Building Custom Wizards

This section describes how to create Wizards for HomeSite and ColdFusion Studio users. These Wizards can be used to generate code, create documents, or create multi-document applications. Wizards are an integral part of many software products today because they invite users to perform complex tasks in an orderly, comprehensible interface. Another benefit is that a well-designed wizard controls its input and ensures a high probability of user success.

Allaire makes extensive use of wizards in its Visual Tools and now extends that capability to developers. If you have worked with VTML to create or edit tag editors, you are already familiar with using interface containers and controls and with defining page layout. You can now add the Wizard Markup Language (WIZML) to your skill set.

While both tag editors and wizards can generate code based on user input, there are important differences between the two. Consult the Introduction of the Wizards reference documentation for some guidelines for choosing between Tag Editors and Wizards.

Note To create a wizard:
  1. Write a wizard definition file (.vtm) to specify the pages, parameters, output, and logical flow.
  2. Implement one or more output template files (.wml) for the wizard.
  3. Create wizard graphic (.bmp) files.

Each of these steps is described in detail in the following sections.

Saving wizard files

The recommended way to organize wizards and supporting files is to save the .vtm and .wml files in the \Wizards\Custom folder and to save the image files in the \Wizards\Images folder of your Visual Tools installation folder.