Zone Type vs. Zone

There are two meta-data objects that control how a zone is built: Zone Type and Zone (where a zone type can have one or more zones):

• The Zone Type defines:
• The java class used to render its zones.
• The parameters whose values are configured on each of its zones. For example, a zone type that renders a graph has parameters that control the type of data that appears in the graph, if the graph is animated, if the graph is rendered using bars or lines, etc. Whenever you set up a zone of this type, you define the value of each of these parameters. This means that you can have many graph zones that all reference the same zone type (where each zone defines the type of data, if its animated, etc.).
• Optionally, parameter values used by the java class that are the same for all zones of a given type (this feature simply saves the repetitive definition of these values on the zone types zones). A graph zone and a pie chart zone are rendered using the same java class, however each zone uses a different XSL template (because pie charts look very different from graphs). Rather than defining the XSL template on every graph zone, the graph zone type holds a parameter value that defines the appropriate graph XSL template. The pie chart zone type holds a similar parameter but its value references the XSL template used to build pie charts.
• Every Zone references a Zone Type. The Zone simply defines the parameter values for its zone type. For example, you might have two graph zones - one graph shows expenses while the other shows revenue. Each of these zones will reference the same zone type (the one that renders graphs) and unique parameter values to control the type of data that it retrieves (one will indicate that revenue is retrieved, while the other indicates expenses are retrieved).