Developer Basics

The latest version of Canvas Technology (18.1) requires Java SDK 1.7 at the minimum.

The latest version of Canvas Technology (18.1) works with Oracle 11 and 12 databases.

The following table lists the mobile platforms that are supported by Canvas:

A resource bundle is a Java .properties file that contains locale-specific (language) data. It is a way of internationalizing a Java application by making the code locale-independent. (Source: Wikipedia)

Canvas provides an option to display plain label (i.e., direct text) or Display Name Key (i.e. property driven label text) for components. By default, Canvas uses the common properties file (e.g. common_en_US.properties) that contain the display names for the default Canvas components in the CT ModelHouse application, such as Workspaces, Sub-Workspaces, Apps, Views, Forms, Form Items etc. The resource bundle properties file contains the display text for the display name key specified in the configuration screens.

The resource bundle field is mandatory on the configuration screens in Canvas Studio. However, if you want to display plain text for the components and do not wish to use the resource bundle, you can enter ‘none’ for the resource bundle field.

Canvas uses the iBATIS framework for SQL mapping that fetches data using SQLs written in an XML file through a SQL_PARAM_MAP IDs. Within a Logical Data Source, all SQL Map IDs are expected to be unique (else will result in initialization error), ensure that any SQL Map IDs defined by you do not conflict with the existing ones.

Refer Quick primer on iBatis SQL Map for more detailed information.

Within the Canvas workbench, the default SQL Map files that are used by CT ModelHouse application are stored in the CTModelHouseResources folder.

All the default SQL Maps used by CT ModelHouse application is specified in the Implementation Database Config file. The default Implementation Database Config file used by CT ModelHouse is located in the CTModelHouseResources folder:

It is advisable to store all the SQL Maps and other resources (e.g. property files) that your application requires under a common folder, e.g. MyApplicationResources.

In Canvas framework, an instruction class is a Java class, which contains the instructions for what the framework must do. For example, let’s assume you created an app that displays the account details in a grid format. The account details must be fetched from a table in the database. You have created a SQL Map to fetch the data from the account table. In the instruction class you must specify the action that calls the correct SQL Map that fetches the data from the account table. Basically, the instruction class handles the database request for fetching, adding, or deleting data.

A default instruction class exists for most of views supported by Canvas. You can use the default instruction classes when your requirement is straight forward. To provide additional configurations (e.g. different sorting or filtering indicators), you must create custom instruction class extending the default instruction class.

When creating forms, you must create new instruction class to save the data entered on the form to the database.