There are two different kinds of structure that need to be considered for an explanation of the Elego ComPact graphical user interface: the different kinds of pages that are displayed by your WWW browser for different kinds of contexts and tasks plus the navigational links between them, and the structure of each page.
We will start by presenting the overall navigational structure of the pages presented by the GUI. Currently three major functional fields are covered:
package management, which sets the focus on one software package and allows you to build, ship, checkin, checkout, create, modify, delete etc. the complete package or its elements,
project management, which focuses on a complete project made up of several packages, and allows you to build, freeze, checkin, checkout, and snapshot this set of packages as a whole,
pool management, which is used to browse and prune the binary caches used by ComPacy, that contain built packages differentiated by target platforms and versions.
For each of these fields there is a different type of page, and every application of this page type to a concrete directory path is bound to a working context which is created and stored by the ComPactHTTPd server. Every context in turn is part of a working session which is created by the login procedure of the GUI server. You have already learned the basics about sessions, contexts, and login procedure in the section Sessions, Contexts, and Login of this manual.
The login and start pages have their own type of page, which is basically a restricted version of the *management pages, since no specialized context is yet available.
From the package, project, and pool management contexts new pages can be reached which are created in new windows to show the results of external program execution, the contents of files, or to browse directory trees.
Finally, the GUI offers a configuration page that allows to modify all the parameters that affect the behaviour of ComPact and the presentation of the GUI itself, and a help page dedicated to present this manual.
Here is an overview of the main navigational links between the different kinds of pages:
[login]--->[start]---> [package management]-\ /-->[program execution]
| | |
|----> [project management]-+->+-->[file view]
| | |
|----> [pool management]----/ \-->[directory browser]
|
|----> [configuration]
|
\----> [help]
You may switch between the main pages
| package management |
| project management |
| pool management |
| configuration |
| help |
It is important to distinguish the notions of page, window, frame, and context in the description and use of the ComPact graphical interface: A window is a top-level object of your desktop, created by your WWW browser (and a desktop window manager), which is used to display information delivered in form of HTML pages from the ComPactHTTPd server. Page is used to describe a certain type of structure used to present information for different tasks and purposes. Frame is used for sub-divisions of pages (in accordance with the corresponding HTML construct). Context is the internal state stored by the server associated with a concrete package, project, pool, or directory.
Different types of pages are used to display different types of contexts, which may actually be displayed in one ore more windows.
In the following chapters we use the navigation diagram from above to define the position of the current page and the minimal context needed to display this page like this:
[login]--->[start]---> [PACKAGE MANAGEMENT]-\ /-->[program execution]
| | |
|----> [project management]-+->+-->[file view]
| | |
|----> [pool management]----/ \-->[directory browser]
|
|----> [configuration]
|
\----> [help]
package context needed
The main pages of the ComPact GUI are divided into several frames dedicated to different purposes as can be seen in Figure 5-1:
Figure 5-1. General Layout of the ComPact GUI Pages
/=====================================================================\
| naviga - | title frame (2) | logo (3) |
| tion (1) | | |
| |==========================================================|
| | header commands (4) |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
|=====================================================================|
| dir1 frame (5) | dir2 frame (6) | dir3 frame (7) |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
|=====================================================================|
| command group menu (8) |
| |
|=====================================================================|
| command frame (9) |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
\=====================================================================/
In some of the pages not all frames are present, and sometimes some frames are combined to a bigger one to allow for different kinds of presentation, but the general look is pretty consistent. Let's now have a look at the purpose of each of these frames in particular:
The navigation frame is used to switch the type of page displayed in the current window. It usually contains the entries
| package |
| project |
| pool |
| config |
| help |
| quit |
The title frame displays the type of page as well as the current user and session.
the ComPact logo
The header command frame is used to display general information about the current context and offer generally applicable commands. More specialized commands are always located at the bottom of the page in the command menu groups.
This frame is used to display lists of projects, packages, pools, or files, depending on page type and context. Usually this left frame contains information about the location inside a wider context, i.e. in a package management page a list of all available packages.
This frame is used to display lists of projects, packages, pools, or files, depending on page type and context. In project and package mangement pages it holds more specialized information than the left dir frame.
This frame is used to display lists of projects, packages, pools, or files, depending on page type and context. In project and package mangement pages it holds the most specialized information compared to the other dir frames.
The command group menu is used to select different thematically ordered groups of commands that are context specific.
The bottom-most frame is used to display context-specific groups of commands and associated help texts.
It is worth mentioning again that your browser probably allows you to refetch and thereby update the contents of each frame by use of a context menu, often activated by the right mouse button.
The position of the frames cannot be changed, but their sizes are not fixed and may be varied according to the standard methods of your desktop and browser, usually by dragging the edges with the mouse.