Rendering Web GUI Components for Display

The rendering process for a <web-component> is very similar to the specifying property names and values process for rendering a bean.

Rendering the Web GUI Component for display is a two-step process. Once the <web-component> is defined in the Page Configuration file, the actual rendering occurs on the MicroStrategy Web page that needs to display the content. The page uses the MicroStrategy custom HTML tag displayGUIComponent to render the Web GUI Component for display.

The displayGUIComponent tag is analogous to the displayBean custom HTML tag used for rendering a bean. The displayGUIComponent tag renders a <web-component>, which must be defined in the Page Configuration file, while the displayBean tag renders a <web-bean>. The displayBean tag can include an optional styleName attribute, whereas the displayGUIComponent tag does not because, by definition, a <web-component> defines a bean/style combination.

The code samples below illustrate how to set the style for a Web GUI Component and render it for display.

MicroStrategy SDK provides a Web Customization Editor that can be used to modify Web GUI Components. See the following topics for detailed steps.

Code sample for defining a Web GUI Component in the Page Configuration file:

<web-components>

<web-componentbase-bean="fb" feature-id="" is-container=""name="folder_browser"style-name="folderViewMode"style-type="pref"/>

<web-component base-bean="fb" feature-id="" is-container="" name="folder_details" style-name="FolderStyleDetails" style-type="catalog"/>

<web-component base-bean="frame" feature-id="" is-container="true" name="report_area" style-name="" style-type=""/>

</web-components>

JSP code sample for rendering a Web GUI Component:

<web:displayGuiComponent name="folder_browser"/>

<web:displayGuiComponent name="folder_details" />

<web:displayGuiComponent name="report_area" isContainer="true"/>

ASP.NET code sample for rendering a Web GUI Component:

<web:displayGuiComponentrunat="server"name="folder_browser"/>

<web:displayGuiComponent runat="server" name="folder_details" />

<web:displayGuiComponent runat="server" name="report_area" isContainer="true"/>

The code for these custom HTML tags is almost identical in the J2EE and the .NET architecture except for the inclusion of the runat="server" attribute in ASP.NET code.

For a detailed explanation of using the displayBean tag, see Rendering Beans for Display.