Morfik Application Workspace
From Morfik Wiki
The Morfik application workspace provides an effective way for you to interact with project documents, properties and code. Morfik uses the Ribbon interface along with document thumbnails in Project View to provide an effective design environment capable of accommodating the needs of visual programming and graphical design.
The workspace places most of the commonly executed operations onto its highly visible toolbar so that you can easily make changes to your project and documents. The application's main toolbar provides access to most of the project and document management features as well as document formatting and graphical design.
Workspace layout
The Morfik workspace is divided up into areas as indicated by the numbers in the diagram below.
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| Clicking on different sections of the Workspace takes you to the relevant topic |
1 - The Power Menu
The Power Menu is accessed by clicking the dark blue button with white 'power on' symbol at the far left of the Ribbon. A drop-down menu provides immediate access to most Morfik functions related to project and document management, such as opening and closing files. Some menu options on the Power Menu are context-sensitive, and will be disabled if they are not applicable to the current state of the Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
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| The Power Menu |
The Power Menu contains the following options (sub-menu options are denoted by the | symbol):
2 - Run Button
The Run Button appears to the right of the Power Menu. The Run Button is used to start, stop and pause your application.
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| Morfik Run Button |
The Run Button is only enabled when a project is open, and toggles between 3 different states:
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State 1—Press to compile and start the application;
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State 2—Displays when the application is running. Press to halt the application;
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State 3—Displays when the debugger encounters a breakpoint. Press to continue application execution without stepping into/through any remaining code.
3 - Quick Access Toolbar
The Quick Access toolbar and Customize button are located to the right of the Power Menu button. It gives you one-click access to your most commonly used IDE functions. The toolbar is also completely configurable.
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| Quick Access Toolbar and Customize Button |
To configure the Quick Access Toolbar, press the Customize Button (as shown above) to display the Customize drop-down menu with the following menu options:
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List of Currently Configured Commands
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More Commands...
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Show Quick Access Toolbar [Above | Below] the Ribbon
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Minimize Ribbon
How Do I: Learn Tips and Tricks on Ribbon Menu and Toolbar?
This video is a tour of Morfikâs Ribbon style user interface. A selected number of commands in Morfik Ribbons have been explained and tips are given on how they could be used. The video also includes an overview of the Quick Access Toolbar and the Power menu.
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The player will show in this paragraph
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| Morfik Ribbons and Quick Access Toolbar video |
4 - Ribbon
The Ribbon is the main toolbar of the Morfik workspace. Morfik has adopted this taller toolbar to better display graphically rich information about themes, layouts and color selection.
The tabs on the Ribbon display the commands that are most relevant for each of the task areas in the applications. Following is a list of tabs in the Morfik Ribbon.
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| Ribbon |
5 - Project View
The Project View displays the objects that are contained in your project such as Forms, Reports, Tables and WebMethods. It also provides a highly visual reference for managing these objects, including the ability to create new objects and edit existing ones.
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| Project View |
Note: You can activate Project View at any time by using Ctrl+Alt+P keyboard shortcut.
Documents that are visual in nature are by default represented by a thumbnail image. This makes it easy and fast to locate specific Forms and Reports in projects with a moderate number of objects. Figure XX shows the Project View for a small project.
For projects with many similar documents it is sometimes best to use the filtering option that is available from the Home Tab of the Ribbon when you are in Project View. In Figure xx you can see the Project View of a project and the filtering mechanism being used. In this example, documents and objects containing 'staff' in their name are displayed.
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| Project View with filtering in use |
To see many objects on screen at the same time, reduce the Zoom Factor for the Project View. This option is available from the Home Tab of the Ribbon. Reducing the zoom level will lead to all thumbnails being replaced by small icons to allow more objects on screen at the same time. Figure 4 shows a project view at its minimum zoom settings.
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| Zoom level control for Project View |
| Note: | You can also hold down the control key and use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out of Project View. |
Designer/Editor
The Designer/Editor enables you to perform graphical design work on your objects (such as Forms and Reports) and work on the code behind those objects using a powerful text editor.
The area at the center of the workspace is reserved for the document Designer or Editor. The content in this section changes according to document and selected view. While editing a Form, for example, a visual design and two code views would be available. The view can be changed from the Ribbon.
The Designer/Editor can be invoked for the following objects:
Form Designer
Report Designer
Table Designer
Query Designer
WebMethod Designer
Module Designer
Relationship Designer
6 - Left Docking Site
The Left Docking Site, which by default is along the left side of the workspace, contains the Properties, Events and Styles Inspectors. The panel hides along the left side of the screen when not in use. Clicking the mouse cursor on the panel causes it to expand fully to the right; moving the mouse cursor off the panel causes it to contract. The panel may be locked in its expanded position by 'pinning' it in place with the Pin Button.
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| Left Docking Site |
An Inspector can be moved from its original location by dragging it to another location on the workspace. In order to facilitate this movement, the Inspector must first be pinned in place. To move the Inspector back to its original pinned location, double-click the Inspector's title bar. An Inspector may also be closed by pressing the Close button. If you accidentally close a panel, you can reopen it by going to the Ribbon bar's 'View | Panels | Panels' drop-down menu and selecting the appropriate panel.
The Properties, Events and Styles Inspectors function as follows:
7 - Right Docking Site
Along the right side of the workspace, by default, is the Right Docking Site containing the Debug Scripts and Debug Source Inspectors.
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| Right Docking Site |
The panel (by default) hides along the right side of the screen when not in use. Hovering the mouse cursor over the panel causes it to fully expand to the right; moving the mouse cursor off the panel causes it to contract.
The panel may be locked in its expanded position by 'pinning' it in place; press the Pin Button to do so.
These panels are of use only when debugging an application at the platform compiler level (JavaScript and Object Pascal for the browser and server portions of the application, respectively).
The Debug Scripts and Debug Source Inspectors function as follows:
8 - Bottom Docking Site
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| Bottom Docking Site |
Located, by default, across the bottom of the workspace, the Bottom Docking Site contains a series of Inspectors that can be used when performing management tasks for your project or while debugging. These Inspectors include:
9 - Status Bar
The application Status Bar provides a range of contextual information about objects. It is divided into several sections showing Zoom, Position, Style, Width and Height information.
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| Status Bar |
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Zoom Percentage
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Edit State
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Control Name and Type
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Left and Top Positions
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Width and Height
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Font Type and Size
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Style Details
Related Topics
- What you need before getting started
- Installing Morfik
- Customizing the environment
- Building your first application with Morfik