Generating a Layout

Layout generation is an automated process during which the layout definitions are transformed into individual files for each screen. When you have finished customizing the layout definitions, you click the Generate Current Layout button to generate only the layout you have open or Generate All Layouts button to generate all layouts for the selected company or configuration. These buttons generate the actual layout files so that the system can display the screens as you want your users to see and use them.

If you have selected either "All companies" or "All configurations," the process will be submitted as a background job to be processed by the Event Requestor.

To understand why layout generation is necessary, it's important to understand what is contained in the layout definition files (LayoutList*.xml). For information, see Layout Files. The LayoutList file defines what each layout should look like and what the functionality should be.  But it does not define how that look should be created or how that functionality should be achieved. That is where the layout generator comes in.

The layout generator understands what is being asked for when it looks at a layout definition. It also knows the best way to implement the requested feature for the current version of the Emplifi Agent framework. When you generate layouts, the layout generator decides the best way to implement what is being requested in the layout definition, and it turns it into a file that contains a combination of XML, XSL, and HTML elements. The Emplifi Agent framework can interpret these results to display the necessary data, allow data entry, and include all of the special functionality that may be required by any given field, such as code browsing, data validation, migrations, and alerts.

Layout Generation allows you to add new behaviors in every version of the application. Rather than having to throw away your old screen layouts and start over from scratch to use the new behaviors, you can simply regenerate your layouts. Each new version of the generator can generate the new features that are available for a given version of Emplifi Agent. The layout definitions do not have to change to take advantage of these new features.