When called by pressing the Designer button the designer opens on the lower part of the Controller window. Its view is captured by Figure 5.
At the top one can see the Upload button and the file under design text box. The file under design text box shows the name and path of the file that is opened in the designer. If the button is pressed the design file is uploaded to the display(s) selected in the Controller list above.
The next three buttons are used to save the file, save the file under a different name to create a variation of it and Export.
The export button is special. It provides the capability of crating a zip file with the design file and ALL its referenced files. Once you create such a file you can use the designer again in this machine or another to import the design. This way a design can be reused in in a machine that is not the creator of it.
The import and export of design files are functions of the 1Droid Designer.
Also at the top one can see all the necessary information about the file under design. That is, its Droid version and its size. This is important as this information needs to match the capabilities and proprieties of the target hardware (Display and APK).
Figure 5. 1Droid Designer explained.
On the left panel the Designer has a list of available components. Depending on your license some of the components will be missing, but don't worry you can upgrade at any time and get them all. Selecting one of those components will put that component in design mode. That is: the component can be seen as selected, and when the user clicks on the canvas that component will be set there. All components have a default size and figure, so one can distinguish them from that. However simpler is to just check the right panel: "Component Properties". At the top of the panel one can see the type of component and the whole panel will display available (changeable) properties of that component.
To delete a component one needs to select it and press CTRL+DELETE - This is to protect from accidental removal of components
Every component type has a limited number of instances that can be added at a time on the canvas. Once this limit is reached one can not add anymore, and a dialog box will pop up stating the fact and what the limit is. Depending on the design of the framework those limits may change so the dialog box will inform you is you have reached the limit.
At anytime ONE component only can be selected on the canvas. The selected component will have its properties displayed on the Component properties panel and it will be outlined in RED while all the others will be outlined in GREEN.
The outline boxes that appear around all design components appear only in Designer. They will not appear when the component is shown on the Display target.
The canvas itself can be selected by just clicking on it, or whenever there is no component selected - that is: no component on the canvas, or the active component has just been deleted. And just like any other component, the canvas properties are displayed and they can be modified.
In the next section the designer components will be described along with their behaviours and properties.