General Interface Primer

There's now an open-source Ajax GUI builder called General Interface which looks quite promising. A bunch of components that are somewhat familiar to Swing developers. Of course, all logic is Javascript :-(

After installation, here some tips that could come in handy:

1. Look at the video tutorials, the best one for tables(matrix) isn't actually on that page, but here.
2. Defining Javascript functions doesn't always work, even after Save/Reload. Try to restart and reload the page before giving up.
3. You might sneeze at the package names, but trust me, in Javascript conflicts are easy to create. Here's a simple example on a function called jmsw.doAction(index) :

   
   // name of the package to create: jmsw
   jsx3.lang.Package.definePackage(  "jmsw", function(jmsw) {
    jmsw.doAction = function(index) // define doAction(index)
    {
      ...
    };
   });
   

4. Do Control+Click on a component (such as a button) to locate its definition in the 'Component Hierachy'.
5. Float a Palette to get more space or to move it to the bottom panel: Upper Right Corner of a Palette View, click on 'Floating'. Use Menu->Palettes to enable/disable a palette.
6. The 'XML Mapping Tool' always starts with the same default of ..Address.wsdl, but this will not be the one you will be working with. To change the default of this initial URI, edit C:\TIBCO\gi-3.8-max\GI_Builder\plugins\jsx3.ide.mapping\components\Inputs\wsdl.xml and search for 'Address, comment it out and add your own WebService URI:

   
          <!-- use different default for XML Mapping Tool:
          <strings jsxname="jsx_schema_wsdlurl" jsxvalue="jsxplugin://jsx3.ide.mapping/samples/Address.wsdl" jsxwidth="100%"/>
          -->
   
          <strings jsxname="jsx_schema_wsdlurl" jsxvalue="http://127.0.0.1:9876/rs?wsdl" jsxwidth="100%"/>