WebObjects 5.0 Developer Documentation

The Structure of a Direct to Web Project

A Direct to Web project has a structure similar to other WebObjects application projects. A newly created project contains three components, each enclosed in a subgroup, which you can access if you disclose the contents of the Web Components group in the Groups & Files list in Project Builder's main window.

• MenuHeader.wo is a reusable component that contains the header with the control buttons on the left side of each page (or the top of the page in the Basic look.) You can add text or other elements to this component if you choose.
• Main.wo is the main component, representing the login page of the application.
• PageWrapper.wo is a reusable component that wraps the content of the pages of the application (except for Main.wo). It contains a header, the menu header component (MenuHeader.wo), and footer text and elements common to these pages. If you want to customize the headers and footers for all pages of your application, you can add text or other elements to this component.

You can add code to the .java files corresponding to each component to extend their functionality. See "Modifying Your Application's Code" (page 130) for more information on the Direct to Web API.

Each of the subgroups that contains a component also holds the component's .api file. This file specifies the exported keys, both optional and required, for each the component.

As you run your application, Direct to Web creates additional pages, using information in your model file and the settings specified in the WebAssistant. These pages do not show up as components in your project. Rather, Direct to Web creates them dynamically using a set of reusable components in the Direct to Web framework. However, you can generate components or user templates. When you do that, you can modify the resulting components just as you would with any other WebObjects components. See "Generating Components" and "User Templates" for more information.

The Resources group contains the model file you specified when you created the project (in this example, Movies.eomodeld). It also contains user.d2wmodel, which stores the preferences you have specified using the WebAssistant. Advanced users can edit this file; see "The Rule System" for more information about the rule file.

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