Application Design

Through its Application Design facilities that are accessed from the File menu, the Development Center acts as an application editor.

New applications can be created by selecting the New menu item. Existing applications can be edited by selecting the Open menu item. In addition, DC displays the most recently edited applications on the menu enabling you to open them directly. In all cases, the application is started and is fully functional — windows can be opened, data can be viewed and updated and so on. In addition, the design attributes of each window can be changed at any time. For example, for a window that is being used to edit data in an EntitySet, you can change the name of the EntitySet to be edited, you can paint the user interface, you can edit the generated code, you can COMPILE the code, and so on.

For more information on the underlying concepts of application design and the generators supplied with DC, refer to About Application Design in DC and Support for Data Entry Windows.

The File menu also enables you to run applications. In this case, the applications are not opened in design mode but execute exactly as when deployed to your end users. Access to printing and printer setup facilities are also provided.