
The layout of a rectangular unit of logically associated UI elements (for example, input fields, checkboxes, or radio buttons) is represented in a view, in which the user can interact with the application. When designing more complex user interfaces within a Web Dynpro application, a view is the smallest unit of UI elements that cannot be divided any further.
The following procedure describes how to design a simple user interface using the integrated View Designer.
The first part of the procedure describes how to create a new view in the existing Web Dynpro component. In the second part, you design the layout and UI elements of the view using the View Designer.
Creating a New View
After the completion of several generation routines, the new view is displayed under the Views node in the Web Dynpro Explorer.
Next to the Web Dynpro Explorer is the View Designer, which consists of several tabs. You can visually design a view in the Layout tab.
Designing the View Layout
Proceed with designing your first view. You want to embed a TextView UI element and an Image UI element in a Group UI element. At design time, the view is displayed in the View Designer of the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio as follows:
Add a Group UI element to the RootUIElementContainerUI element, which already contains a default TextView UI element, the DefaultTextView UI element.
The RootUIElementContainer UI element contains the TransparentContainer type and is integrated into each view as an invisible shell for all UI elements that are contained in it.
The various properties of a UI element can be edited in the Properties tab of the properties window in the View Designer.
The layout property of the Group control remains unchanged (FlowLayout). This means that all UI elements contained in it are displayed in one row and are only wrapped when the space of the corresponding container control is insufficient.
You have developed the largest part of your first Web Dynpro application. However, the development process was purely declarative.
Now, that you have created and designed the WelcomeView view in the Web Dynpro component FirstComponent, you can include this view in the external visual representation of the Web Dynpro component, known as Window.
For further information on the UI element properties and methods that are available for the UI element interfaces, refer to the descriptions of the individual elements.