difference between Transparent container and Group

[Former Member]

Hi Friends,

we should minimize the usage of Transparent container, thats what my idea is.

but should we use groups instead of Transparent container?

but.. both gives layout, will it help minimizing the layout nesting if I use group instead of transparent container?

I think both should have same impact.

please advise.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

The only purpose of a group that I have discovered so far is that you can use it to highlight a particular area on the web page.

A transparent container does everything that a group does and does not leave the lines that appear when you use groups.

I think you are right that both will have the same impact.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

yeah, but as I dont need those extra lines provided by Group, so I think I can go ahead for transparent containers.

there should be something else also, which does groupings and does not use any layout.

Message was edited by: Nav

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Nav,

I saw several times when TransparentContainer was used to emulate complex layout. If this is your case, consider more complex layouts like Matrix or Grid + eplore possibility of colSpan property of both.

Valery Silaev

EPAM Systems

http://www.NetWeaverTeam.com

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi VS,

yes, I am trying to use the GRid layout and Marix layout.

I need soemthing for grouping also, so that if I have to add/delete some field later on ,then the work is easy if I use some grouping.

For grouping, I am using transparent container, whcih actually can be avoided if I have some better solution than Gorup, as in case of group, I get one default header, which I dont need.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

HI,

As above said both are same. But You cannot remove the Group Header but you can invisibile it. More Group provides or add color

Regards,

Saravanan K

[Former Member]

Historically (around 2001), the TransparentContainer was a container without any decoration (as the name suggests). The Group was a container with an optional title text and some more style options.

In the meantime, the class hierarchy has been adapted in the one or other direction (e.g. scrolling has been moved up into TransparentContainer).

But replacing TransparentContainer by Group will lead to nowhere.

One general rule for layouting is: use container with RowLayout to dicide your screen into horizontal sections, if you need horizontal alignment over large screen parts, use a container with MatrixLayout, avoid nesting of containers for performance reasons (especially in HTML rendering) ...

Armin

[Former Member]

ONE more question,

when I say isLayoutManager = false, then does it mean that now..no layout nesting will be there?

[Former Member]

Nav,

isLayoutContainer=false has no influence on nesting, but it defines a container as not being used only for layouting which has consequences for accessibility (screen readers etc.)

Armin

[Former Member]

Thanks Armin!

[BeGanz]

Hi Nav,

you are right, you should use the Transparent container should be used judiciously.

Within my article on <a href="https://www.sdn.sap.comhttp://www.sdn.sap.comhttp://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/301d715e-0b01-0010-1a8b-f1f83d175972">Best Practices for Building Client-Independent Web Dynpro UIs</a> I wrote:

<i><b>Re-think the Usage of TransparentContainers</b>

Re-think the usage of TransparentContainer UI elements inside container UI elements. Containers such as the Group UI element already allow specifying the layout of their content. Use the layout-property of the group instead of placing a TransparentContainer on it as top child and specify the layout there.

A reasonable usage of the TransparentContainer is to change the layout of inner UI elements compared with the layout of the embedding container. This is often done to arrange Button UI elements based on a FlowLayout whereas the embedding container UI element has a MatrixLayout (see figure 4):

Figure 5 – Usage of TransparentContainer UI elements to layout buttons

<b>SAP NetWeaver 04s - Usage of TransparentContainers as Layout Containers</b>

In SAP NetWeaver 04s you can replace Group-UI-Elements with TransparentContainer-UI-Elements of type isLayoutContainer = false to lay out label-field pairs and with header text on top.</i>

This means in NW04s you can use the TransparentContainer as a valid substitude for the Group-UI-element, this means that the accessibility requirements are fulfilled or that the tab order is correctly set.

Hope that helps,

Regards, Bertram

[Former Member]

Hi Bertram,

Thanks for the detailed answer. Its really helpful.

as I am using 2004s version, so I will continue using TransparentContainer instead of Groups.

I have question,

Whats the purpose of isLayoutContainer = false?

whats the impact of it, and where should I use it?

Nav

[Former Member]

Read the corresponding <a href="https://media.sdn.sap.com/javadocs/NW04s/SPS7/wd/com/sap/tc/webdynpro/clientserver/uielib/standard/api/IWDTransparentContainer.html#getIsLayoutContainer()">Javadoc</a>.

Armin

[Former Member]

Thanks Armin!

[BeGanz]

Hi Nav,

the property-name 'isLayoutContainer' is probably less intuitive than <i>'isGroupContainer'</i> (does not exist). With this name we would have the following property-value-pairs:

- isLayoutContainer = true <=> isGroupContainer = false

- isLayoutContainer = false <=> isGroupContainer = true

This means when setting the isLayoutContainer-property to the (non-default) value 'false' you make the TransparentContainer to a kind of <i>'Group'Container</i> (does not really exist) for displaying a form (supporting accessibility, tabbing ...).

Regards, Bertram

[Former Member]

Hi Bertram,

Thanks a lot,

It is really helpful.