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Developer Guide

[ 6 ] - Canned Objects

Meta provides a number of default objects which are referred to as "Canned Objects". Canned Objects typically encapsulate functionality which may be difficult to achieve within a purely web environment. The Canned Objects reference documentation provides details of the canned objects which are available.

As an example a screenshot and associated menu object declaration for the file menu used within the Hello World is shown below. The functionality provided by the File Menu is almost completely provided by canned function objects. For instance the "Save" menu item uses the canned function object "_fid_save". This canned object provides functionality to save the extensions data to file. If the data has not been previously saved the "Save As" dialog will be displayed and the user will be prompted to select a file to save to. Note the convention is that the identifiers of canned objects start with an underscore.

File Menu

File Menu Object - vid_menu_file

<aml:menu view_id="vid_menu_file">
			<aml:menu_item>
				<aml:normal>
					<aml:caption>New</aml:caption>
					<aml:function_id>_fid_new</aml:function_id>
					<aml:image_file>images/mn_new.gif</aml:image_file>	
					<aml:status_text>Create a new file.</aml:status_text>
				</aml:normal>
			</aml:menu_item>
			<aml:menu_item>
				<aml:normal>
					<aml:caption>Open...</aml:caption>
					<aml:function_id>_fid_open</aml:function_id>
					<aml:image_file>images/mn_open.gif</aml:image_file>	
					<aml:status_text>Open an existing file.</aml:status_text>
				</aml:normal>			
			</aml:menu_item>
			<aml:menu_item>
				<aml:separator/>
			</aml:menu_item>
			<aml:menu_item>
				<aml:normal>
					<aml:caption>Save</aml:caption>
					<aml:function_id>_fid_save</aml:function_id>
					<aml:image_file>images/mn_save.gif</aml:image_file>	
					<aml:status_text>Save the current file.</aml:status_text>
				</aml:normal>			
			</aml:menu_item>
			<aml:menu_item>
				<aml:normal>
					<aml:caption>Save As...</aml:caption>
					<aml:function_id>_fid_saveas</aml:function_id>
					<aml:status_text>Save the file with a new name.</aml:status_text>
				</aml:normal>
			</aml:menu_item>
			<aml:menu_item>
				<aml:separator/>
			</aml:menu_item>
			<aml:menu_item>
				<aml:popup>
					<aml:caption>Report</aml:caption>
					<aml:menu_id>vid_menu_report</aml:menu_id>
					<aml:image_file>images/mn_report.gif</aml:image_file>	
				</aml:popup>			
			</aml:menu_item>
			<aml:menu_item>
				<aml:separator/>
			</aml:menu_item>
			<aml:menu_item>
				<aml:normal>
					<aml:caption>Exit</aml:caption>
					<aml:function_id>_fid_exit</aml:function_id>
					<aml:image_file>images/mn_exit.gif</aml:image_file>	
					<aml:status_text>Exits the extension.</aml:status_text>
				</aml:normal>
			</aml:menu_item>
		</aml:menu>