Link

From Visual WebGui Wiki

This article will have a few sections added to it soon, based on the following article type skeleton: NewControlTemplate

Contents 1 Overview 2 Availability 3 Relevant members 3.1 Methods 3.1.1 LinkParameters 4 Samples of use 4.1 Code used for testing browser dependency 5 Tips and Tricks 6 Limitations and workarounds 7 SDK Version highlights 8 See also 9 Rererences 9.1 Forum discussons 9.2 Other references

Overview

The Link class provides services for Visual WebGui applications to open link in a new window.

Link can be used to open URLs to other sites, as well as ones from the same virtual directory as you app is running. The URL can be a normal URL, and it can be a gateway reference as well as reference to a form within your application.

In (allmost) all cases, a new window will be opened, but that new window will not be "controllable" by the caller, and will behave just like you opened that URL in a seperate browsers window.There is only one exception to this rule that a new window is opened, and that's when you use the special targetwindowname of "_top", see LinkParameters.

To control how that new window will be behave, you use LinkParameters.

Availability

The Link class is one of the Out of the Box standard controls, which means it is free and available in all Visual WebGui versions.

Relevant members

Methods

Name	Description
New	The constructor for the Link class. There are no overloads for the constructor, so it's purpose is just to create a new instance of the class. More common is to use the Open static method directly.
Open	Static method of the Link class and the most commonly used. Opens an URL, a GatewayReference, or a Form. Use the LinkParameters parameter to control how the new window behaves.

LinkParameters

A datastructure passed as a parameter to Link.Open, to control the behaviour of the new window to be opened. Most of the properties are self explanatory, and though there are some that deserve special mention. The following properties can be set in LinkParameters:

Property	Description
Location	Location where the new window should be opened. Of type System.Drawing.Point
Size	Size of the new window. Of type System.Drawing.Point
FullScreen	Should the new window open full screen.
Resizable	Should the new window be resizable.
ScrollBars	Should the new window show scrollbars.
WindowStyle	WindowStyle of the new window (Modal, ModeLess, Normal). Of type Gizmox.WebGui.Forms.LinkWindowStyle
ShowLocationBar	Should the LocationBar (the http address) be shown.
ShowMenuBar	Should the MenuBar be shown.
ShowStatusBar	Should the StatusBar be shown.
ShowTitleBar	Should the TitleBar be shown.
ShowToolBar	Should the ToolBar be shown.
Form	POST parameters for the target page.
QueryString	Query parameters for the target page. Query parameters will be appended to your URL.
Target	The name of the new window to be opened. This can be any any name actually, or even empty. There are a few special names that you need to be aware of (see Other References for more info): _blank - Loads the linked document into a new blank window. _popup - Loads the linked document into a pop-up window. This is similar to "_blank" except that pop-up windows are generally borderless and automatically sized to match the document content, disappearing when clicked. _self - Loads the linked document into the same frame as the anchor that was clicked on. This is useful for overriding an inherited target value. _parent - Loads the linked document into the immediate parent frame of the frame containing the clicked anchor. This defaults to acting like "_self" when the clicked anchor isn't contained by a frame (i.e. its directly part of the page). _top - Loads the linked document into the full extent of the window. This acts like "_self" when the clicked anchor isn't contained by a frame (i.e. its directly part of the page). Similar to redirect.

Samples of use

• Calling Link.Open with and without LinkParameters
  
• Posting variables to another domain and receiving them in the target domain

Code used for testing browser dependency

The code can be found on this page.

Tips and Tricks

• Freeing main UI thread while downloading

Limitations and workarounds

• LinkParameters Browser dependency
  

SDK Version highlights

• Undetermined version - Support for opening new managed actual windows through server-side API
  

See also

• Form Concepts

Rererences

Forum discussons

• Using POST parameters for target page
  
• Download that doesn't start immediately as processing will take place first - notifying the user

Other references

• Reserved target window names (search for the "Reserved TARGET Names" section)