- Each Jamba application can contain one or more pages that are actually used as separate displays at runtime. The following concepts are key to the use of pages within Jamba projects.
- A standard page is the blank background on which you place objects. Initially, a new application begins with a standard page called "StartPage."
- Use up to 128 alphanumeric characters and the underscore character to name pages. Each page in a project must have a unique name.
- If you are creating a short project that will be an applet, you will probably only need this one page. The page might contain multiple objects or, you may simply choose to use Jamba to create a single object that you plan to incorporate into an existing Web page. For example, you could easily use Jamba to create an Audio object, save the file, and then embed the contents of the file directly into an existing . html file you plan to display.
- You can also use Jamba to create a full-fledged desktop application. Like an applet, the application can use one page or it can use multiple pages. Desktop applications can serve a wide range of purposes such as pageturning applications, online Annual Reports, or online brochures. It is up to you to add new pages as necessary. If your application contains multiple pages, the objects on one page are automatically removed from memory as soon as a subsequent page displays.
- The page or pages that make up your application are actually objects. Pages are similar to other kinds of objects except that you don't have to draw them. You can, however, change page properties such as the color, height or width. Note that a Jamba page is different from a Web page, because the information on a Jamba page is often just part of a Web page. (For detailed descriptions of each Jamba object and its properties, see Chapters 6 and 7, respectively.)
- Background pages can contain objects that you want to persist across the display of multiple standard pages. This is important because under normal circumstances, when you direct one standard page to go to another standard page, the objects on the first page are automatically deleted. This is not true for a background page. For example, you may want navigation buttons or an Audio object to persist across multiple standard pages. In another example, you might have three standard pages each of which should display your company logo up in one corner and your navigation buttons in another. You would put all of these objects on a single background page. When you added this background page to each of your standard pages, the logo and the buttons would appear.
- To create background pages, use either the New Background command or Page Wizard... command in the Project menu. The tasks of drawing and setting up objects on a background page are the same as they are for standard pages. However, you use a standard page's BackgroundPage property to explicitly associate a background page with that page. You can associate a background page with as many standard pages as are necessary.
- Important: Properties of background pages supersede the properties of the standard pages with which they are associated.
- For example, consider a standard page with its Filename property set to the flowers.gif and a background page with its Filename property set to trees.gif. If you associate the background page with the standard page, the standard page displays the graphic set for the background page, namely, trees.gif. If you then disassociate the background from the standard page, the standard page once again uses its own file.
- Like standard pages, background pages appear in the Project window. They always appear at the bottom of the list of thumbnails. As mentioned previously, you can also open a background page in the Page Layout Editor which is where you draw objects, set properties and set To Do List items. Another way to view a background page is to make its objects visible while you are viewing a standard page in the Page Layout Editor. For example, consider the following background page called Background1.
- Also consider the following standard page called StartPage.
- If you open StartPage in the Page Layout Editor and set its BackgroundPage property to Background1, the background objects are visible. The background objects are visible because the View Background button is selected by default. The View Background button appears as follows:
- The Page Layout Editor appears as follows.
- Note that you cannot move or otherwise edit the objects on the background page while you are viewing the standard page. However, you can use this information to position and resize the standard page objects properly.
- Important: Objects on a background page cannot affect or manipulate objects on a standard page. However, objects on a standard page can affect objects on a background page. For example, clicking on a background page button could not change a graphic on a standard page, but clicking a button on a standard page could change a graphic displayed on a background page.
- For your convenience, Jamba provides a selection of templates that are ready-made pages. To save time, templates contain objects that are partially or completely set up. Like pages that you create yourself, you can edit the layout and property settings as necessary. Refer to the section entitled "Working with Templates" at the end of this chapter for more information on templates.
