Altering OASIS Screens

Starting with OASIS 2.7, many of the OASIS forms (screens) may be changed with a configuration file. This is a very advanced feature and should only be attempted after consulting Ingen Software

How it Works

When a form loads, the user's assigned workgroup is scanned for a matching configuration file. If one is found, then it is used - otherwise a default file is used.

Once a configuration file is selected, it is "parsed" as an XML file and a screen layout is formed. Below are a list of standard controls and "panels". In addition, many other screen specific controls are available. Currently, there is not a "dump" method availalbe to show all availalbe controls.

File Contents by Example

The file: QuoteFindPanel_Configuration.xml

From the contents, the outer tag must be <Panel>. Currently, the file must conteain another level <Defaults>. The next level of tags defines a region of the screen:

• <MenuBar> - to create menus from the controls
• <Popup> - to create a popup menu
• <ToolBar> - for the icon tool bar at the top of the windown (NOTE: not all controls will have associated icons.
• <Taskbar> - the "blue bar" on many screens in OASIS. Typcially used to define controls used for task specific features.
• <Content> - content for the window
• <Table> - (not for all forms) default table layout.

If the file is blank, then the screen will be nothing more than a title bar!

From this example:

<!--
 * <p>Title: OASIS Core application</p>
 * <p>Description: </p>
 * <p>Copyright: Copyright (c) 2005</p>
 * <p>Company: Ingen Software, Inc.</p>
 * @author Ingen Software, Inc.
 * @version 1.0
-->

<Panel>
  <Defaults>
    <Content>
      <Tabs>
        <Tab name="Basic">
          <Scroll>
            <List layout="flow">
              <List>
                <Item feature="Project"/>
                <Item feature="Location"/>
              </List>
            </List>
          </Scroll>
        </Tab>
      </Tabs>
    </Content>
  </Defaults>
</Panel>

The content area will contain one tab that will scroll if the window size can not contain the controls in the window. The controls "Project" and "Location" are displayed vertically. (The list with "flow" is used to add spacing to the controls if the window size is larger than the controls.)

Default Tags

The following tags are defined for all windows:

Forms and Configuration File Names

The following form file names are current

<Modify> Forms

Instead of rewriting a default form, it is possible to modify a form. To do this, create a .xml file of the same name. Then use the structure shown below to describe what is removed or added to the form. Finally, add to a specialization or attachments.

The modify form has a root tag of <Modify> followed by an add or remove.

<Add>

The add tag has one required attribute: path="". This is the path as described by the tag names or name="" attributes. Within the <Add> tag body, the item(s) to be added to the form are described.

For example:

  <Add path="Panel.Defaults.MenuBar.File">
    <Menu name="New">
      <Item feature="ingen.oasis.invoices.feature.NewResellInvoice" key="CTRL-N"/>
      <Item feature="ingen.oasis.invoices.feature.NewResellVendorInvoice"/>
      <Item feature="ingen.oasis.invoices.feature.NewResellCustomerInvoice"/>
    </Menu>
  </Add>

The path locates the items to be added under the file menu, creating a new menu "New" with the described menu items.

As expected, the features must exist before the menu item is actually shown.

<Remove>

The remove tag may be used to remove an item from a path within the .xml or to remove a feature (e.g. menus, buttons, controls, etc). In both cases, an <Add> tag may be used to then replace the item where required.

For example:

  <Remove path="Panel.Defaults.MenuBar.File.New"/>

In this case, the nodes describing the "New" sub menu under the "File" primary menu are removed - including the "New" sub menu.

For example:

  <Remove feature="ingen.oasis.invoices.feature.CommissionRequest"/>

In this case, all controls referencing the feature for the CommissionReport are removed. This is typically just a menu, but the same remove tag may be used to remove local features (e.g. PONumber) and whatever control is associated with the feature.