Frequently Asked Questions

If you watch the Flash movie tour of the plugin features a few times you will have a good idea of the capabilities of the palette. Here are a few questions I get asked quite often:

How do I install the plugin?

From within Eclipse you can use the following update sites:

The first update site is for stable releases, the second for unstable releases with new features. Since the plugin is still alpha software it's better to check the unstable update site which will have the most up-to-date versions of the plugin.

I prefer using implicit component references, can I create them via drag and drop?

Yes, use the Tapestry Palette preferences page to set your preference to implicit components. Then when you drop a component from the palette tree-view onto a template an implicit component declaration will be created.

I don't like the jwcid values generated by the palette, can I define my own?

Yes, use the Tapestry Palette preferences page to set your preference for generating jwcid values manually. Then, when you drop a component from the palette tree-view onto a template you will be prompted for a jwcid value with a pop-up dialog.

I have existing HTML tags I want to make into Tapestry component references, can I do that with the palette?

Yes, drag the component you want to use over the template until the tag you wish to change is the outermost highlighted tag. Hold down the Control (CTRL) key while dropping the component onto the template. The outermost tag will be edited to add a jwcid attribute and, if you have set the preference for implicit components bindings for required parameters will also be added.

When I drag a component to an empty line in the template no component is added. What's going on?

It's a bug. The palette cannot convert mouse location to text position on empty lines. The workaround is to insert some characters (a space will do) into the blank line and drop the component onto the blank character.

Why do I see "No Description" for the component and it's parameters in the inspector?

The inspector contents are created from the descriptions in the Tapestry component specification file. If the component or a parameter has an empty description the palette cannot fill the inspector with meaningful information.

Some components display the "question mark" image which links to the component reference page and some do not. What's up with the missing links?

Most likely there is no component reference for that component, or the component library developer has not included the information in the library jar for the palette to link to the documentation.

I have a component library I would like to include in the palette Repositories section. How do I do it?

It's fairly easy, You need:

  1. an XML supplier decriptor file, describing you, or your company, and a list of the libraries you supply.
  2. an XML library descriptor file, deployed in the library jar file, that describes the library, the public components in the library and the folder structure you want in the palette after the library is downloaded and installed.

The second file is optional but you will need it if you want to link to the component refernece documentation, organize your components into folders and to customize the replacement format for components used during drag and drop editing.

Read the documentation for more information.

When I resize the palette width, why don't the inspector contents resize?

It's a bug. Want to fix it?