Estimated completion time = 15 minutes.

In this practical session, you will create the new EASAP, set its properties, and create its data entry objects. At the end of this session, your EASAP will look like the sample shown below.

Please follow the instructions below to complete this practical session. Detailed information on the objects created in this session can be found at the Author's Pages.

The first task is to create a new EASAP within EASA.

In the New Application wizard, set some PROPERTIES for our EASAP.

• Title can be anything you like, for example ‘Cantilever Plate Loading Analysis’.

• You can control which Categories (rather like folders) in which your EASAP be will accessible for Users. Let’s set the Category to ‘Training’.

Note: Optionally, you can select an Image such as plate.gif, included with this tutorial, and a brief description such as: ‘This application performs a loading analysis on a cantilevered rectangular plate having a variable thickness and length and a fixed width of 1 ft. The displacement of the plate is predicted for a user defined uniformly distributed load’. Both the image and the description will be visible to Users once you publish your EASAP.

• Click Next, then Use EASAP Builder, click Finish, and EASAP Builder (shown below) opens.

EASAP Builder is one of the main tools used within EASA to create applications without coding. As you can see, it consists of a tree with objects on the left and associated parameters on the right. During this tutorial, all we will do to build a fully functioning application is to create various objects and populate their parameters. There will be no coding involved.

After creating your EASAP, the next task is to upload any files required by the EASAP. When uploaded, these files are copied from your computer to the EASA Server and stored in the development folder for the EASAP. This folder contains the single, centralized definition of the EASAP, which once published will be used by all users of the EASAP.

• Select the Files tab just above the tree in EASAP Builder.

• Click on the Browse button.

• Select the folder on your computer in which you downloaded and unzipped the tutorial files.

• Select the file, EASAlogo.jpg, by either clicking on Open or double-clicking the file name, and then click on the Upload button.

The file will be added to the list of current files shown below the Browse and Upload buttons.

• Upload plate.gif and load.gif also.

• Let's save our work. Click on the Save button ().

Note: The Save button is enabled only when you have unsaved changes. Upon saving the EASAP settings, the button will be disabled or grayed out until you make another change.

You are now ready to proceed with adding data entry objects to the user interface of your EASAP.

• Return to the Tree tab.

• Expand the USER INTERFACE branch by clicking on its .

• Expand the TABBED PANE LIST sub-branch, by clicking on its () icon. The first tabbed pane, tabbed_pane1, will already be present. Rename it input and then edit the parameter Tab: to 'Input Data'

Let's check our work.

• Save (), then click on the Test Web Browser button () at the far left of the 2nd toolbar, and you should see this:
  
  

• Return to EASAP Builder.

Now we start to add data entry objects to the user interface of your EASAP: on input users will choose a plate material and specify its dimensions.

• Right-click the TABBED PANE input and select Child→Add CHOICE LIST. Rename it mat and set:

Now add a SUB PANE.

• Right-click mat and then select Sibling→Add SUB PANE. Rename it dim and set Border:'Plate Dimensions'.

• Right-click dim and select Child→Add REALBOX. Rename it L and set:

After setting the parameter values as shown in the table above,

• Click back into the parameter value cells for Default:, Upper Bound: and Lower Bound: and select the unit of ‘ft’ for each in the drop down list at the right end of the cell.

The parameter table for the REALBOX L will appear as follows:

Create another REAL BOX.

• Right-click L and select Sibling→Add REALBOX. Rename it t (object names are case sensitive) and set parameters below:

Note: Set Units: first to create a dropdown 'units' menu for the other parameters.

• Save your work, File→Save.

• Right-click dim and select Sibling→Add SUB PANE. Rename it load and set: Border:'Uniform Load'

• Right-click load and select Child→Add REALBOX. Rename it Lu and set:

• Save your EASAP by clicking on the Save button.

If you have errors, you will see error messages directing you to problems within your objects that you will need to fix.

At this point, the EASAP tree should look like this:

Let's check our work.

• Click on the Test Web Browser button () at the far left of the 2nd toolbar. Our interface should look like this:

• Close the test window to return to EASAP Builder.

• Exit EASAP Builder by selecting File→Exit. If a pop-up window asks whether to save or not, select Yes.

• To see the current name and status of your EASAP, from the EASA webpages select EASA→Author→Applications→My EASAPs.

Your EASAP will have a title such as ‘Cantilever Plate Loading Analysis (*)’, where the asterisk will be a number.

Note: The reason you may get a number within parentheses after your EASAP title is that EASA automatically adds this number in order to keep the title unique. Therefore, if another EASAP already exists with the same name then the number will be added to your EASAP’s title.

• When you find your EASAP, click on its title link or the thumbnail image in the far left column of its row, and you will be taken to a new page, which will look like this:

Congratulations. You have finished Practical Session 1.

Practical Session 2