com.jbbres.lib.actions.tools.elements
Class DefaultVariableDescription

java.lang.Object
  com.jbbres.lib.actions.tools.elements.ResourceBundleElementDescription<T>
      com.jbbres.lib.actions.tools.elements.AbstractElementDescription<Variable>
          com.jbbres.lib.actions.tools.elements.DefaultVariableDescription

All Implemented Interfaces:

ElementDescription<Variable>, VariableDescription, com.jbbres.lib.search.Searchable, java.lang.Comparable<ElementDescription<?>>

public class DefaultVariableDescription
extends AbstractElementDescription<Variable>
implements VariableDescription

Provides information regarding the variable, such as its name, a short description, its version number etc.

This class provides the description of a variable by extracting the content of an element properties file (.properties).
A properties file is a simple text file. You can create and maintain a properties file with just about any text editor.
The name of this file begins with the base name of your variable, but start with a lower case, and ends with the .properties suffix. For example, if your variable class base name is MyVariable, therefore the properties file is called myVariable.properties. This file contains the following lines:

# This is the default myVariable.properties file
type=variable
description.title=New Date
description.summary=Creates a new variable that can contain a date.
description.icon=icon.png
description.content=Date description.company.name=Acme
description.company.website=http://www.acme.com/
description.company.support=http://www.acme.com/
description.version=1.0
description.copyright=© 2009-2010 Acme

Amoung other usages, The properties are used by Action(s) to displays the description in its lower-left view whenever the user selects the variable. The description briefly describes what the variable does and tells users anything else they should know about the variable.
Because the description fits into a relatively small area of the Action(s) window, you should make it as concise and brief as possible. Ideally the user should not have to scroll the description view to see all of the text.

A description has several parts:

• description.icon: a 32 x 32 pixel image displayed in the upper-left corner of the description. In the properties file you should provide the relative path of the image within the package. Accepted format are PNG, JPEG, GIF and BMP.
• description.title: the name of the variable.
• description.summary: a sentence or two directly under the title that succinctly states what the variable represents.
• description.content: states the type of data that the variable can store or provide.

A description’s title, summary and content are required or strongly recommended.

Since:

1.0.0

Version:

1.0.0

Author:

Jean-Baptiste Bres

Field Summary

Fields inherited from class com.jbbres.lib.actions.tools.elements.AbstractElementDescription

SERVICE

Fields inherited from interface com.jbbres.lib.actions.elements.VariableDescription

DESCRIPTION_CONTENT

Fields inherited from interface com.jbbres.lib.actions.elements.ElementDescription

CATEGORY_SEPARATOR, DESCRIPTION_CATEGORIES, DESCRIPTION_COMPANY_NAME, DESCRIPTION_COMPANY_SUPPORT, DESCRIPTION_COMPANY_WEBSITE, DESCRIPTION_COPYRIGHT, DESCRIPTION_ICON, DESCRIPTION_SUMMARY, DESCRIPTION_TITLE, DESCRIPTION_VERSION, TYPE

Constructor Summary

DefaultVariableDescription(java.lang.Class<? extends AbstractVariable> variableClass)
Instantiates a new variable description.

Method Summary

javax.swing.ImageIcon

defaultIcon() Returns the element default icon.

Methods inherited from class com.jbbres.lib.actions.tools.elements.ResourceBundleElementDescription

addElementDescriptionChangeListener, compareTo, fireElementDesccriptionChange, getCategories, getDescription, getElementClass, getElementDescription, getIcon, getSearchableValue, newElementInstance, removeElementDescriptionChangeListener

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Methods inherited from interface com.jbbres.lib.actions.elements.ElementDescription

addElementDescriptionChangeListener, getCategories, getDescription, getIcon, newElementInstance, removeElementDescriptionChangeListener

Methods inherited from interface com.jbbres.lib.search.Searchable

getSearchableValue

Methods inherited from interface java.lang.Comparable

compareTo

Constructor Detail

DefaultVariableDescription

public DefaultVariableDescription(java.lang.Class<? extends AbstractVariable> variableClass)
                           throws java.io.IOException

Instantiates a new variable description.

Parameters:

variableClass - - the variable class

Throws:

java.io.IOException - Signals that an I/O exception has occurred.

Method Detail

defaultIcon

public javax.swing.ImageIcon defaultIcon()

Description copied from class: ResourceBundleElementDescription

Returns the element default icon.

Specified by:

defaultIcon in class ResourceBundleElementDescription<Variable>

Returns:

the image icon