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Terms, Icons, and Labels

Many classes have shortcut names used when creating (instantiating) a class with a configuration object. The shortcut name is referred to as an alias (or xtype if the class extends Ext.Component). The alias/xtype is listed next to the class name of applicable classes for quick reference.

Access Levels

Framework classes or their members may be specified as private or protected. Else, the class / member is public. Public, protected, and private are access descriptors used to convey how and when the class or class member should be used.

Member Types

Member Syntax

Below is an example class member that we can disect to show the syntax of a class member (the lookupComponent method as viewed from the Ext.button.Button class in this case).

lookupComponent ( item ) : Ext.Component
protected

Called when a raw config object is added to this container either during initialization of the items config, or when new items are added), or {@link #insert inserted.

This method converts the passed object into an instanced child component.

This may be overridden in subclasses when special processing needs to be applied to child creation.

Parameters

item :  Object

The config object being added.

Returns
Ext.Component

The component to be added.

Let's look at each part of the member row:

Member Flags

The API documentation uses a number of flags to further commnicate the class member's function and intent. The label may be represented by a text label, an abbreviation, or an icon.

Class Icons

- Indicates a framework class

- A singleton framework class. *See the singleton flag for more information

- A component-type framework class (any class within the Ext JS framework that extends Ext.Component)

- Indicates that the class, member, or guide is new in the currently viewed version

Member Icons

- Indicates a class member of type config

- Indicates a class member of type property

- Indicates a class member of type method

- Indicates a class member of type event

- Indicates a class member of type theme variable

- Indicates a class member of type theme mixin

- Indicates that the class, member, or guide is new in the currently viewed version

Class Member Quick-Nav Menu

Just below the class name on an API doc page is a row of buttons corresponding to the types of members owned by the current class. Each button shows a count of members by type (this count is updated as filters are applied). Clicking the button will navigate you to that member section. Hovering over the member-type button will reveal a popup menu of all members of that type for quick navigation.

Getter and Setter Methods

Getting and setter methods that correlate to a class config option will show up in the methods section as well as in the configs section of both the API doc and the member-type menus just beneath the config they work with. The getter and setter method documentation will be found in the config row for easy reference.

History Bar

Your page history is kept in localstorage and displayed (using the available real estate) just below the top title bar. By default, the only search results shown are the pages matching the product / version you're currently viewing. You can expand what is displayed by clicking on the button on the right-hand side of the history bar and choosing the "All" radio option. This will show all recent pages in the history bar for all products / versions.

Within the history config menu you will also see a listing of your recent page visits. The results are filtered by the "Current Product / Version" and "All" radio options. Clicking on the button will clear the history bar as well as the history kept in local storage.

If "All" is selected in the history config menu the checkbox option for "Show product details in the history bar" will be enabled. When checked, the product/version for each historic page will show alongside the page name in the history bar. Hovering the cursor over the page names in the history bar will also show the product/version as a tooltip.

Search and Filters

Both API docs and guides can be searched for using the search field at the top of the page.

On API doc pages there is also a filter input field that filters the member rows using the filter string. In addition to filtering by string you can filter the class members by access level, inheritance, and read only. This is done using the checkboxes at the top of the page.

The checkbox at the bottom of the API class navigation tree filters the class list to include or exclude private classes.

Clicking on an empty search field will show your last 10 searches for quick navigation.

API Doc Class Metadata

Each API doc page (with the exception of Javascript primitives pages) has a menu view of metadata relating to that class. This metadata view will have one or more of the following:

Expanding and Collapsing Examples and Class Members

Runnable examples (Fiddles) are expanded on a page by default. You can collapse and expand example code blocks individually using the arrow on the top-left of the code block. You can also toggle the collapse state of all examples using the toggle button on the top-right of the page. The toggle-all state will be remembered between page loads.

Class members are collapsed on a page by default. You can expand and collapse members using the arrow icon on the left of the member row or globally using the expand / collapse all toggle button top-right.

