Estimated completion time→15 minutes.

In this practical session, we will create a new EASAP, set its properties, and create its data entry objects. At the end of this session, our 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.

• Start EASA, log in, and Set Mode→Author.
• Click EASA→Author→Applications tab
• Click New
• Click Create
• Click EASAP Builder link to start the New Application Wizard.

In the New Application Wizard, set some PROPERTIES for the new EASAP.

• Title is a short description, for example ‘Cantilever Plate Loading Analysis’.

A Category is like a folder or grouping that defines which Users can access an EASAP.

• Set Category to ‘Training’.

Optionally, we may select an Image such as plate.gif, included with this tutorial, and a brief description to be shown to the User once the EASAP is Published. A description for this EASAP might be:

• ‘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’

• Click Next
• Click Use EASAP Builder
• Click Finish

The EASAP Builder will open (next page).

The EASAP Builder is a tool to create an application without writing any code. The Builder interface consists of the Tree of EASA objects on the left and their associated parameters on the right. In this tutorial we will build a fully functioning application by repeating two simple steps:

1. Add an object to the Tree
2. Modify the object's 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 a local 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 available to many Users.

• 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.
• Click on the Upload button to add the file to the list shown below the Browse and Upload buttons.
• Upload plate.gif and load.gif also.

Let's save our work.

• Click on the Save button ().

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 a subsequent change.

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

• Return to the Tree tab.
• Expand the USER INTERFACE branch by clicking on its () icon.
• Expand the TABBED PANE LIST sub-branch, by clicking on its () icon.

The first tabbed pane, tabbed_pane1, will already be present, every new EASAP has this object.

• Click on tabbed_pane1

The parameters that modify the default behavior of tabbed_pane1 appears on the right. We can change the name of this object by modifying the text in the rectangle to the right of TABBED PANE:

• Change the name of tabbed_pane1 to input
• Set the following parameter (without quotes):
  • Tab:'Input Data'

For clarity, parameter names always end with a colon in this tutorial and other EASA documentation. Let's check our work.

• Save ()
• Click on the Test Web Browser button () at the far left of the 2nd toolbar, it should look like the figure on the following page:
  
  

• Return to EASAP Builder.

Now we add two data entry objects to the user interface of the EASAP. On the input pane a User will choose a plate material from a list and specify the plate's dimensions: length→ L, thickness→ t

• Right-click the TABBED PANE input
  • Select Child→Add CHOICE LIST.
  • Rename it mat
  • Set:

Now add a SUB PANE.

• Right-click mat
  • Select Sibling→Add SUB PANE
  • Rename it dim
  • Set the following parameter (without quotes):
    • Border:'Plate Dimensions'

• Right-click dim
  • Select Child→Add REALBOX
  • Rename it L
  • Set the parameters below:

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:
  • 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 be as follows:

Create another REAL BOX.

• Right-click L
  • Select Sibling→Add REALBOX
  • Rename it t (object names are case sensitive)
  • Set the parameters below:

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

• Save your work, File→Save.

• Right-click dim
  • Select Sibling→Add SUB PANE
  • Rename it load
  • Set the parameter below (without quotes):
    • Border:'Uniform Load'

• Right-click load
  • Select Child→Add REALBOX
  • Rename it Lu
  • Set:

• Save the EASAP by clicking on the Save button.

If there are errors, error messages will detail which objects have problems that need to be fixed.

At this point, the EASAP Tree should look like the figure on the following page:

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 the figure on the following page:

• Close the test window to return to the EASAP Builder.
• Exit the EASAP Builder,
  • Select File→Exit

If a pop-up window asks whether to save,

• Select Yes

To see the current name and status of the EASAP, from the EASA webpages,

• Select EASA→Author→Applications→My EASAPs.

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

To prevent duplicate EASAP names, EASA automatically adds a sequence number in parenthesis if another EASAP already exists with the same name.

• Click on the EASAP's title link or the thumbnail image in the far left column of its row and the following page will appear:

Congratulations. We have finished Practical Session 1.