Component Guide

This manual describes the components for use with the RADpage Component Editor. The Component Reference contains details about using the components in your programs or even to program new components.

RADpage enables you to create Web pages using components. Using RADpage (or a text editor, if you prefer), components can be placed on Web pages and their properties can be edited.

Components can be used on various levels. At the highest level, it is not necessary to have any programming knowledge. The closer you get to the Source Code, however, the more it becomes necessary to increase your knowledge of programming concepts, especially as they relate to the underlying object-oriented concepts of heitml upon which RADpage was created.

• Application Components implement complete Web applications. You can use RADpage to insert these applications into your Web pages. Also, multiple application components can be added to a single page.

  No programming skills are required to use RADpage application components. And since HTML WYSIWYG editors allow you to create Web pages with no knowledge of HTML, the quickest and easiest way to develop Web and/or intranet applications is to use these application components in conjunction with RADpage. The RADpage Component Editor helps you configure applications in an intuitive, yet very flexible manner, at the same time insulating you from the underlying details of both HTML and heitml.


• Generic Components are more generic than application components. Applications are normally built by combining several generic components. This requires a deeper insight into the kind of components that are available and how they cooperate, but programming and HTML knowledge are not required at this level.

• Programming with RADpage Components. Further customization of RADpage applications (up to writing complete applications based on the existing components) requires both HTML and some programming know-how.

• Creating your own RADpage Components. Creating a component means that you want to write your own reusable components instead of just using existing components. This requires some knowledge of object-oriented programming.

  Once you have created a component, you can use it on as many pages as desired. You can even sell or distribute these new components to other RADpage users so that they too can take advantage of the new tools you create.