Child pages
  • Using the Solution Explorer
Skip to end of metadata
Go to start of metadata

 The Solution Explorer allows users to:

  • Manage and edit project resources (database servers, styles, security, i18n, and templates)
  • Work on a project with a team
  • Select and activate a solution
  • Edit a solution's properties
  • Open solution resources (forms, scripts, tables, media, etc) in appropriate editors
  • Insert predefined code resources from existing resources into a script

Users can perform many of these functions by right-clicking on a node in the Solution Explorer to access the context menu. When applicable, users can open items listed in the Solution Explorer in their default editors by double-clicking on the item. The following sections describe the different actions available via the context menus, followed by a brief discussion on using the contextual list found at the bottom of the Solution Explorer.

Note: Many of the nodes contain the following shared items in the context menu:

  • Solution Explorer navigation items (same as found in the Solution Explorer toolbar)
  • Team sharing items (further discussed in the Team Providers section).
  • Compare with (allows comparison of two files)
  • Restore from Local History

The latter two items are addressed in the Script Editor chapter

The rest of this chapter lists the functions available when using the Solution Explorer, namely:

In This Chapter

Managing Resource Projects

The Solution Explorer allows quick access to the resource project assigned to a solution. The default top node, Resources, is the default Servoy Resource Project that accompanies each solution. The context menu can be used to:

  • Add/remove the resource 'nature' to the project; that is, removing the resource project loses its status as a Servoy Resource Project (see Overview of Servoy Developer Concepts ).
  • Add/remove the project 'nature' to the resource project.
  • Synchronize the Resource Projects with the database.

More importantly, the Resources node allows users to manage the following key items for the project.

Note: Each of the following items are described in greater detail in their own pages under the Working with Resource Projects chapter.

Connecting To/Adding Database Servers

In the Database Servers node, the context menu allows users to connect to an existing database server or create a new database server that the solution can access.

When expanded, users can double-click on each database server on the list to edit the database properties. The following actions are also available for each database server via the context menu:

  • Open in SQL Editor (a plugin)
  • Create a database table (opens in a table editor)
  • Duplicate a server
  • Enable/disable a server
  • Synchronize local changes with the database server
  • Reload tables/table structures from the database server
  • Update Servoy sequences
  • Load relations
  • Suggest Foreign types
  • Delete the database
  • Search for references to the server (shown in the bottom Results view)

Managing Styles

The context menu on the Styles node allows users to quickly create a new style using a wizard. A CSS stylesheet with predefined categories will open in a text editor window.

Note: When the Styles node is selected, the bottom contextual list shows a list of all styles available in the project. Double-clicking a selected style will open it in a text editor. 

Editing Users and Group Security

Users and groups can be edited either by double-clicking on the node User and group secutiry or accessing Edit users/groups from its context menu.

Managing i18n

The i18n node context menu allows to edit i18n messages and if needed, define/create a database table for i18n. It also allows to create from and write to the assigned i18n database. For more information on i18n, see the i18n documentation.

Activating Solutions

The All Solutions node lists all available solutions in the workspace. The context menu on this node provides options for:

  • Creating a new solution
  • Importing a solution
  • Checking out a solution from the Servoy repository

The icons beside each solution on the expanded All Solutions node can be either green or gray. Green items represent active solutions and modules.

When users select a particular solution from the expanded All Solutions tree, the context menu allows users to activate the selected solution (if not already active). Only one solution can be active at a time.

On individual items within the All Solutions list, the context menu also allows users to

  • Delete a solution
  • Rename a solution
  • Change/reassign a resources project to a selected solution
  • Add/remove a solution as a module in the currently active solution. When added as a module, the solution is then accessible via the Modules branch in the active solution (see chapter on Working with Modules).

Viewing the Currently Active Solution

Expanding the currently active solution node lists the contents of the solution:

  • Globals
  • Forms
  • Relations
  • Valuelists
  • Media
  • Modules

Each item above can be expanded to reveal the contents.

The context menu on the currently active solution node allows some of the same functions available in the All solutions menu, with the following additions:

  • Open in Script Editor - opens the solution's globals.js file in Script editor
  • Create new Form - adds a new form to the active solution
  • Replace server - copies the local version of the solution to the server.
  • Replace table - copies a locally edited solution table to the server.
  • Run unit tests
  • Export Solution
  • Externalize to i18n

Individual items within the active solution are commonly created or opened in their appropriate editors via the context menu.

For more details, see the Working with Solutions chapter.

Using the Solution Explorer Contextual List

The lower portion of Solution Explorer shows contents of items selected in the tree view. Most often, it is used to view lists of code resources (methods, functions, variables, and relations) and in addition, media. Users can hover over an item in the contextual list to view additional information, if available. Users can also move code from the list into an open script editor (see the Script Editor chapter for details).

  • No labels