Basic Questions Thread

[jfcone]

If its OK with you all, I would like to use this thread to pose basic architectural/design questions about RCP. It will help me to (a) understand RCP better and (b) begin putting together a good documentation for my own and anyone else's use. Thanks in advance.

Q1: The ApplicationDescriptor class. Is there any specific reason why this class is assigned only the two properties: version and buildID, as opposed to a map property that would allow a developer to assign any other properties that make sense for his/her application context? I know one could accomplish the same thing through a .properties file but I'm just curious why the strict contraint on the applicationdescriptor.

Q2: Since RCP, by default, expects a startingView for each application, is my understanding correct that one could employ this startingView to make an RCP application behave as say, an MDI, or pageWithMultiView, etc type of application? For instance, if my startingView is a DesktopPane then I'm good for MDI, or if I start with say an InfoNode Rootwindow, then I'm good for a multi-View page application? If this is the case, does anyone see any drawback in using such a startingView as a frontController by making it implement any desired set of Listeners and making application-specific commands aware of this view so they can use it appropriately?

[pdbruycker]

Answer for Q2:

the "startingPageId" property of the ApplicationLifecycleAdvisor can be one of two things:

1. a View: this is currently used by the DefaultApplicationPage implementation
2. a PageDescriptor: this can be used to create an ApplicationPage that supports multiple frames.
   See http://forum.springframework.org/showthread.php?t=11173 for more information about this. It describes an ApplicationPage with a backing JDesktopPane, but the same logic goes for infonode docking or flexdock framework.

Also note that support for this is in progress.

Hope this helps,

Peter