Almost every aspect of the Pollstar100 WCM end-user interface is customisable. Defining a custom Pollstar100 Application is loosely based on an object oriented concept of component objects and component object Properties. Pollstar100 Components are the building blocks with which a designer defines a Pollstar100 Application. The orientation, appearance and behaviour of Pollstar100 Components may be affected by means of Properties inherent within each Component object.
The Pollstar100 Custom XML File
Values for Pollstar100 Component Properties are defined within a Custom XML file using an XML tag-attribute format. That is to say:
| · | Each instance of a Component in the Pollstar100 Client is identified by a unique XML tag
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| · | Each Property of a Component instance is defined by a specific tag attribute.
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| · | Component Property values should always be enclosed within double quotes.
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| · | While XML tags are case-insensitive, the case of an opening tag should match the case of any closing tag.
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Also see this handy hint about Custom XML files.
The following sections provide details on the Components and Properties available and on how to set Properties in the Pollstar100 Custom XML file in order to create the desired custom look-and-feel for a specific Pollstar100 Application.
Components
Properties
Both of the above sections cross-reference each other greatly and it should not matter in what order they are read. To find out about what can be achieved with the Pollstar100 WCM, the designer can start either by reading about the Properties and seeing what aspects of the Pollstar100 WCM they affect; or conversely, it makes just as much sense to start reading about the Components that comprise the Pollstar100 WCM and then finding out how their appearance and behaviour may be affected via the Properties.
Creating A Custom XML File
In order to create Pollstar100 Custom XML files, designers can use a range of applications such as dedicated HTML or XML editors; standard text editors such as Notepad -in fact any application capable of outputting UTF-8 encoded XML text files.
Here are the recommended (UNIX style) Custom XML file webserver file permissions:
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Owner Group Public
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rw r r (644)
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The default Pollstar100 implementation will look for a Custom XML file named pollstar100.xml in the current working directory. The designer may however, override the default implementation and specify an alternative name and location for each and every Custom XML file used to define a particular Pollstar100 Application. Details on how this is achieved can be found in the following section:
Embedding The Pollstar100 Applet In An HTML Page
Component Layer Order
Sometimes a designer will want to place one Component on top of another within the UI. The order in which Components are layered relative to each other is determined by the order in which they are defined within the Custom XML file. For example, consider two Components, A and B each occupying the same space within the UI. If Component A is defined above Component B in the Custom XML file then Component A would overlay Component B in the UI.
Saving Design Time
Designers that are developing custom Pollstar100 Applications on a separate system to the web-host server that the Pollstar100 Service resides on can save on unnecessary upload time by launching the Pollstar100 Client locally instead of from the webserver. Running the Client locally means that it will be able to load a local copy of the Custom XML file. This means that, while the designer is making changes to the Custom XML file, there is no need to keep uploading it to the host server in order to see the results of each change. For an example of how this is achieved see the tutorial entitled Customisation under the QuickStart section.
Pollstar100 Version XML Node
Part of the file format specification for a well formed XML file is that it has just one top level tag/node.
Each Pollstar100 Custom XML file must have its Component tags defined as child nodes of a single top level XML tag/node that identifies the file contents as customisation data defined for a specific version of the Pollstar100 Flash Client. For example, here is what the contents might look like, for a simple Pollstar100 Custom XML file used to create a Title Textbox Component.
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The top-level Pollstar100 version tag information is hi-lighted in grey.
The Component tag information is hi-lighted in red
The Component Property attributes are hi-lighted in blue
The Component Property attribute values are hi-lighted in green
Having Trouble?
If you are experiencing difficulties then you might find the answer in the following section:
Troubleshooting