Desktop -vs- Mobile View

Viewing the docs on narrower screens or browsers will result in a view optimized for a smaller form factor. The primary differences between the desktop and "mobile" view are:

Viewing the Class Source

The class source can be viewed by clicking on the class name at the top of an API doc page. The source for class members can be viewed by clicking on the "view source" link on the right-hand side of the member row.

GXT 4.x


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HTML Style

Using CSS to style HTML.

  • The appearance will most often trump any custom styles.

Reference

reset.css

The reset.css file is used in the GWT module project configuration to create a common CSS playing field for GXT across all supported browsers. So, when styling HTML you will have to provide some of the default styles explicitly.

HTML style options

There is more than one option to providing style to widgets and elements starting with UiBinder and ClientBundle below. When you provide your own style, be sure to check the target browsers for rendering consistency.

Non Obfuscated Css Class Name

You can use full class names that are not Obfuscated. This would allow you to call the elements directly. Although this can be done, it is often to use selectors to style child elements in widget.

  • Use this to use fullly qualified css class names. This turns on pretty style names.

      <!-- Add this to the GWT project module xml descriptor project.gwt.xml -->
      <set-configuration-property name="CssResource.style" value="pretty" />
    

UiBinder use

UiBinder provides an inline style element to add the CSS selectors. This adds the style inline which will affect the entire application.

  • Example UiBinder with an inline style configuration.

      <ui:UiBinder xmlns:ui='urn:ui:com.google.gwt.uibinder'
          xmlns:g='urn:import:com.google.gwt.user.client.ui'>
    
          <!-- http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/sample.html - can be used to copy default styles -->
          <ui:style>
          h1 {
              font-size: 2em;
              margin: .67em 0;
          }
          </ui:style>
    
          <g:HTMLPanel>
              <h1>This is heading 1</h1>
          </g:HTMLPanel>
      </ui:UiBinder>
    

ClientBundle use

GWT provides handy resource bundling which allows for clean abstraction of styles. This method shows how you could use raw HTML in a widget and style it.

There are three steps to wiring up a client bundle.

  1. Configure the CSS file.

  2. Configure the Java interface to reference the CSS selectors and other resources.

  3. Inject the styles then get and set the style name on the widget or element.

Example client bundle wiring

  1. customStyles.css file which will provide the style through the client bundle.

     /* customStyles.css file */
    
     .htmlFormatting {
         border: 1px solid red;
     }
    
     .htmlFormatting h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
         border: 2px solid blue;
     }
    
  2. This wires up the client bundle for CSS resources access in the widget.

     import com.google.gwt.core.client.GWT;
     import com.google.gwt.resources.client.ClientBundle;
     import com.google.gwt.resources.client.CssResource;
    
     public interface CustomHtmlStyle extends ClientBundle {
    
       // static factory for getting the client bundle resource instance
       public static final CustomHtmlStyle INSTANCE = GWT.create(CustomHtmlStyle.class);
    
       public interface LayoutStyles extends CssResource {
         // this is one of the css selectors in the style sheet
         String htmlFormatting();
       }
    
       // the css file name 'customStyles.css' located in the same package
       public LayoutStyles customStyles();
     }
    
  3. Example using the client bundle instance to get the CSS selector style name.

     import com.google.gwt.user.client.ui.HTML;
     import com.google.gwt.user.client.ui.IsWidget;
     import com.google.gwt.user.client.ui.Widget;
     import com.sencha.gxt.widget.core.client.container.CssFloatLayoutContainer;
     import com.sencha.gxt.widget.core.client.container.CssFloatLayoutContainer.CssFloatData;
    
     public class HtmlStyle implements IsWidget {
    
       private CssFloatLayoutContainer widget;
    
       @Override
       public Widget asWidget() {
         if (widget == null) {
           // inject the styles into the document so they are available
           CustomHtmlStyle.INSTANCE.customStyles().ensureInjected();
    
           widget = new CssFloatLayoutContainer();
           widget.add(new HTML("<h1>This is heading 1</h>"), new CssFloatData(1));
    
           // Get the client bundle style name reference
           String styleName = CustomHtmlStyle.INSTANCE.customStyles().htmlFormatting();
           widget.setStyleName(styleName);
    
         }
         return widget;
       }
     }
    

GXT 4.x