Chapter 1. Introduction

The user interface (GUI) of XMLmind XML Editor is made of parts. Parts are high level building blocks such as menus, menu bars, tool bars, status bars, actions (for use in menus, tool bars and status bars), etc.

These parts are declared in a special GUI specification file having a .xxe_gui suffix. Such GUI specification files also contain a layout element which specifies which assembly of parts to use to create the user interface of XMLmind XML Editor.

Example (excerpts of DesktopApp.xxe_gui):

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<gui xmlns="http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/schema/gui"
     xmlns:gui="http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/schema/gui">
  ...
  <action name="newAction" label="_New..."
          icon="icons/newAction.gif"
          accelerator="mod N">
    <class>com.xmlmind.xmleditapp.desktop.file.NewAction</class>
  </action>
  ...
  <menu name="fileMenu" label="_File" 
        helpId="fileMenu">
    <action name="newAction" />
    ...
    <menuItems name="recentFilesMenuItems" />
  </menu>
  ...
  <menuBar name="menuBar" helpId="menuBar">
    <menu name="fileMenu" />
    <menu name="selectMenu" />
    ...
  </menuBar>
  ...
  <layout width="900" height="700">
    <menuBar name="menuBar" />
    ...
  </layout>
</gui>

	Declares action "`newAction`".
	Declares menu "`fileMenu`".
	Declares menu bar "`menuBar`".
	Element `layout` actually specifies which GUI to create.
	It is menu bar "`menuBar`" which will be used in the GUI of XXE because it is referenced in the `layout` element.


	Declaring a part does not mean that this part will be created and then, displayed in the GUI of XXE. For this to happen, a part must be referenced directly or indirectly^[1] by the `layout` element of the GUI specification file.

The archive file XXE_install_dir/bin/xxe.jar containing the code of XMLmind XML Editor (XXE for short), also contains resource /gui/DesktopApp.xxe_gui. This file specifies the default user interface of the XMLmind XML Editor desktop application. By doing this, it also specifies the user interface parts which are common to all possible XMLmind XML Editor variants.

A copy of these files is found in XXE_install_dir/doc/gui/gui/. This, because using DesktopApp.xxe_gui as a reference when creating custom GUIs for XXE is absolutely required.

Don't worry, all this will be detailed in the deployment chapter of this document.

^[1]Example: layout references a statusBar which references an action.


XMLmind XML Editor - Customizing the User Interface		Chapter 2. Tutorial