types.

Append startup classpath: If it is enabled, the startup classpath of the tool is also added to the class path of the project. This applies only to the Application Types.

Runtime ClassPath Option: This path is provided to set the runtime classpath. There are two radio options in this panel namely Compilation classpath and Smart Jar archive classpath.

Compilation Classpath: On choosing this option all the options provided in the Compilation classpath panel are considered.

Smart Jar Archive Classpath: If you select this option the classpath for jars provided in the "Smart Jar Options" dialog (it is invoked when you click the 'Smart Jar Archive Details' button) is considered.

Smart Jar archive Options: The configurable options present in Smart Jar Options dialog which is invoked by clicking the "Smart Jar Archive Details" button are

Excluded Packages: Enter package prefixes of classes that need not be added to the "Smart Jar". For example, classes that start with "java" need not be added to the "Smart Jar" as these classes will any way be present in any JVM that the application/applet runs.

ClassPath: Enter the classpath for the application/applet. This is the classpath that will be set if the "Smart Jar archive classpath" option is selected in the Run Time classpath panel.

Compilation

These are the standard options provided by the Java Compiler. These options are made use of during the compilation of the project files.

• Include Debug info - Generate debugging information.

• Generate warnings  - Generate warning messages.

• Verbose Messages - Output messages about what the Compiler is doing.

• Optimize - may hinder debugging or enlarge class file.

• Show Deprecations - Give the location where deprecated APIs of Java are used in the source code.

Check or un-check the respective check boxes according the user's requirement.

The editable text field labelled "Classes Directory" displays location of the compiled class files. This can be modified to any other directory according to the user's choice.

Run Setup

Main Screen Name- This identifies the entry point for running the project i.e. the class corresponding to this screen is invoked first on running the project.

Java Home - Specifies the path of JDK you want to test the application with. By default, the JDK path using which the Bean Builder tool was started is specified here.

Java Parameters - Java provided command-line Options such as '-verbose' can be specified here.

Java Variables - Variables whose values are specified by appending to the command while running.

Application Arguments - Specifies the command line arguments needed for the Application Types. The difference between Application Arguments and the Project Parameters (in the General tab of Project Properties) is that in the case of Application Arguments, the parsing functionality is not incorporated in the generated code.

Test Screen as (Application/Applet)  -  The Application type depends on the Deployment to be made. This decides whether the Main Screen should be an Applet or Application. This warrants that the sub screens of type Panel, Frame and Dialog also behave the same way as the Main Screen. Application can be chosen when you want to avoid unnecessary caching of jars, while Applet can be chosen to test the real Web related features.

 Debug Info

Log Directory - This specifies the location of the logs directory of that project.

Log Application/Applet Output - Check this box to enable logging of application/applet output.

Use jdb -  Specifies whether to run using "jdb" provided by JAVA.

Source Debug - Check this box to enable Source debugging.

After providing the above details click the OK button to save the settings and close the Project Properties dialog.