Creating Applications and Pages

AppliBuilder lets you create web applications, each of which consists of one or more web pages. These web pages are generated from pages you create in AppliBuilder, and may be combined with other web pages you create, e.g. using a HTML editor.

The following are come of the common tasks used to create applications.

Create An Application

Create a new application with the Create Application item in the Application menu. Enter the application name and path.

One page, index.html, is automatically created when you create an application.

Create Additional Pages

To add new pages, use the Add Page item in the Page menu. You will connect pages in an application using HTML links, and using popup inline frames from the AppliBuilder function library.

Add Widgets, and Customize Page

On any page, you can add widgets by opening the widget library. Click on add widget to open the widget library and pick widgets to add to your page. Click on ADD to add a widget.

Once you add widgets, double click on a widget to customize the widget properties and events.

You can drag and drop widgets to reorganize the page, set number of columns on the page, set row and column spans for each widget, etc.

Add Datasources

Your applications will typically interact with data via one or more Datasource objects.  AppliBuilder users create Datasources to setup access to specific data.  For example, a datasource may provide access to a specific SOAP web service, or a specific SQL prepared statement. You can add Datasource objects to an application that can be used in different ways.

To add a Datasource, click on the Manage Datasources item in the Data menu.

Add Library Functions

You can import any Javascript functions of your choosing. A number of useful functions are provided via the Function library. Open the Function Library to see the available functions.

Click on ADD to import the required files for a function.

Add Javascript Functions

You can add Javascript functions on a page that can be invoked in multiple ways, e.g. using widget events. Use the Function menu to add and manage your functions.

Script Pages

To script pages, you will invoke functions as needed. There are three types of triggers to invoke your functions:

• Use widget property forms to specify javascript code to be invoked on widget events, e.g. onclick, onload, etc.
• Use widget property forms to invoke an imported function, or a page function you create, using a widget event.
• Add a body code block, i.e. javascript function, which is executed when the page is loaded.

Add CSS Styles

You can add CSS Styles to any page to customize the look of the widgets and the page. Use the Styles menu to add and edit styles.

Preview Pages

Click on the page name at the top of your builder screen to see a preview. You can also use the Page Preview item in the Page menu to preview pages. Pages are generated as files on the server, and stored in your application directory.

Using Generated Pages on Your Web Site

You can link to the pages you generate, or include these pages in your web site. Use one of the following techniques to use these pages in your web site or Blog:

• Link to the page using the URL. When you preview the page you will see the URL of a page in your browser.
• Use an IFrame in your web site or Blog to link to this page.
• Download the page and required page files onto your web site. See below for information on downloading your application pages

Download Pages

You can download all your application pages, i.e. files, via the Applications menu.

Other Tasks

A number of other tools are provided to work with your application database and application pages.

• Database Tools: See the Data menu for tools to query the database, create Named Queries and other database operations.
• Manage Applications: Tools are provided to manage your applications, clone other users applications, create new files, add CSV data to your database, etc.