The TabContainer

A tab container aggregates the output of channels, providing a tabbed user interface to switch between them. A tab container’s configuration can be modified at runtime to vary which leaf channel is displayed.

A tab container provider generates its views primarily by being a client of table container objects. The TabContainer displays one of its contained channels at a time. It allows containers to be arranged onto virtual pages. The container can then switch between these pages allowing them to be physically viewed one at a time.

It allows the user to switch logically separate row-column displays. From the container perspective, each page is a table container. The tab container then contains multiple table containers, one for each page. By default, each tab in a tab container corresponds to a table container. The tab container can contain any number of table, single, or tab containers theoretically. Having a tab container inside a tab container is not advisable.

A tab container provider is a container provider that has a selected and available channels list, and allows getting and setting of these lists. Selected channels are the table containers that are considered active on the Desktop. Available channels are those that are available to be activated on the Desktop.

The TabContainer interface defines the interface for implementing a TabContainerProvider. A TabContainerProvider must implement this interface. This interface contains methods to query information about a TabContainer and to set the properties of a TabContainer. See the Javadocs for more information on the methods in this interface.

UnmodifiableTab Interface

The UnmodifiableTab interface represents a tab that cannot be modified. This interface includes methods to:

• Get the name (getName()), the display name (getDisplayname()), the HTML encoded name (getEncodedName()), and description (getDesc()) of the tab as a string.

• Get the properties (getTabMap()) of the tab as a map.

• Determine whether or not the tab is removable (isRemovable()) and renamable (isRenamable()) by returning true or false.

• Determine if the tab was created by the user or was predefined for the user (isPredefined()) by returning true or false. A value of true indicates that the tab was predefined and a value of false indicates that the tab was created by the user.

ModifiableTab Interface

The ModifiableTab interface represents an instance of the tab that can be modified. It extends UnmodifiableTab and all modifiable tabs inherit the characteristics of the UnmodifiableTab. This interface provides methods to allow the user to reset the display name (setDisplayname()) and description (setDesc()) of the predefined tab.