Forms Design

BLOMASKY

So, starting with my new user questions, is the topic of forum UI

1). Is there a way to attach a CSS file to my application and then point my form to this? This would make it easy to control the border, default background and foreground color, drop shadow, etc.

2) I see the option to use an custom form. Are there any examples? Is this a technique others use to create "Pretty" forms?
a) To continue with above, I see options for HTML and Javascript forms. I assume that the javascript forms can have events attached to elements. Assuming that I want to have some convoluted business logic written in javascript, Would the best solution be to have some hidden fields on the form that I will do my mumbo-jumbo to and then when saved, they will just update the AwareIM BO

Thanks
Bruce

BenHayat

BLOMASKY wrote
So, starting with my new user questions, is the topic of forum UI

1). Is there a way to attach a CSS file to my application and then point my form to this? This would make it easy to control the border, default background and foreground color, drop shadow, etc.

2) I see the option to use an custom form. Are there any examples? Is this a technique others use to create "Pretty" forms?
a) To continue with above, I see options for HTML and Javascript forms. I assume that the javascript forms can have events attached to elements. Assuming that I want to have some convoluted business logic written in javascript, Would the best solution be to have some hidden fields on the form that I will do my mumbo-jumbo to and then when saved, they will just update the AwareIM BO

Thanks
Bruce

Bruce, if I may suggest...
Before getting into this area to use/change CSS and messing how Aware renders forms using Themes, my suggestion is to use the built in themes and Aware's rendering system and focus building apps with Aware's power. You can create elegant apps with the right theme. This way, you won't get frustrated with things you don't know yet.

Secondly, staying with Aware's system, makes it a lot easier to move to V7. After V7 is out, you can then learn Kendo UI and use Advance section to do advance JS and CSS.

BLOMASKY

Ben,

that does make sense, but I am still curious, is there a way to add my CSS style sheet to the app?

Bruce

customaware

Bruce,

When you say attach I am not quite sure what you mean.

The short answer is yes.

But let's be clear about the difference.

Style various parts of my Form such as cells, buttons data etc? ..... of course and very simple.
or
Create a completely new theme? This is doable but is a lot of work but some have done it successfully.
Tweak existing themes? Yes, again is doable if you know what you are doing and understand that each time you update Aware you will lose those changes unless you have them in other files.

If you want to include you own css....

Under the Tomcat/webapps/AwareIM folder create a new folder called Custom
Then crete a folder under that the same name as your business space
Then under that create your CSS, JS, images, or whatever folder

Save all of your app specific files in that structure. The Custom folder will be preserved with an Aware IM Update.

Then edit the startup.html file in the Tomcat/webapps/AwareIM folder and add the link to your css file after the CSS Separator line..

Then you can refer to it just about anywhere.

There are also some great tips on how you can override some of the Sencha controls in this years Conference Package albeit I am not sure if they will still work once we get to V7

BLOMASKY

Thanks Mark. that is just what I wanted. I know how to write CSS and would rather have a named attribute (like creditBalance) and use that CSS selector wherever I want to display things. This will give me consistancy and will allow me to make a change in one place and have it propagate throughout my app.

Bruce