02 – Installation and Preview

02 – Installation and Preview

Overview

Preparation

• Installation of CBA ItemBuilder

Preview

• CBA Presentation Size
• Project Files
• User Interface

Installation

Steps

• Download and double-click CBAItemBuilder-9.9.0-windows-installer.exe

• Follow the Installation Wizard (Next … Finish)

The CBA ItemBuilder is available for Windows computers (desktop virtualization using, for instance, using VirtualBox or Parallels is currently required to run the CBA ItemBuilder on Mac).

Preview

Steps

• Download CBA ItemBuilder Project File (e.g., ExampleItemToPreview.zip)
• Start the CBA ItemBuilder application:

• Open the Project File (e.g., using main menu File > Open Project)

• Request a preview (e.g., using main menu Project > Preview Project)

• Keep settings in the dialog as is (Preview Task Task01) and confirm with OK.

CBA ItemBuilder project files are ZIP archives, often automatically extracted after download. Don’t unzip the content, the CBA ItemBuilder expects ZIP archives.)

Presentation Size

The CBA Presentation Size is a Global Property for each Project File. The default can be defined for new projects in the CBA ItemBuilder Preferences. The Preview shows the item unscaled (i.e., at 100%), when Scaling-Mode None is selected.

CBA ItemBuilder Projects are created for a fixed size (Presentation Size)

• Typical sizes: 1024x768 (default), 1366x768 or 1920x1080

• At runtime the content can be scaled (keeping the aspect ratio)

Scaling-Mode can be defined by deployment software:

• None / Up / Down / Both

Read more: Presentation Size Tips and Tricks

CBA Presentation Size (for existing vs. new projects) (see cba.itembuilder.de)

Project Files

Project Files are the documents edited with the CBA ItemBuilder and only one Project File can be edited at a time.

Projects need valid names:

• File extension is *.zip, but the files must be opened with the CBA ItemBuilder. Don’t extract the ZIP archives.

• If a Project File is renamed in the (Windows) Explorer, make sure to also rename the Project Name within the CBA ItemBuilder (right-click in the Project View).

Always use the right version of the CBA ItemBuilder:

• Projects files from previous CBA ItemBuilder versions are automatically migrated to the current version if opened in a newer CBA ItemBuilder.

• Never use a Project File saved with a newer version of the CBA ItemBuilder in a previous version.

Read more: Project Files Tips and Tricks

Project File Handling (see cba.itembuilder.de - 3.1.2)

User Interface

CBA ItemBuilder provides a User Interface with specific components.

• Context sensitive Main Menu and a Toolbar (that contains, for instance, a Zoom-feature for the Page Editor)

• Project View, (Component Edit, Embedded HTML Explorer, Renderer view) in the left area of the user interface

• Page Editor (and other editors) opened in the middle area of the user interface

• Properties View, (Task Editor, Variables view, Value Maps) shown in the right area of the user interface

• Context Menu (right click) on Components in the Page Editor and on nodes in various Tree representations (e.g., Project View, State Machine Tree View, …)

• Clipboard View to copy Components (and nested Components) between Pages or Project Files

• In the workshop we will get to know the individual parts of the user interface through concrete hands-on exercises.

Read more: User Interface Description

Find a full-length description online (see cba.itembuilder.de - 3.2)

• There are prepared tutorials that always tell you exactly where to edit something or how to create something. But if you later work with CBA ItemBuilder on your own, then this section may be helpful to you.