CDE/cde/examples/template/C/template.htg

<metainfo>

 <title>template (Sample Application)
 <copyright>

    Copyright &copy; 1993, 1994 Hewlett-Packard
    Copyright &copy; 1993, 1994 International Business Machines Corp.
    Copyright &copy; 1993, 1994 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Copyright &copy; 1993, 1994 Novell, Inc.
    All Rights Reserved.

    !!This program is for demonstration purposes only! !!

 <abstract>This online help volume is used with the `template' application.

<\metainfo>       

<hometopic>Template Help Information
              <idx|introduction|

This is the home topic. This is the top level of your ``template'' help
information.

Choose one of the following links to find out more about the ``template''
application.

<list bullet>
  * <xref chap1ID>
  * <xref chap2ID>
<\list>


<chapter id=chap1ID> User feature description

The template application illustrates how a simple application
can be integrated fully into the CDE desktop.

The application's user-visible features are:
<list bullet>
	* Draw using mouse button 1.
	* Load and Save drawings as .template files.
	* File manager recognition of .template files.
	* Print system recognition of .template files.
	* Front panel recognition of .template files and Template actions.
	* Dropping of .template file onto application will load file.
	* All application messages can be localized.
<\list>

<chapter id=chap2ID> Application description

This is a template CDE application. It illustrates how to write
a simple application integrated with the CDE desktop.

The application provides a simple airbrush drawing facility using
Motif. It defines a new file type '*.template' which contains a list
of x, y coordinates for the drawn points. The application and data
format favor simplicity over performance, and could obviously
be improved.

<procedure>Actions
A set of actions are provided to allow integration into the CDE desktop:

	TemplateNew (labeled New) - to create a new Template data file.
	TemplateOpen (labeled Open) - to open an existing Template data file.
	TemplatePrint (labeled Print) - to Print a Template data file.

<procedure>Datatypes
The template data file is described by the datatype TemplateData, defined
in C/template.dt

<procedure>Icons
A minimal set of icons are provided to integrate with the CDE desktop. The
application group icons, window manager icon, Action icons and data file
icons are identical. In a more sophisticated application, these would
most likely be similar, but visually differentiated in some way.

<procedure>Help
A simple help file is provided. This can be displayed from within the
application using the Help viewer widget (by selecting 'Overview' in the
'Help' menu. It can also be view using the dthelpview tool.

<procedure>Message Catalog
All user-visible text in the application is loaded from the message catalog
template.cat.

<procedure>App-defaults file
The app-defaults file 'Template' contains resources to set the initial
size of the application window.

<procedure>Example file
As recommended in the Programmer's Guide, an example .template file is
provided.

<procedure>The Application Package
The Makefile provided will build the application binary and associated
files. It then copies these into the newly created template directory
hierarchy. The ./dt/ subdirectory hierarchy is described in the Programmer's
Guide. The other directories (bin, app-defaults, msg) are arbitrary and
may vary for your application and installation script.

This application package can then be installed using an application
installation script. This script should be written to ensure that
the bin, app-defaults and message catalog get installed correctly
on your target system, and available in the appropriate user or
system search paths.

The final step of the installation script should be to execute
'dtappintegrate -s template' This will ensure that the desktop
files under the ./dt/ subdirectory are installed correctly and
inserted into the appropriate system and user paths.

<procedure>Localization
The application is ready for localization. This directory contains
the non-localizable portions of the application.

The ./C/ directory contains the localizable portions of the application
in US English. Some or all of these files should be translated and
placed in a separate locale-specific directory.