Set preferences for the designer tool

Set preferences for the designer tool

In this topic ...

Customizing the Designer Preferences
Designer Editing Preferences
Related Topics ...

Overview: Configuring a Development Environment

In the Designer, we can set various preferences that determine:

Functionality and appearance of the Designer editing environment.
Server runtime resources to use when you run a model.

To display the WebSphere Portlet Factory preference pages:

Choose Window | Preferences from the menu bar.
In the Preferences list, click Portlet Factory Designer to display the preference page.

Customizing the Designer Preferences

The set of Designer default preferences are stored in the Designer preferences.ini file, which is in the eclipse\plugins\com.bowstreet.designer.ui directory. If you change the default preferences, the customized set of preferences is stored in your workplace, so that it does not overwrite the default preferences. This storage strategy allows you to restore the default preferences at any time.
To change the Designer preferences:

On the preference page, enter a value for one or more preferences.
Click Apply.

Your changes will take effect at various times depending on the item you've selected (see tables below).
To restore the Designer default preferences:

On the preference page, click Restore Defaults.
Click Apply.

Designer Editing Preferences

The table below describes the Portlet Factory Designer editing preferences we can change.

Designer Preference Description
Browser Command Enter the path to the Web browser to launch when running models.
Changing this setting effects new Run configurations only, not existing Run configurations.
Override Properties File Location
Use this setting to specify the override.properties file to be use. Settings in this file are used to replace default property settings established in the preferences.ini and also determine log locations.
Changes made to the value of this field will not take effect until the Designer is restarted.
Auto-refresh Factory Dev WAR from project Enable to allow deployed application server WAR file to be updated when changes are made to a project.
Disable to optimize Designer performance.
Auto-refresh WebSphere portlet WAR from project Enable to allow WebSphere Portal deployed WAR file to be updated when changes are made to a project.
Disable to optimize Designer performance.
Show Hidden Objects Enable this checkbox to set the WebApp view to show all the objects added by the builder calls to the WebApp. When you click "Apply" all hidden objects are displayed in the WebApp View.
The variables, methods, LJOs, etc. designated as hidden objects by the developer do not show up in the Reference Chooser, regardless of the status of the "Show Hidden Objects" check box.
Wrap View Data Enable this check box to wrap text lines in various Domain Viewers.
The Domain viewers associated with the WebApp Tree view display the contents of WebApp objects (pages, methods, etc.) In some cases, viewing this information on a single line is useful. In other cases, the information is better displayed as wrapped text. Use this setting to enable wrapping.
Builder Call Editor Select how you want to display Builder Call Editors:
Tabbed Panel -- Displays Builder Call Editors as tabbed panels in the Builder Call Editor view. We can open multiple Builder Call Editors when you use this setting.
Dialog Windows -- Displays Builder Call Editors as modal dialog boxes. Once you click OK, the dialog box will close. We can open only one Builder Call Editor when you use this setting.
A change in this setting will effect models opened after the preferences are saved. To apply this setting to an open model close and re-open the model.

override.properties Files

Two override properties files are available. These files are used to override property settings set in other property files. This is a useful feature because in some situations overriding a setting in another property file, such as bowstreet.properties or cluster.properties, is desirable. A typical example is logging settings. The override.properties file is used by the Designer to specify logging properties for the Designer, as well as overriding properties specified in the IBM server config directory.
The override property files are:

File Specified in Window Preferences - Contains override properties that are specified by the preferences (This file generally defaults to the override.properties file in plug-in designer_core_<version_number>/config ). The override file specified in Window | Preferences usually contains a single set of properties that must be different from runtime properties. For example, logging properties, profiles in DB settings, etc. During development, anytime you change a property, use this file. Using this file insures that your changes are correctly propagated across projects and throughout the IBM system.
File located within project - In each project's WEB-ING/config directory a project-specific override.properties file can be used to supply overrides that apply both in the designer (at development time) and when the model is executed (at runtime). These properties are unique to the project / application and thus are set at the project level. A typical example of such a property might be a Profile Selection Hander required for developing a portlet.

Each time Designer is started, the following actions will occur:

Designer attempts to locate the override.properties file specified in the Window | Preferences | PortletFactory Designer page. If not found, or if the file is not specified, Designer defaults to the version found in:

<Designer Install Location>/plugins/com.bowstreet.designer.core_5.x.0/config/override.properties .

The following properties will be added or overwritten in override.properties . This is to ensure that the Designer logs are written to the appropriate place. All other properties in override.properties will be unaffected.

logging.driver.eventSink.directory=<eclipse install dir>/workspace/.metadata/.plugins/com.bowstreet.designer.core/logs
logging.driver.eventSink.prefix=designer_event_
logging.event.flush.interval=1

Designer Preference	Description
Browser Command	Enter the path to the Web browser to launch when running models. Changing this setting effects new Run configurations only, not existing Run configurations.
Override Properties File Location	Use this setting to specify the override.properties file to be use. Settings in this file are used to replace default property settings established in the preferences.ini and also determine log locations. Changes made to the value of this field will not take effect until the Designer is restarted.
Auto-refresh Factory Dev WAR from project	Enable to allow deployed application server WAR file to be updated when changes are made to a project. Disable to optimize Designer performance.
Auto-refresh WebSphere portlet WAR from project	Enable to allow WebSphere Portal deployed WAR file to be updated when changes are made to a project. Disable to optimize Designer performance.
Show Hidden Objects	Enable this checkbox to set the WebApp view to show all the objects added by the builder calls to the WebApp. When you click "Apply" all hidden objects are displayed in the WebApp View. The variables, methods, LJOs, etc. designated as hidden objects by the developer do not show up in the Reference Chooser, regardless of the status of the "Show Hidden Objects" check box.
Wrap View Data	Enable this check box to wrap text lines in various Domain Viewers. The Domain viewers associated with the WebApp Tree view display the contents of WebApp objects (pages, methods, etc.) In some cases, viewing this information on a single line is useful. In other cases, the information is better displayed as wrapped text. Use this setting to enable wrapping.
Builder Call Editor	Select how you want to display Builder Call Editors: Tabbed Panel -- Displays Builder Call Editors as tabbed panels in the Builder Call Editor view. We can open multiple Builder Call Editors when you use this setting. Dialog Windows -- Displays Builder Call Editors as modal dialog boxes. Once you click OK, the dialog box will close. We can open only one Builder Call Editor when you use this setting. A change in this setting will effect models opened after the preferences are saved. To apply this setting to an open model close and re-open the model.