Using the Visual Composition Editor

When the Visual Composition Editor opens, you can begin visually constructing your To-Do List applet. The To-Do List applet consists of a bean containing several visual beans.

Working with beans

When working with beans in VisualAge for Java, you use the following fundamental techniques: dragging beans, selecting multiple beans, and displaying pop-up menus.

Dragging beans

To drag a bean, click and hold down the appropriate mouse button (In OS/2, use mouse button 2 to drag a bean; in Windows, use mouse button 1). Move the crosshair to the desired location and release the button.

Selecting multiple beans

To select multiple beans, hold down the Ctrl key and click mouse button 1 on the items you want to select. This is referred to as a selection set.

Note:
Only beans that can be operated upon as a set can be contained in a selection set. A set of beans placed within a window, for instance, can be selected together for the purpose of sizing or alignment. However, you cannot select the window bean and one of the beans it contains together.

Displaying bean pop-up menus

To display a pop-up menu, click mouse button 2 on the bean.

Are You Familiar with Event-to-Code Programming?

The Visual Composition Editor is a visual programming environment. By using icons and mouse actions, you create your application code. However, you can also link visual events, such as clicking a button, with code that you yourself create. See the Event-to-Code Connection section in Connecting Beans, to see how to access hand-coded methods through an event-to-code feature.