11. Internal component in practice

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Overview
Creating an internal component
The different steps
Internal component and analysis: case of total autonomy
Sharing the internal components (via SCM)

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11. Internal component in practice

Table of contents

Overview

An internal component is a set of elements from a project. This set is used to:

Organize a project: the internal components can be used to group the project elements, by feature for example.
Share the elements among several projects: The elements found in an internal component can be shared between several projects via the SCM.

One of the advantages of an internal component compared to an external component is that it can be debugged directly from the project that uses it.

Difference with an external component: An internal component allows you to include all the component elements in the interface of the project containing the internal component. All the "public" elements of the internal component can be handled in the editor directly.

When using an external component, the "public" elements of component cannot be handled directly. To modify the external component, the corresponding project must be opened.

Creating an internal component

The different steps

To create an internal component:

On the "Project" pane, in the "Project configuration" group, expand "New configuration" and select "Internal component". The internal component creation wizard starts.
Specify the characteristics of the internal component:
- its name. The name of the internal component will be used for the WCI file corresponding to the internal component description. This name will also be used to create a subdirectory in your project containing all the elements of internal component.
- its caption.
- its description.
Indicate the elements that will be included in the internal component. An internal component can contain all types of elements found in a project: windows, reports, templates, sets of procedures, ...
Specify the elements of internal component that will be directly accessible in the code and in the preset actions of project that is hosting the internal component.
Remark: The accessible elements (or "public" elements) will be automatically proposed by the completion. They can be used by the elements found in the project or from another internal component. The inaccessible elements (or "private" elements) can only be used by another element of internal component (the completion will propose these "private" elements only from the elements of an internal component).
Specify the management mode of data and runtime contexts. Three modes are available to manage data and runtime contexts:
- Use the project analysis or no analysis (full share): The internal component accesses the data files of the project. The internal component and the project use the same runtime contexts.
  This is the default mode if the internal component does not use an analysis.
- Use the project analysis with different runtime context (advanced mode): The internal component accesses the data files of the project. The internal component and the project use different runtime contexts.
  This mode is reserved to specific cases.
- Use a specific analysis: The internal component accesses its own data files. The internal component and the project use different runtime contexts.
  This mode corresponds to the default mode if the component uses an analysis.
  In this case, the analysis used by the internal component must be specified. You also have the ability to create a new analysis directly. This analysis will be associated with the internal component.
Validate the creation of internal component. At any moment, it is possible to:
- Modify the characteristics of the internal component via its description window.
- Handle the internal component and its elements.

Tip: An internal component contains no code for declaring the global variables. A set of procedures can be used to initialize the internal component.

Internal component and analysis: case of total autonomy

An internal component can be linked to its own analysis. In this case, the project that is hosting the internal component can have several analyses:

the analysis of the project.
the analysis of internal components. This analysis is defined when creating the internal component. It can also be selected from the internal component description window.

The elements generated by RAD for the internal component will be generated in the directory of internal component. If the analysis of the internal component is modified, a new generation by RAD will automatically propose to generate the elements corresponding to the modifications.

Sharing the internal components (via SCM)

The internal components can be shared between projects via the SCM.

To share an internal component via the SCM, the project containing the internal component must be found in the SCM. You can:

create the internal component from a project found in SCM. The internal component will be automatically found in the SCM.
import a project containing one or more internal components into SCM. The internal components will be automatically included in the SCM.