JadeSkin Class (superseded from JADE release 6.0)

The JadeSkin class contains JADE skins defined for your JADE release 5.1 and 5.2 applications and encapsulates the behavior required to define and maintain JADE skins using the JadeSkinMaint and JadeSkinSelect forms provided by the JADE RootSchema.

As the functionality of this class has been replaced by new skin classes and this class provides limited functionality required to define skins only for the application, it may be deimplemented in a later release.

For details about the extended functionality that enables you to define and maintain skins for your runtime applications, forms, or controls and use these only when specific criteria are met, see the JadeSkinEntity and JadeSkinRoot classes, later in this chapter, and "Defining and Maintaining JADE Skins at Run Time", in Chapter 2 of the JADE Runtime Application Guide.

A skin is a series of images that is applied to the caption line, menu line, and border areas of each form to provide an enhanced look and feel to each form. The skin can also define images for buttons, JadeMask controls, check boxes, and option buttons to further enhance the look and feel forms.

In JADE, applications can set a skin that is applied to all JADE forms displayed during the running of that application in the current work session. User applications could enforce a specific skin (for example, a company logo and so on), or they could provide the user with the ability to select a preferred skin that is set by the application initialize method (by calling the app.setSkin method).

JADE provides a collection of skins for the JADE development environment and a global collection that contains any user-defined skins that are available to all schemas. As JADE must be able to upgrade existing systems by just replacing the JADE system files, the skins used by the JADE development environment cannot be updated, and access to user-defined skins is not permitted.

As references to skins information are contained in the _usergui.dat system schema file, when the ReadOnlySchema parameter in the JADE initialization file is set to true, skins cannot be loaded.

JADE provides the following facilities that are available to any developer.

JadeSkinMaint form, which enables you to define and maintain skins for user applications at run time.
JadeSkinSelect form, which enables a user to select the skin to use in the application at run time.
JadeSkin class, in which the skins are stored.
Application class getSkin method, which returns a reference to the JADE skin that is currently set. If no skin is currently set, a null value is returned.
Application class getSkinCollection method, which returns the global collection of skins.

This collection is global to all schemas and is automatically created by the first app.getSkinCollection call.

To implement your own selection facility, display the name property for each JadeSkin object in the collection.
Application class setSkin method, which defines the skin to be used by the application by setting the skin that applies to the application that is currently running.

To cancel skin usage for the application, pass null as the skin object; that is, app.setSkin(null).

The set of skin images used by JADE is provided with the product release so that you can use these skins in your applications, if required. (By default, skins are not used in JADE 5.1 and 5.2 applications.)

The form border for a skin is made up of 11 images, as shown in the following image.

The following is a description of the above areas.

Images 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, and 11 are shown at actual size.
Images 2, 5, 7, 8, and 10 are stretched to fit the width or height of the form.
Images 1, 2, and 3 must have the same height to enable the form to display correctly.
Images 4, 5, and 6 must have the same height to enable the form to display correctly.
Images 9, 10, and 11 must have the same height to enable the form to display correctly.
The whole of image 1 is treated as the control menu area for the form.

If the menu does not fit on the menu line, the menu is extended to include additional lines as required. Each line is drawn with the same skin images as the first menu line.
When an MDI child is maximized, the whole of image 4 is treated as the system menu area for the MDI child.
Form icons are placed adjacently at the top right edge of the area defined by image 3.
MDI child form icons are placed adjacently at the top right edge of the area defined by image 6.
Form icons that are disabled are not displayed.

Button , CheckBox, and OptionButton control images are optional. If these images are not included, the standard drawing of controls is performed. If not all images for a button are included, the required state is drawn by using the button up picture. For example, if there is no roll over picture, no rollover state is displayed.

If the skin includes button images, any Button or JadeMask control adopts the appearance defined by the skin. Any button then also behaves like a JadeMask control with roll over and roll under effects. (For details, see "JadeMask Class", in Chapter 2.)

The following areas are not affected by using a skin.

Only JADE forms adopt the skin presentation. Environment-defined forms such as common dialogs and the JADE exception dialogs are unchanged.
Form icons (for example, the Terminate button) do not display button down effects.
When a form is resized, the environment may draw the standard form image while the resize is occurring.
Windows-drawn menu items are unchanged by the skin. This includes the system menu.
Any changes made to the skin do not affect any current users of that skin.
Default sounds do not occur when forms are minimized and maximized, as their actions must be performed programmatically by JADE.

For details about maintaining and using JADE skins, see "Specifying Your JADE Installation Preferences", in Chapter 2 of the JADE Installation and Configuration Guide, and "Defining and Maintaining JADE Skins" under "Using JADE Skins in Your Runtime Applications", in Chapter 2 of the JADE Runtime Application Guide.

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