The API of the Server/Views Mapping

This section briefly describes the three base classes of the Server/Views mapping. See Server/Views Representation Model for a detailed description.

When the view is created, a notification event from the server creates a new instance of IlsSwRepresentation. This representation object interfaces the view with a Server data source placed on a graphical panel. This Server data source uses the model you defined in your dynamic view specification file.

Let us suppose that a domain of the Network model is associated with an IlsSwTable object in Rogue Wave Server Studio. (Rogue Wave Server Studio is documented both in the Rogue Wave Server Getting Started manual and in Part IV of this manual.)

When a domain is notified, it is represented by an instance of IlsSwTable. This IlsSwTable object interfaces the domain with two Rogue Wave Views data sources:

These data sources are described in detail in Server/Views Mapping.

This IlsSwTable object represents both an object and a relation—in this example, the domain object and the nodes relation).

The Properties data source (or, more exactly, its underlying memory table) stores data from the origin of the table—in this example, the attributes of domain. Note that this data source contains only one row used to store the attributes whose mapping has been defined within the view specification file.

The Main data source (or, more exactly, its underlying memory table) stores data from the elements of the relation represented by the IlsSwTable object —in this example, the node attributes.

The class IlsSwTable specifies the schema of the Main data source, that is, the columns and their types.

Each node in the list of nodes of the selected domain is represented by an instance of IlsSwRow. This row object is connected to a row in the Main data dource. Thus, each time a node is added to the list for that domain, a new IlsSwRow object will be instantiated and a new row will be added to the Main data source.

We can sum up the role of each representation class as follows:

IlsSwServerDataSource objects are a bridge between an Rogue Wave Server representation model and Rogue Wave Views data sources.

IlsSwRepresentation objects are a bridge between dynamic views and the panel and dedicated Server data source.

IlsSwTable objects are a bridge between server relations and a Main data source and Properties data source, as well as between origins of server relation and rows in the Properties data source.

IlsSwRow objects are a bridge between server objects and rows in the Main data source.

All representation objects behave as a two-way interface, so that each time a modification occurs on a Views data source, this modification will be sent to the server to update the corresponding server object.

Of course, several server relations can be represented in a view. In this case, several pairs of Main/Properties data source are used in the same view.

Rogue Wave Views data source-aware gadgets connected to data sources reflect the contents of these data source. (See the Rogue Wave Views/Data Access documentation for a complete description of data sources and data source-aware gadgets.)