Containers for program windows

Program windows are displayed in window containers by the front-end.

Program windows and window container

A Genero program can create multiple windows with the OPEN WINDOW instruction.

The front-end uses a window container to display the program windows.

On desktop (GDC), the window container is a frame of the OS window manager.
In a web browser (GAS), the window container is a browser tab.
On mobile devices (GMA/GMI), the window container is the device screen.

All windows created by a given program are displayed in the same window container.

You can switch between program windows using the window list, displayed on the top left in the chromebar.

Shared or dedicated window containers for programs

When using the GDC on desktop, by default, new programs started with

RUN ... WITHOUT
WAITING

will display in the same window container as the parent program. To force each program to display its windows in a dedicated desktop window container, define the desktopMultiWindow style attribute to "yes" at the UserInterface node level:

<StyleList>
  <Style name="UserInterface">
     <StyleAttribute name="desktopMultiWindow" value="yes"/>
  </Style>
  ...
</StyleList>

When using the GAS with a web browser, by default, new programs started with

RUN ...
WITHOUT WAITING

will display in the same web browser tab as the parent program. To force each child program to display its windows in a dedicated web browser tab, define the browserMultiPage style attribute to "yes" at the UserInterface node level:

<StyleList>
  <Style name="UserInterface">
     <StyleAttribute name="browserMultiPage" value="yes"/>
  </Style>
  ...
</StyleList>

With both GDC/desktop and GAS/web browser, when starting a new child program with a RUN command not using the WITHOUT WAITING clause, the parent program is frozen and is waiting for the child program to finish. In such case, the child program windows are always displayed in the same window container, no matter the desktopMultiWindow or browserMultiPage settings.

The application list and window list

The application list is the set of programs running concurrently and displaying to the front-end (these can be child programs started with RUN WITHOUT WAITING). The window list is the set of windows opened by the current program and opened by all child programs started with a waiting RUN.

By default, the application list is visible to the end user in the left sidebar, and the window list is displayed on the top left in the chromebar. Both lists can be hidden individually, by using the following UserInterface style attributes:

<StyleList>
  <Style name="UserInterface">
     <StyleAttribute name="applicationListVisible" value="no"/>
     <StyleAttribute name="windowListVisible" value="no"/>
  </Style>
  ...
</StyleList>

For reference, see applicationListVisible and windowListVisible.

Application and window lists can also be shown in the topmenu and in the toolbar of the current window/form, by using the AUTOCOMMANDS and AUTOITEMS placeholders, respectively with the CONTENT=PROGRAMS and CONTENT=WINDOWS attributes. These placeholders can be located anywhere in the topmenu and toolbar. For more details, see TOPMENU section and TOOLBAR section.

Tabbed containers (deprecated)

Application windows can be displayed in a single GUI window using folder tabs for each child program, by setting the tabbedContainer style attribute for the main window of a parent program:

<StyleList>
  <Style name="Window.main">
     <StyleAttribute name="windowType" value="normal" />
     <StyleAttribute name="tabbedContainer" value="yes" />
  </Style>
  ...
</StyleList>

When the tabbedContainer style attribute is set to "yes", the windows of several child programs will be rendered in folder tabs in a parent container.

When using tabbed containers, the tabs created for this rendering becomes the window container of the child programs.

The parent program using tabbedContainer must define a Start Menu.

For reference, see tabbedContainer in the Window style attributes topic.