Structure Editor

The structure editor is the mechanism in Uniface that understands events in form components. The structure editor derives its name from the external data structure that exists when forms contain data.

Note: This is the runtime structure editor, not to be confused with the Structure Editor panel in the IDE.

When an application runs a form that the user can interact with, Uniface starts an edit session for that form. Edit sessions can be nested when one form runs another modal form, and parallel sessions are maintained when non-modal forms are run. The more forms that are open at any one time, the more complicated the external data structure becomes (particularly if non-modal forms are used).

When users navigate through forms and edit data, they activate structure editor functions, which are requests for the structure editor to perform specific actions. The structure editor manages the behavior that this interaction initiates in Uniface, performing data validation and syntax checks when necessary. When required, the structure editor can also initiate processing in the runtime system, such as storing or retrieving data.

The structure editor manages how your application session works. The application session starts with the running of the first component from the apStart trigger of the application shell. This starts a complicated process flow. Throughout the application session, there is an active path that determines what data is currently being processed.

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