Following is a description of all the configuration items common to GUI applications. These are applications which provide the user with a graphical interaction possibility in addition to the standard command line features and which thus require a graphical desktop environment to be available from the operating system. Some of these applications might support a restricted subset of their functionality through their command line interface and might thus be useful for certain scenarios even in a server environment where no desktop is available.
Table 2.3. GUI related configuration items
| Name | Alias | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| dialog-properties | dlg | String | ${settings.dir}/${app.name}Dialog.properties |
The dialog properties file to use. Specifies the name of a file which will receive the properties of windows and dialogs of the application such as their size and position on screen. As most of the dialogs in BoarderZone applications are resizable, this provides for a very convenient user experience as the application will remember the last position of each dialog and/or window type. The properties will only be recorded if a dialog is not aborted. Settings must be saved either manually or automatically at application exit to keep that information available over several work sessions. |
| text-styles | styles | String | ${settings.dir}/${app.name}TextStyles.properties |
The text styles to use. This is a simple way of defining formatting information for text displays which will be used by certain controls such as for example the XML viewer. Plugins or dialogs which make use of such controls will display the text with the styles from this file. This allows to customize the syntax highlighting for example. The format is a hierarchical set of standard java properties which define various aspects of each style. |
| html-styles | css | String | ${settings.dir}/${app.name}HtmlStyles.css |
The html styles to use. Provides a way of customizing the default stylesheet for the HTML display control. This can be used to enforce a common style on all displayed HTML in the application. It is most probably not advisable to enable such a configuration for a browser like application which should honor the stylesheet of the originating website. The format is standard CSS as supported by the standard JDK HtmlEditorKit. |
| template-dir | N/A | String | ${app.home}/conf/templates |
The directory with file templates. Specifies a directory that contains template files for the application. The files can be organized in sub directories as needed. Creating a new file when selection of a template is offered by the application will display this directories contents to the user to choose from. |
| system-exit | N/A | Boolean | true |
Quick shutdown by calling System.exit(0) at end. A simple convenience switch which will force the JVM to exit more quickly in certain situations. It forces a call to System.exit(0) after the application has ended its normal operation. Without this call, the process might linger on some more time until the JDK internal AWT threads recognize that no more activity is going on and will shutdown. |