ZK Getting Started/ZK Dictionary

Introduction

ZK Framework uses a number of keywords to refer to specific concepts. These words may have a "general use" in English different than their use in the context of ZK. You will find a short description of these concept below, as well as a link to a full documentation page explaining it in details. This list is meant to be used as a reference page. If you are new to ZK, we encourage you to refer to it while you explore the rest of our documentation.

Component

A component is a Java object existing at server-side representing a UI element. A component can be a simple control like a Button, or a complex control like a ZK_Component_Reference/Data/Grid.

Component tree

The component tree is a group of component organized in a tree structure. A component may have children, and these children can have their own descendants. A component has a single parent. For example, a window contain a div, and the div contain two buttons.

Page

A Page object represents the collection of components loaded from a zul file. It also acts as the root of the component tree.

Widget

A widget is a JavaScript object existing at client-side. It is the client-side representation of a server-side Component. The widget role is to pilot the DOM tree (the actual browser content) and to act as a communication relay between user actions and server updates.

Mold

A mold is an appearance applied to a component. ZK provide different apparences for some components, if they have different mode of operation.

Composer

A composer is a Java class that controls part or all of a ZK page. A composer can access components, update their properties and listen to user actions.

Sclass

The sclass="customclass" attribute can be used by a developer to add a class="customclass" attribute on the DOM node created by the component. Its purpose it to easily add CSS styles to a ZK component.

- ListModel - zul file - desktop - session - execution - Library property - zk.xml - lang-addon.xml