Projects

Genero Studio for Report Writer uses projects to manage the source files, resources, environment variables, and rules for building and executing programs.

The Projects view displays the project file as a tree, as seen in Figure 1. The Projects view is a logical representation of the files in your project; it does not reflect the structure of the files on disk.

Figure: Nodes in the Projects view


At the top of the project tree is the project node. The project node name is the same as the project filename, to include the .4pw extension.

Within a project, you organize its components by using group nodes, application nodes, library nodes, package nodes, and so on. Table 1 lists the type of nodes that may appear in a project.

Note:

Take care not to use special characters in node names, file names, and paths; the use of special characters can make the project non-portable. Create a naming convention that takes into account your environments. For example, some environments are case-sensitive and the case must be an exact match.

Table 1. Nodes found in the Projects view.
Node Description
Group

As the name suggests, a group node allows you organize other nodes by grouping nodes together.

One advanges of using group nodes is property inheritence. Some properties defined by the group node are inherited by its child nodes, to include the properties Target directory and Language. It is common to set these properties at the group level.

Application An application node is designed to hold application source files.

The Language property set for the application node defines the build rules used to generate the executable files.

An application node whose name displays in boldface will contain the default Configuration node for the project.

See also Organizing projects.

Configuration

A configuration node executes an application. Set the BinaryName property to specify which application to execute. Enter any command line arguments to pass to the runtime system.

A configuration node can run the application in debug mode.

The default configuration node displays in boldface.

Virtual folder

A virtual folder organizes the files under an application, library, or other virtual folder node. Virtual folders can contain files or other folders. They exist only in the logical view in Project Manager, not in the physical file structure.

Library

A library node is designed to enable reuse by grouping files together. Libraries can be used when creating a set of features having a common goal, such as the logic of an application or a library of mathematical functions. A library can also be used to group other project files together, such as images, styles, or other resources.

See also Organizing projects.

File A file node is a link to a file in the file system that has the same name as the node. Renaming a file node renames the file stored on the disk. Project Manager accepts any type of file. Opening a file opens the corresponding Genero Studio for Report Writer module, such as Code Editor. If there is no corresponding Genero Studio for Report Writer module, the operating system opens it.
Intermediate Files An intermediate files node contains files that are created based on commands defined in the build rules for the file type and language. These files are typically intermediary files, needed to complete the build process.
Package

A package node is created for an application and used for distribution to users. See Packaging an application.

The nodes contain properties that can be set in the Properties view. See Properties of nodes in the Projects view.