Components of Canvas Technology Platform

Owned by Ravikumar Babu CTOO (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 17, 2019

The Canvas Technology (CT) Platform uses Single Page Application design and the entire functionality is controlled through JavaScript and CSS on the client-side and Java for the server-side. CT Platform dissects a web page into the following hierarchy of components:

  • Application Layout
    • Workspaces (similar to dashboards or modules within an application)
      • Sub-Workspaces (Layouts)
        • Apps (widgets)
          • Views
            • Grids
            • Charts
            • Forms
            • etc.

The hierarchy of components must be understood and respected to effectively use the CT Platform. The following screen shot shows a web application built using CT Platform highlighting the various CT components that make up the page:

Key CT Platform Components

There are few key components that are central to the modeling of the Apps in Canvas Technology Platform. These are:

  • Apps

An App is a miniature application that can be plugged in anywhere within the Workspace. What this means is that an App is self-contained in the features that it provides and supports with option for interacting with other Apps that may be present along with it. To put it simply, Apps are nothing but widgets, which can be any type, such as grid, chart, form etc. The App Designer Canvas Studio enables you to easily create and configure Apps.

  • Forms

Forms refer to the standard forms that are needed for capturing or displaying detailed content. The beauty of this layer is in the abstraction of the typical manner in which a form is designed and used. A form could be one of the types of the App.

A form models the following:

- Definition of the form.

- Abstraction of the data representation in the form and still allow complete flexibility for the user for all aspects of interaction with the components.

- Form initialization standardization with caching options for performance enhancements.

- Form model handling and standardization.

- Dynamic sub forms injection and management.

- Wizards support.

The Form Designer in Canvas Studio enables you to easily create, preview and publish forms.

  • Layouts

Layout is an invisible layer that helps manage the layout of the content. This is an important aspect of the application rendition as the Apps come with the capability to render to any space that is provided. It is the layout that arranges the Apps as per the specified configuration and enables the neat arrangement of Apps as per the user needs. There are multiple types of layouts that are supported by default in Canvas Technology. This coupled with the support for Composite Apps enables a variety of layout combinations giving flexibility to the business to create different layout to match the expectations of the functionality delivery.

  • Workspaces

Workspaces (also referred to as Work Canvas or just Canvas) are the actual content that is delivered to the user when they log in to the application. A Workspace is a collection of Apps laid out using a layout to enable a particular service. The Canvas Home provides the list of Workspaces that the user is entitled to with an option for the user to design their own Workspace! Workspaces can be configured by the banks and then published to targeted customers. This provides the flexibility for the bank to have Workspaces created by other departments or vendors outside of Canvas to be published as any other App and enable for end customer.

  • Communication Manager

Workspaces are the containers that have the ability to have one or more Apps within them. A key aspect of the Workspace is to allow for Apps to communicate with each other for enabling context aware data rendition. Canvas Technology automatically enables a Communication Manager within its scope for allowing the Apps within it to publish their interested services and enable the interaction between the participating Apps.